how much savings do we need

rabbitwarren

I am sure there is already an answer to this question somewhere but I couldn't find it. Sorry.
We are looking to sell our flat for about £190,000 and buy a house for about £250000. Our mortgage at the moment is only £56000.
We wanted to have about £10000 saved before we thought about moving to try and cover stamp duty etc ,but I am so fed up here , we have £5000 saved and we are beginning to think lets just go for it, will this be enough to cover the other stuff if we stick the stamp duty on the mortgage?
Oh god its all so confusing and scary, help, where to start?!!!
Thanks so much.

freebo_2

Its up to you but when you move everything just goes into one big pot. Your solicitor will draw up a balance sheet with your sale proceeds and mortgage (and any addtional sum you are putting in) on one side and your purchase cost, mortgage redemption figure and fees (including his) on the other.

Upon completion he will settle all of the fees, including stamp duty and repay your old mortgage in full then send you a cheque for any surplus.

In terms of starting off you just need to make sure you have enough equity+savings+mortgage to cover all of the costs, don't forget EA fees, searches, sols fees etc, these really do add up (nearly £15 grands worth last time I moved :eek: )

Also remember that many (most?) people don't put any further cash in when they move and some "keep back" something in the above equation for home improvements etc. This is pretty reasonable IMHO (mind you splashing it on a holiday etc is a different matter!)

RHemmings

freebo wrote:

In terms of starting off you just need to make sure you have enough equity+savings+mortgage to cover all of the costs, don't forget EA fees, searches, sols fees etc, these really do add up (nearly £20 grands worth last time I moved :eek: )

It should be possible, using online mortgage calculators, to work out how much more expensive the OP's mortgage will be with the stamp duty added to it. On a monthly basis assuming the same term, and as an absolute amount paid over the mortgage. As the OP will be paying interest on the stamp duty over 25 years or so, the additional amount they pay in total might be an eye-opener!

In any case, I recommend running the numbers before making any decision.