Mortgage or property investment?

pampoenla

We're South Africans living in England for the past 2 years. My husband is still employed at the South African branch of his company and we're living on company allowances. He will be joining the UK branch next year, which means that we will loose all the allowances.
The problem is that for some weird reason, the allowances turns out to be much better than the actual salary. Since we've started doing the sums, we've realised that we cannot afford to stay in England whilst maintaining the same standard of living!
We're now faced with the daunting decision to either take our meagre savings and put it down as a deposit on a house we do not want as it would be much worse than the rental we're currently in, or use the cash as deposits for other investment properties and continue renting. Hoping off course that the investment propert will hugely increase in value so that we can afford the house of our dreams in 5 years;)
What to do? Should we speak to financial advisors or mortgage advisors?
We have zero debt but also nearly no savings as the Rand/Pound exchange rate is so bad.
We will earn about £130 000.00 per year, but then we will have nearly £2000 per month school fees not to mention the rental of the current house we're living in.

phlash

Earn £130,000 per year and thats a level of earning to complain about your standard of living?!

What are the standards!!!!?

Depends if you believe that in 5 years you would have made money on your rental properties?!

Personally with that kind of cash I'd invest in some budding entrepreneurs with some bright ideas. Much more likely you'll get a good return out of them than property over the next 5 years.

BTman

I think this is a wind up...

ad44downey

pampoenla wrote: »

We will earn about £130 000.00 per year, but then we will have nearly £2000 per month school fees not to

You lost the sympathy vote a bit here.

Melissa177

If you can't maintain the same standard of living on new salary, versus your previous company allowances, I would complain to the company.

If my company moved me, and expected me to take a cut in my standard of living as a result, I wouldn't let that happen. I would demand to be recompensed to the equivalent level that I had been used to, or expect to move jobs.

This might sound rather stuck up, but if a company is paying your husband that sort of wage, he must be worth it. It will cost them a hell of a lot more in redundancy pay/finding a new employee of your husband's calibre.

I can't believe that people on here think 130K is a lot of money! The average wage in Canary Wharf alone is about 120K (okay, I probably hang out with too many City people).

That said, I would be putting away a significant chunk of savings each month - with high salary jobs, there is also a high risk associated with them, and putting something away for a rainy day is wise.

mr.broderick

Mel how would you phonetically pronounce calibre..?

Melissa177

I would pronounce if differently to caliber, which is what I actually meant

EDIT

Actually, I was correct! The US spelling is "caliber", but in the OED it is calibre.

Presumably derived from a latin variation, ie, we spell "centre" that way because it derives from "centrum".

Gold_Shogun

Ag, mak a plaan, meisie .... Fuboom sebenze, asseblief

kingkano

Melissa177 wrote: »

I can't believe that people on here think 130K is a lot of money! The average wage in Canary Wharf alone is about 120K (okay, I probably hang out with too many City people).

It is 6x the national average. Anybody earning 6x my salary to me that is alot.... when does it become alot then? 300k? 500k? footballers salaries???

Although it does prove that London is in a league of its own coming to property prices eh!

pampoenla

Thank you for your comments and advice.
Money, as most things in life, is relative.
If you're used to your level of income, taking a huge dip is awful, no matter how it compares to other's level of income.
Nobody likes to "farm" backwards. The whole aim of working is to continue your current situation or better yet improve it so that one day you do not have to work anymore:beer:
And I agree with you Melissa, 120k does not seem all that much if that's what you've been earning!
I still need advice on how to proceed so that we don't make a huge mistake and put ourselves further back in the long run.
Is it such a bad idea to continue renting and invest in smaller properties?
Surely house prices in London is due to stabilize?
At the moment the estate agents tell me there's 10 buyers for every property that comes on the market in this area.
Also, we are first time buyers, unlike other Londoners who've been climbing the property ladder according to their continued increase in salary.

sortofok

pampoenla wrote: »

....At the moment the estate agents tell me there's 10 buyers for every property that comes on the market in this area.
QUOTE]

Oh dear pampoenla.

You musn't listen to those thieving, lying bas****s.

You must listen to me.

What they mean is "there are 10 "viewers" not buyers.

And half of them are timewasters.