Besides the deposit, how much should we have saved?

katmcleod

We're looking at buying our first house in a couple years time. I know I want a minimum of 10% as a deposit, though we're aiming for 15%.

But there are so many other costs, solicitors, surveys etc. How much should I have aside for that? I don't know if these things altogether will cost me £5,000 or £10,000! The houses we're looking at are up to about £90k max. Can anyone advise a ball park figure?

Thanks

ttocs

were in the middle of trying to buy our first house and quotes i've got for solicitor(including searches) is just over £900, then you've got the mortgage fees think ours comes to about £700, not sure about survey cost yet. I'm sure someone will let me know how much i should expect for survey.

Cannon_Fodder

Aim for £5k, should leave you a nice bit of change...better to have too much and not need it, than too little and do...

wymondham

It's difficult to plan that far ahead as things can change. Just save as much as you can and put it somewhere to accumulate as best you can. Who knows, when you come to buy stamp duty might have changed/gone and you can do all the other things online for £20!!!

Fire_Fox

£5K will be enough, that should give you ample so that you have some left when you move in for all the little fixes and additions plus enough for three months mortgage payments if you get made redundant or fall ill.

Person_one

Our solicitor quoted us just over £800 but it ended up being nearer to £2000 in the end (oh the joys of leasehold flats!). Have enough to cover any new furniture or re-decorating you'll need and don't forget that insurance policies often don't pay out for things that happen in the first few weeks of the policy so have a contingency fund for if your boiler breaks or a van drives through the front wall!

I'd say actual deposit aside we probably spent about 6k on fees and sorting the place out.

katmcleod

Ok I think I've got a list of all the fees, is there anything I've missed? Are they all essential? We're hoping to buy a house in Scotland using one of the shared equity schemes most of the new housing developers are offering, otherwise we'll be needing a deposit of around £14k and we're already growing out our current rented house. House we'll be buying will probably be around the £140k mark before the shared equity price. Either 75% or 80% depending on developer. Are all these fees essential on new build houses?

Going to try and get an approximate cost on everything then add 10% on just in case. The emergency fund will be whatever else we can save on top of it while we're searching. Decorating budget I don't see us needing much in a new house but always better to have something put aside just in case.


Will £5k cover all these fees? I never realised quite how many there were.


Solicitor
Deposit
Stamp Duty
Land Registery Fee - £200 I think it should be.
Mortgage Arrangement Fee
Valuation Fee
Higher Lending Charge??
Mortgage Broker Fee
Local Authority Search Fee
Drainage and Water Searches
Environmental Searches
Coal Authority Searches
Land Charges Searches
Company Searches
Bankrupcy Searches

Emergency Fund
RemovalCosts
DecoratingBudget

TrickyDicky

All the searches will probably be carried out by the solicitor, and included in any quote from them.

katmcleod

So just the deposit, stamp duty, solicitor, land registry and costs associated with the mortgage itself? Plus emergency, removal etc?