Can I afford a mortgage/life on my own?

lovewealthhappiness

Hi everyone,

Just looking for some advice really.

Bit of background, I am nearly 30 now, recently single after a relationship that I thought was forever but he thought was a good way to save himself some money. We were living together with one of this friends so obvs couldn't stay there when he broke up with me and so am now back with my parents while I try and rebuild my life. Thankfully, because he had large debts I had rejected his suggestion of buying a house 2 years ago in favour of waiting for his debt to be cleared...anyway, I digress.

The point is, I have spent the last 10 years or so saving as much as I could specifically for buying a house, and now have around £15,000 available for a deposit and the option to borrow another 10-20k from my parents. I live in a fairly expensive part of the country where you'd be lucky to get a studio flat for less than £100k.

I have been to the bank to find out how big a mortgage they could give me and have been given a figure of about 90k based on 120k house price and 30k deposit and the repayment would be around £450 a month. As I am now on my own and never expected to be buying a house on just my salary, and having never lived alone - I've always been in either a house share or with family - I don't really know how much my expenditure would be.

What I want is a small 2 bed house so that I can hopefully get a lodger to help with the bills and also because I don't want to live alone. My previous 2 homes have cost around £1000 a month to run (this includes rent of about £650 for both homes) between 3 people but I was never really allowed to get involved with the bills so only know this from what I was told.

What I'm worried about is how much a 2 bed home would cost to run as I would imagine it would be still in the region of £1000pm when you take into account mortgate, council tax, utilities and other bills, insurance, grocery shopping, petrol etc. and I don't want to buy a house only to find that I can't afford to do anything other than stay at home eating beans on toast by myself my takehome pay is £1455 a month.

Are there any other singletons out there in a similar situation that can ease my fears and tell me that it's manageable and I still might be able to have a life after all or is this a pipe dream and shoud I resign myself to staying at home with the 'rents until a real prince charming comes along if at all?

Also, for those living alone how do you find it? I don't have many friends since the split and find myself alone (apart from the parents) nearly all the time and I'm not really enjoying it.

Any advice, about anything at all really, would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks for reading hope I haven't muddled my words up too much! I would really appreciate any input.

Yorkie1

You can get what's called a statement of affairs on the debt free wannabee board - it enables you to basically make a budget and see where you are at the end of the process.

For your area, you should be able to get information about council tax and probably water rates from the relevant bodies. You can go on a utility comparison site and input property type details at the annual consumption / cost part of the page.

Don't forget TV licence and insurance costs.

You'll need to be able to afford it on your own, probably, and if you do take a lodger then that's a bonus.

Edit: Also, don't forget to budget for mortgage application fees (can be £1K) and legal fees (likely £up to 2K although you may not buy a property above the stamp duty threshold).

ACG

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110411064908AASZe7G

I would agree with the answer chosen as the best. Go on google and have a look at living costs for a single person.

Write a list of what you would expect to eat in a week, go to tesco/asda or wherever get an idea of costs.

Have a look at a few budget calculators and take off their what is relevent for you and do searches for prices.

I reckon with a take home pay of £1400 you will be fine, ive worked it out i could afford everything on £1k possibly a little less if i needed to - dont get me wrong that wouldnt include holidays and things but i could live on it.

Im in Manchester so might be a little cheaper to live round here but studios in the nicer areas are about £80-90k

YoungBusinessman

Reading through numerous SOA's on here, £1400 is very doable. Try and up it so £450 off for mortgage leaves £1000 for everything, anything you make over £1,450 gets saved. Good luck with it.

Southernman

I am like you with a sole mortgage and have a 2 bedroom flat (no house but then i do have an extra service charge bill that houses don't pay).

I manage fine and my original mortgage amount was also £90,000. I do have a lodger in my spare room who gives me pocket money towards bills and it works out really well.

The situation would be much tighter without him in the picture but i live in an area where people are DESPERATE to live (city centre) so wouldn't take me long to find a new lodger.

I have £450 to live on after all bills, mortgage, money put in savings etc which is plenty for the month and i do get to enjoy life and go on holidays too plus overpay my mortgage.

So it is doable but do make an estimate of predicted bills and costs etc first.

lovewealthhappiness

Thanks everyone, I've done a theoretical and conservative SOA and it comes to just over £1000, which I can afford, but it wouldn't leave much left over for emergencies/savings. I think the answer is definitely to get a 2 bed place and get a lodger! Just need to find a house first :eek:

theoretica

Also when you do move in think about furniture -let it be known you would love offcasts, start hunting now for the really cheap 2nd hand shops/auctions and realise you can always upgrade and need very little to start. You can also delay getting a TV (and paying license/committing to a contract) until your budget has settled down and you know it is realistic.