Stretch ourselves (house) or easily afford (flat)?

Blue_Monkey

KateLiana27 wrote: »

I would always advocate buying within your means and having enough of an emergency fund to spare. That said, a 3-bed house in a good area will, in most parts of the country, hold its value more reliably and be easier to sell than a 2-bed flat (all else being equal). Plus you will likely get more use out of it as you can stay there as your family grows.

Personally, I would go for the 3-bed house. If you don't have a comfortable emergency fund to spare on top of this right now, I'd rent and save up a year or two until you could afford it, rather than going for a 2-bed flat and bearing the costs and hassle of having to buy and sell it in an uncertain market. I wouldn't let the baby influence you into making a quick decision - babies are just as happy in rented accommodation!

We would have a decent !!!!!! (approx £20k) so I think that's that bit sorted.... The disadvantage of renting for a while is that I will probably plan to go back to work 3ish days a week, so the idea is to get a mortgage before I go on maternity leave so that we're using the highest salary value (given that OH's income won't count for much if anything at this point in time). But this will be a real possibility if we don't find anywhere we like to buy anyway!

Emmzi wrote: »

ps if you are pricing from rightmove remember to knock off a bit -- not much is going for full asking price atm

This is good to hear - I had been working on that assumption, but wasn't too sure what with being a FTB and living abroad for 18+ months. I guess just how much under the asking price is about the same as guessing the length of a piece of string?!

Henry_P_Chester wrote: »

Maybe in Nortern Ireland and by the look of the prices the OP quoted it's not NI. House prices are still very high and likely to fall more.

Saying that I can't see why the OP can't get a house on those incomes.

Nope, we'll be moving back to the South East, within an hour commute of London. We have exchanged emails with a mortgage broker already who said we should be ok and that whilst a 20% deposit is good, a 25% deposit is so much better! Years ago when we weren't ready to buy you only seemed to need 10%, typical that now we're ready and it's almost in our reach it seems that even this isn't quite enough!

zzzLazyDaisy

Just to add, house is better than flat any day, if you can afford it. Not only will it serve you better now, but it will be easier to sell in the future.

Also as someone else has pointed out, selling and buying costs add a significant amount to the cost of moving (estate agents fees, solicitors fees, stamp duty, land registration fees, removal costs etc). This can add up to several thousand pounds. Far better to find a house and negotiate on the price. There are sites where you can check what the house last sold for which will give you an idea how much elbow room the seller has (someone buying at the peak who may now be in negative equity may be less willing to negotiate than, say, someone who has lived in the house 20 years).

Also houses with no upward chain or that are already empty may be more negotiable as these are people who may be more keen to sell in a slow market (moving abroad, moving away for work, previous owner died, that sort of thing)

Good luck!

Blue_Monkey

Thanks all - seems like a house is the way forward..... I guess in this kind of scenario its not so much about the cheapest option on an upfront basis! I'll try to remember to post back in a few months and let you know what we do (if any of you care, but I like it when the OPs come back and update after the initial dilemma)! Thanks again!

Doozergirl

You've forgotten service charges on a flat as well. It can easily add £100+ a month to your outgoings, making it the same to run as the house.

Emmzi

if you go north instead of south of london you can knock another 20-30% off most house prices. Just a thought.. we do have trains up here too

Blue_Monkey

Emmzi wrote: »

if you go north instead of south of london you can knock another 20-30% off most house prices. Just a thought.. we do have trains up here too

Thanks for the tip However, we're moving back to the UK to be close to friends and family and we love our little hometown... If we were going to move elsewhere in the UK we may as well stay in Oz... Plus work for OH and I is in London/SE.