Jump in now or wait?

LukieD

Hi guys,

I'm kind of stuck as to whether to get on the housing ladder or wait a while.

I have about £200k available in shares/investments that I could liquidate but my income is low - £26k pa plus bonus (which I assume isn't considered in getting the mortgage.) I'm holding off because I'm expecting a promotion in 4-8 months which would obviously mean I could get a larger mortgage.

The main reason I am thinking of going ahead with it now is house prices are still on the lower side. Also interest rates are likely to go up at somepoint in the near future. Have lenders already bumped up their offers ahead of the expected rise?

What is the general consensus at the moment? Try and get mortgages as soon as possible before the interest rate rise?

Thanks,

Luke

smcqis

Fixed rates have started to go up slightly, alot depends on how mcuh you wana spend and how much you can afford to pay back etc but i dont see house prices being much different in 4-8 months, not a big change anyway

dimbo61

Have you got an idea of how much you want to pay for a property ?
Upto £250K means only 1% stamp duty
If you had an offset mortgage you could use some of the savings as an emergency fund in the offset account while also saving interest on the mortgage.
4X £26K = £104K mortgage plus £146K deposit ( best mortgage rates) and £54K in the offset account.

mcc100

LukieD wrote: »

I'm in a similar situation to you. Finished Uni with an overdraft (£1750) and despite now being in full-time employment am basically stuck with the same overdraft. This wasn't a problem at Uni (interest free) but now is getting painful.

I have just had a new account approved at Alliance and Leicester which has a switching service which will transfer your overdraft from an existing bank. The only reason this is beneficial is because as part of the incentive to signup they are offering a year of interest free overdraft. This is likely to save me around £400.

I'd give applying to A&L a go. I can't imagine my credit rating being very good (never had a CC and had a few issues over the years with one off late payments) but I was accepted immediately.

Good luck!

Well done LukieD.

In 16 months you have gone from struggling with a £1750 overdraft to having £200k in shares/investments.

shortchanged_2

mcc100 wrote: »

Well done LukieD.

In 16 months you have gone from struggling with a £1750 overdraft to having £200k in shares/investments.

Must have inherited a tidy sum.