Should we sell up and rent temporarily?

Bil2

Hi there-

My partner and I are moving to Manchester as we both have got new jobs there. We had originally intended to buy an apartment in the city centre, but have changed our minds as the property market doesn't look too stable because there are so many flats around.

We then decided to go for a 'safer' option and buy a house in the suburbs. However, the really nice houses in desirable areas such as Didsbury and Withington are over our budget and we're not too comfortable about buying a house in the less desirable areas (we have always lived in regenerated areas and it would be nice to live in a 'prestigious' location for a change!).

As we still would love to live in the city centre for a while, we were thinking of selling our current home and renting for about a year. We aim to save up and add to our deposit during our time in rented accommodation so that we can afford a house in a desirable area. However, the catch is that we're tied into a two year tracker mortgage with Aliance and Leicester and would have to pay around £3000 (!) to end the mortgage when we sell our place (the mortgage is portable, so if we were buying another property and not wanting to rent, there would be no problems)

Our mortgage plus commuting costs to Manchester for both my partner and I comes to a total of £850 per month. Renting a 2 bed city centre apartment would cost us around £650 per month. That means we would save £200 per month (£2400 saving for the year). However, after paying the exit fees plus charges to Alliance and Leicester (and in addition estate agents fees and solicitors fees for selling our current home- a total of about £5000) we would be about £2600 out of pocket!

My question is- is it worth it? It would be great not to have to commute (1.5hrs train journey plus tram journey each way) and to be able to have a 5min walk to work from Manc city centre... however, I'm not too keen on losing £2600.

What do you think?

An option would be to keep our current home and rent it out and then rent ourselves in Manchester- would this be complicated and messy?

A_Nice_Englishman

Have you considered renting out your existing property?

Winky,_The_House_Elf

I know people may think that you are crazy being willing to loose £2600, what you have got ask yourself is the extra quality of life worth that amount?

Could you comprimise? Some of the suburbs are quite nice, take Marple and the surrounding districts for example. I live in Romiley and the house prices are reasonable for a nice area, frequent trains (5 an hour in rush hour) and only take 15 minutes if you catch a direct one. We faced the same dilemma, living in Nantwich but working in Manchester (100 mile round trip). Where are you moving from?

Bil2

I think that part of the problem is that we don't know the many of the suburbs in Manchester that well. This is another reason why we think that it would be a good idea to rent for a while. We need to get to know the place better before committing ourselves to buying!

dwarfer01

I live in Knutsford, Cheshire and commute to central Manchester every day. Takes about an hour each way or less if you take the train to Altrincham and change. Knutsford is the most prestigious town in this area and the quality of life is exceptional, depite my commute I woudnt consider anywhere else within an hour of Manchester. I suggest you look at areas of South Manchester and Cheshire rather than renting, its money down the drain IMO.

BobProperty

Can I ask what would be your budget for buying around here? Someone was on here recently talking about an apartment in West Didsbury which wasn't too OTT pricewise.

Bil2

Hi-

Our maximum budget is £200,000 for a house. We could afford more than this, but we would like to have a life outside simply existing to make the mortgage payments each month! There are cheaper houses than this in the areas that I listed earlier (Didsbury, Fallowfield etc), but IMO they aren't very nice and would require work/improvement/modernisation which would take the price over our £200,000 threshold!

Houses I like, but are too expensive for us are below:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-12727520.rsp?pa_n=1&tr_t=buy
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-12713318.rsp?pa_n=1&tr_t=buy
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-11482433.rsp?pa_n=1&tr_t=buy
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-12727517.rsp?pa_n=1&tr_t=buy

As our place is still currently for sale (it's been for sale for 2 weeks and we've had 2 viewings so far), we have vague plans to view the above properties and offer £200,000 once we've had an offer on our place. I doubt that we'd be successful in this, but the thought behind it is that as at that point as we will be in a position to move, the vendors may be more willing to take the price drop. The houses above have all been on sale for quite a few months now.

If the vendors do not accept our lower offer, we will probably then rent an aparment in the city centre for a while and save up until we can afford the houses.

Gorgeous_George

In your position, I'd rent at least in the short term.

Once in Manchester, you can do some research, decide where you want to live and make a more informed choice. Perhaps snap up a bargain at auction or, if that's not your style, perhaps a repossession may come available.

Either way, I'd rent. If you buy, you may wish to move quire soon. By the time you pay stamp duty, and all the other costs of moving, you will see that renting may have been free!



GG

melancholly

i live in manchester so if you want any opinions on areas then feel free to pm me. i think manchester may well be a buyers market at the moment - lots of new builds and 'for sale' signs that have been up for months. i think didsbury and withington are very expensive for what you get and other places, notably chorlton, give better value at the moment (but i don't think it'll last too long!).

mjfusent

Its worth looking into your current mortgage deal. Some portable mortgages (including mine at Nationwide) will refund your £3000 penalty if you complete on a new property within 6 months and continue your origional deal, you can also take out a further amount on a new arrangment with the same lender a "split deal". It should be either in your origional mortgage offer or attached, if you call your mortgage company they should be able to give you this info. BUT, make sure you have/obtain this in writing as actually realising the refund can be awkward.

HTH,

Mike

CB1979_2

yup again, I would consider renting your own property out, and rent in Manchester, then in 6 months time either continue to rent yours out and buy a new one in Manchester, or sell yours and buy one.