PhD student - can I get a mortage?

Reactive

I start my PhD in chemical engineering in September, for this I get £19,000/year tax free for three years. In addition to this, I will get anything up to £300/month tax free in tutoring university students (paid for by the universitydepartment), and I currently make about £250/month from matched betting (obv tax free too ).

I've been looking at some houses in the £60-65k price bracket, and was wondering whether or not I would be able to get a good morgage (since I'm only a student).

By september, depending on whether or not I work, I will have up to £15k left for a deposit.

Cheers

rpc

It depends!

I moved house twice as a postgrad (EngD). The first time (pre-crunch), they wanted 3 months bank statements and offered a smaller loan than I already had with them. Despite a secure job at the end of my degree, I was significantly worse off than someone in FT employment. They were still happy to lend, just not so much. I was only looking for about 30% LTV on the new mortgage, compared to 95% when I took out the first one so I should have been a very wanted customer.

Second time (post-crunch), same bank, they worked out what my equivalent gross salary would be and assessed us as if I was in FT employment with that salary. This gave a massively larger figure although we needed nothing like the maximum they would lend.

Neither time did it make any difference to the mortgage product, which was determined by things like LTV and current accounts, etc.

Catatonia

HSBC won't accept my PhD funding as income. When I spoke to a broker (London and County) they suggested that no lenders would.It might be worth speaking to a broker yourself though.

Reactive

Catatonia wrote: »

HSBC won't accept my PhD funding as income. When I spoke to a broker (London and County) they suggested that no lenders would.It might be worth speaking to a broker yourself though.

I don't understand why. I'm practically guaranteed a higher than average salary (because I'm paying no tax) for three years, with a virtually certain well paid job at the end (with the company that's paying for my PhD)....certainly I'm in a much better position to many other people getting mortages?

:think:

gunge

Reactive wrote: »

I don't understand why. I'm practically guaranteed a higher than average salary (because I'm paying no tax) for three years, with a virtually certain well paid job at the end (with the company that's paying for my PhD)....certainly I'm in a much better position to many other people getting mortages?

:think:

Logic does not equal reality.

Gem_

I did, Natwest were quite happy to regard my phd funding as normal income.

Soot2006

Northern Rock considered my PhD stipend as income as well. My husband was earning as well, though, and our loan is fairly small + excellent credit records.

ianh_14

Try with Natwest and Cheltenham & Gloucester

My girlfriend is in a similar position (although was applying for a joint mortgage with me) and we had offers from both mentioned

cathy_j87

I'm also a PhD student, earning ~£17k/year. Me and my fiance are towards the end of the house buying process but we found that our circumstances meant very few places would consider us (OH had just started a new job so was in a probationary period).
We ended up with Leeds BS who put him down as the main person (despite earning less than me hehe) and we needed parents on as guarantors.

If you can have someone acting as a guarantor this may make it easier, even if you have no intention of needing them it keeps the lenders happy.

TEDDYRUKSPIN

Reactive wrote: »

I start my PhD in chemical engineering in September, for this I get £19,000/year tax free for three years. In addition to this, I will get anything up to £300/month tax free in tutoring university students (paid for by the universitydepartment), and I currently make about £250/month from matched betting (obv tax free too ).

I've been looking at some houses in the £60-65k price bracket, and was wondering whether or not I would be able to get a good morgage (since I'm only a student).

By september, depending on whether or not I work, I will have up to £15k left for a deposit.

Cheers

Many places now don't consider the student 3 months paid stipend as income. To make it worse, once your PhD studies finish - there is no guarantee that you will have a job. This is the difficult thing to prove to lenders now.

Less than 2 years ago, you would have been signed up straight away.

Keep on searching.

Reactive

TEDDYRUKSPIN wrote: »

Many places now don't consider the student 3 months paid stipend as income. To make it worse, once your PhD studies finish - there is no guarantee that you will have a job. This is the difficult thing to prove to lenders now.

Less than 2 years ago, you would have been signed up straight away.

Keep on searching.

Of all the people out there in the country, I thought I would have been a safe bet for the banks.

...I'm getting TAX FREE £19,000/year GUARANTEED for three years (+ other earnings guarnteed) AND I do not have to pay council tax etc because I'm a student.

....there is something seriously wrong with the world if I can't get a loan.