Mortgage affordability

driver85

I know this varies widely depending on personal circumstances etc however I'm wondering what people consider to be an affordable mortgage based on what you have left over each month (disposable income)?

We are relocating for work and will be selling our house (this isn't an optional move). For our next house we're looking to buy a 3 bed house with a view to staying in it at least 15 years, currently there's only me and the hubby and no plans to have kids just yet.

The houses we're looking at will leave us with c.£1k disposable income a month (after mortgage, bills, food, petrol etc). I feel this should be more than enough for us to have a very enjoyable life and cope with any interest rate rises etc. It doesn't get us the 'dream house' but we're young and whilst it's tempting to push further I don't think we should.

Despite all the above I still have some jitters about whether we are stretching too much. Short-term (next 2 years) it's going to be a real stretch to scrape the 10% deposit, fund the move, do the house up etc and having only bought our 1st house a few years ago I'm not looking forward to being skint all over again. Mortgage itself will be 29% of take home pay.

Am I taking too much of a short-term view? Would most people go for this? Sorry if I've left out any info that's needed.

holly_hobby

As a general guide - lenders will use circa 35% of income as a pivotal point re affordability (which may be further adjusted re personal circs). So 29% and no dependants should fit well (dependant upon your satisfaction of other status enquiries)

Only you can make a decision as to whether you can manage on 1k net for household/general expenditure, and what decision suits your own personal circs and attitude.

If you don't want the pressure of saving a deposit over the short term (and 10% is really the min for any real selection of lenders), stay in rented and take time to increase your deposit over a longer period with less financial pressure.

Hope this helps

Holly