First time buyer without a 10% deposit

aslan2

Hello, first time poster so please be gentle :beer:

Myself and my girlfriend would like to move out of our rental flat and purchase a small 3 bed house. Unfortunately we live in the south east and it's going to cost us approximately £280-300k to get what we would like.

We are lucky that our joint income is approx £85k and we have no debts and a good credit history.

However, we only have £25k cash for a deposit and stamp duty/fees, so effectively probably only £15k for the actual deposit. This is about 5% so would we be able to get a mortgage with this? I understand that the government is planning on bringing in assistance to get 95% mortgages on new builds for FTBs, and a new build is something we'd consider, but when does this scheme come in and what how do you qualify (except for the FTB bit)

Thrugelmir

Either aim to buy a cheaper property or save more from your incomes.

You'll need at least a 10% deposit even higher for a new build.

On £85k a year the question may arise as to why you require assistance as FTB's.

Mrs_Z

Sounds like to me that you need to be a bit more patient and save more! You have a good joint income with no debts, so I'm assuming that you should be able to save a heafty amount every month. The house prices are no likely to shoot up during 2012 so why the hurry? Aim for a decent 20% deposit so that you can get a better mortgage rate and once you have 15% saved up, start looking for suitable properties....

opinions4u

Save more.

somethingcorporate

Save hard for a year and you'll double your deposit.

If you look at properties available for under £250k (asking prices up to £300k) you would take a massive chunk out of your upfront costs via not paying 3% stamp duty.

aslan2

Thanks for the responses, yes maybe saving for another year is the answer, we have just been a bit frustrated with our current landlord who takes forever to fix anything that breaks, so the desire for our own place has been growing, but maybe we will have to put up with it for a bit longer to get what we want.

Unfortunately there is not much around below £250k where we want to live, it would have been great to take advantage of the stamp duty break but don't think it will be possible for us.

somethingcorporate

aslan2 wrote: »

Thanks for the responses, yes maybe saving for another year is the answer, we have just been a bit frustrated with our current landlord who takes forever to fix anything that breaks, so the desire for our own place has been growing, but maybe we will have to put up with it for a bit longer to get what we want.

Unfortunately there is not much around below £250k where we want to live, it would have been great to take advantage of the stamp duty break but don't think it will be possible for us.

Anything priced £280k and below is fair game for an offer of £250k, given the proximity to the threshold. There was a thread on here yesterday about it. We managed to get ours priced at £285k for ~£249k. Although it will take being patient and being a bit lucky!

aslan2

somethingcorporate wrote: »

Anything priced £280k and below is fair game for an offer of £250k, given the proximity to the threshold. There was a thread on here yesterday about it. We managed to get ours priced at £285k for ~£249k. Although it will take being patient and being a bit lucky!

Thanks, that's interesting to know, I would have thought £30k off would have been a bit too ambitious but I guess there is no harm is trying.

Fiddlestick

aslan2 wrote: »

Thanks, that's interesting to know, I would have thought £30k off would have been a bit too ambitious but I guess there is no harm is trying.

It's often said that if you are not embarrassed by your first offer then you are offering too much