how much money for deposit???

5monkey

Im planning to buy a house next year with my boyfriend for no more than £170000. How much deposit money should we have to get a good deal? What % do you have when you buy houses? Thanks for help.

PasturesNew

The answer today is different to what it might be in a year's time. Aim for £20k minimum.

Bufger

depends on your income etc. Look at mortgage rates for first time buyers at the moment for a rough guide.

I saved 15k for a 137k house which is obviously just over 10%. I can get a mortgage for that but the initial rate is 5.69%. Between the 2 of us on our wages it works out as less than 50% of our income so with bills on top we wont be stretched. Its tempting to get a massive first house but rates will rise and you may not be able to afford repayments, you have to factor this in! i was allowed up to £190k, in a couple of years im pretty sure i would have lost my house if i would have been greedy ;-)

5monkey

PasturesNew wrote: »

The answer today is different to what it might be in a year's time. Aim for £20k minimum.

We have £21000 at the moment and we keep saving :j

MoneySavingSpender

If it's a new build some costs will be cut down as not much should need spending on when you move in.

If not a new build I''d be tempted to add another £5000 to any initial deposit + furniture savings you have as a house building/repair fund only.

keith969

MoneySavingSpender wrote: »

If it's a new build some costs will be cut down as not much should need spending on when you move in.

And if its a new build, factor in the 10-20% profit that the builder has on the price which will hit you if you want to sell up in the next few years.

New builds are like new cars. They smell nice, but the initial depreciation is terrible.

g_attrill

As mentioned, right now it's pretty much 10% bare minimum (and squeaky clean credit history), or 15% to get much better rates. In a year's time things might have loosened up a bit, but aim for £25k.

Apparently the stamp duty threshold is likely to be kept at £175k so you would only need to find the various fees on top, no more than £2k really.

Estate agents will try and figure out the absolute maximum you can afford but be firm and refuse to look at higher priced stuff unless they are certain that the seller will accept much lower offers.