First Time Buyers (Sort of!)

oscarsacco

'Morning all,

As with most people on this site I am hoping for some advice. Until last year the Wife and I lived in our own home, on which we had a mortgage secured. To cut a long story short, although both on a good salary, we got in a bit over our heads with unsecured debts - thankfully I am entitled to extremely cheap rented housing through my employer (military) and so we were able to rent out the house (some lenders allow military personnel to rent out properties which have a residential mortgage secured on them, without charging extra fees/interest). We also economised, used 0% credit cards, low rate loans and the cheapest supermarkets/utilities and so on, but it was not enough - with unsecured debts of circa £40k we sold the house to clear our debts.

The good thing is that we are now debt free, less for 1 car loan at £480 per month, and have truly learnt our lesson. I guess that we are again classed as first time buyers? Thankfully, although we were in financial difficulty, we always managed to make minimum payments and have no adverse credit/CCJs. Our earnings are as follows:

Him - £38000 pa
Her - £37000 pa (+ £22000 bonus)

I am considering a 100% mortgage, just to get back on the ladder ASAP (we are London based!). Been looking at Portman/Newcastle BS (5 yr fix at 5.45%) - the rates don't seem dreadfully worse than the best 90% LTV fixed rates (circa 4.99%?) If we had a £200000 mortgage we would be able to overpay approx £1000 per month - hopefully this would make up for not starting off with a deposit.

Does anyone have any other ideas/thoughts/advice?

Many thanks, sorry for the long winded post!

herbiesjp

It sounds like you are slowly getting yourselves back on an even footing.

It has been a long process, but you now find your selves in a relatively strong position (income wise) to purchase a new property.

Look for deals that do not have excessive fees to add on to the mortgage, otherwise your overpayments will clear the fees and not much of your mortgage payments.

I know what the London market is like and it is horrendous to try and get on the ladder, however both your incomes give you a strong foundation.

Be careful, as the type of property can also put you outside of the ledning criteria of many lenders i.e. high rise blocks etc

HTH