Renting VS Buying

readytofly

My fiance and I would really like to be in our own property, but know that buying and getting a mortgage at the moment is not easy! We are both in our 20s, have steady jobs and have a joint income £38,535. We are saving, saving, saving at the moment as we have booked our wedding for april 2012, and also aim to have £17,000 saved by september this year. Based on online mortgage quotes only, we could be borrowing upto 127,000 - with a deposit of £14,000 (10% of a property worth £140,000) and then £3,000 spare for all the other bits that need paying for (legal fees, surveys etc) NOW are house prices on the up?? For £140,000 we would be luck to get a 1 bed flat as it is, and we dont want to buy a studio as we would like at LEAST one bedroom. Our plan was to save save save, so that by january next year we would have enough for a 14,000 deposit, extra for legal fees and a nice chunk for our wedding! But if prices go up we will need a bigger deposit!!!

Suddney Renting seems more affordable, and if we needed to move to a larger property it wont be as difficult as putting a flat on market etc etc.

If you were in our position, what would you do?

9217niall

readytofly wrote: »

My fiance and I would really like to be in our own property, but know that buying and getting a mortgage at the moment is not easy! We are both in our 20s, have steady jobs and have a joint income £38,535. We are saving, saving, saving at the moment as we have booked our wedding for april 2012, and also aim to have £17,000 saved by september this year. Based on online mortgage quotes only, we could be borrowing upto 127,000 - with a deposit of £14,000 (10% of a property worth £140,000) and then £3,000 spare for all the other bits that need paying for (legal fees, surveys etc) NOW are house prices on the up?? For £140,000 we would be luck to get a 1 bed flat as it is, and we dont want to buy a studio as we would like at LEAST one bedroom. Our plan was to save save save, so that by january next year we would have enough for a 14,000 deposit, extra for legal fees and a nice chunk for our wedding! But if prices go up we will need a bigger deposit!!!

Suddney Renting seems more affordable, and if we needed to move to a larger property it wont be as difficult as putting a flat on market etc etc.

If you were in our position, what would you do?

First of all, what part of the country are you in?
Where do you want to live?

vixarooni

Our joint income is about £32,000 - £35,000, were looking to save about £24,000 for a house worth £160,000. Were lucky that were not planning to get married (or maybe hes lucky!) and so we can do that. We currently rent and will be moving into his parents house to do this. We have rented for a year and a half which we really really hate, so this is the best decision for us.

Its hard to know what to do for the best, my partner and i spoke to a mortgage advisor to get a rough guestimate of what our mortgage repayments would be each month. At 10% it is about £1000 a month, for 15% it drops to £750 roughly. It gave us a better picture of what figures we needed. Or course this will no doubt change, but it did give us a clearer picture of it all with clear targets.

I suppose you have to decide what you want more and if owning your own home is important to you.

FATBALLZ

I wouldn't worry about it too much. Price might go up but they might go down. Don't overstretch yourself out of fear.

readytofly

Thanks all. We're in Enfield, north london. We both work in north london, me in the east finchley area - FAR to expensive for us to live there!!! We could afford a home around the broxbourne/cheshunt area (we think!) and its not too far for travelling to work.
Will have to wait and see i guess, and speak to an IFA in september!

pinkshoes

I don't mean this to sound rude, but £38k joint salary is pretty low for your neck of the woods!!

Have you ever considered moving away to somewhere else much cheaper where you may be able to earn the same salaries? Your £140k budget would then stretch MUCH further.

Ste_C

Why waste money on a wedding when you could put the money towards something tangible instead?