Buying a house as a single person

joerugby

Not sure why you would want to buy at the moment. Have you found your dream property where you want to live for the foreseeable future, and can you afford it? If not, keep saving.

rodent

HappyMJ wrote: »

Banks seem to now calculate on affordability rather than just a multiple of income. Normally the multiple was around 3 to 4 times income but in this case the bank has offered 4.5 times based on affordability. If the OP had credit cards the bank would take that into account and lend less. If the OP had a much higher income therefore a higher disposable income some banks have offered 5 times income.

Depends on the lender, the product and the status of the applicant also LTV and how you go about making an application and what supporting lit you provide. There is always more than one way to skin a cat.

For eg. on one of my purchases i had 50K o/standing on a cc - it was invested in a high interest acc and was running on 0% interest (with card provider)
After chatting with the mort u/w he agreed that that was a financially astute investment. NO effect on my borrowing ability. (the min mthly payment on card was £25)

If you spend some time researching mortgage t & cs also cc t&cs ..you will be amazed at what you can do. I have been;)

Graham_Devon

rodent wrote: »

Depends on the lender, the product and the status of the applicant also LTV and how you go about making an application and what supporting lit you provide. There is always more than one way to skin a cat.

For eg. on one of my purchases i had 50K o/standing on a cc - it was invested in a high interest acc and was running on 0% interest (with card provider)
After chatting with the mort u/w he agreed that that was a financially astute investment. NO effect on my borrowing ability. (the min mthly payment on card was £25)

If you spend some time researching mortgage t & cs also cc t&cs ..you will be amazed at what you can do. I have been;)

Either way, taking out 20k on a credit card to help you buy your first house is a pretty silly idea.

Everyone has the idea that they will pay x,y and z off when they get their first house. It often doesn't work that way, and that size of loan on credit cards has the potential to cripple people.

Not good advice.

iwantahome

rodent wrote: »

Speaking from experience - this is NOT the case.

This is what many on this site have said and is what I have been told by mortgage advisors. Paying a mortgage will be hard enough when the OP is trying to buy in London on a low wage, even without having to find an extra 20k to pay back a credit card.

The best thing any FTB can do is save the deposit the normal way and know that the only loan they have is a mortgage. I wouldn't borrow on a CC to get a mortgage as it is just like a more risky homebuy scheme. Surely actually having some equity in a property is better than claiming you have equity but actually owe that equity to barclaycard or whoever the CC is with at that time?

Remember the 0% deals run out eventually and then interest hits, and on a CC that size it will hit big.

ukcarper

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Either way, taking out 20k on a credit card to help you buy your first house is a pretty silly idea.

Everyone has the idea that they will pay x,y and z off when they get their first house. It often doesn't work that way, and that size of loan on credit cards has the potential to cripple people.

Not good advice.

Nice to agree with you on something Graham

rodent

We all have a different approach to risk, we all have a a different approach to life.

I could sit here typing up stories of how this has worked for quite a few poeple that i know well, from my brother a FTB in London to a BTL LL who now has a 6M portfolio (erm well that will be me then!) and a lot of acquaintances besides - but i shan't waste me time.

If someone is not comfortable with any thing other than bog standard products and approaches then he/she should continue looking no further than their nose & follow the sheeple and the advice given by yet more sheeple, BUT if you are just a tad more ambitous, there are other options available to those that can be bothered to explore a little.

Of course having an extra 20K debt increases your outgoings & responsibilities and calcs need to be performed with worst case scenarios included. You may have to skip a holiday or 2, but then you may also be able to get a lodger (or 2/3) to more than cover the payments. You may also consider buying the property on a BTL rather than a resi mortgage and let it for a year or 2 to pay off the 20K before flipping it to a resi mortgage and moving in yourself- you may find that after 2 years that you want to keep it as a BTL and buy yourself a nicer house somewhere else...

As i said earlier- there is more than one way to skin a cat - this is the beginning of the conversation - NOT the end ...well for some anyway;)

magpiedawn

Yes but aren't ALL credit cards no per cent ? if you pay back in full every month ? and just want one to build up a credit history.

Good luck Stacy

rodent

magpiedawn wrote: »

Yes but aren't ALL credit cards no per cent ? if you pay back in full every month ? and just want one to build up a credit history.

Good luck Stacy

Yes ...if you pay it back in full every month.

There are a lot of 0% deals on cards from 6mths to 18mths(not just the 1 mth normal payment cycle period) ..with a 1-3% setup fee.
There is no interest payable on the capital borrowed for the period set out in the deal but you wll have to pay the min monthly payment ...which surprisingly can be as low as a fixed £25pcm REGARDLESS of capital borrowed (up to 50K last time i checked) you will need to do some research on tcs for different cards ...CC spend millions promotimg 0% deals ...why would you want to be paying 4-19% when you could be paying 0% ...that is the action of a fool isn't it ?

The problem here is that most people have been brainwashed into thinking cc are nasty evil things ...in the wrong hands they can be (if the person with the card is irresponsible with it!)

A cc is a very fleixble and powerfull financial instrument in the right hands.

It is like any musical instrument - in the wrong hands it sounds dreadful ...in a skilled musicians hands - a different story!

hazyjo

Why a house? Why not a 2 bed flat? Could get close enough to London in an okay part of town with that budget. Keep an eye on service charge/ground rents/lease length, etc.

Jx

19lottie82

moesasji wrote: »

ps) £600 per month doesn't seem an awful lot to me if you have to pay all bills from it (Council tax, Gas&Water, BBC tax, car insurance,...). So doing a real budget might be worth it.

Took the words right out of my mouth here. I am in the same position, being that I am 29, own my flat and pay all the bills, including my mortgage myself. I too run a car, and in total my bills, excluding my mortgage are about £500 a month. This i made up of gas, electricity, water, council tax, mobile phone, telephone, internet, factors fees, tv license, car insurance, road tax and a few other bits and bobs.

If you consider after all your fixed outgoings, how much you would be left with to cover clothes, entertainment, food, other household expenses and contingencies, it’s not a lot at all, I think you might struggle………