FTB - advice needed

Alexhow · 10 June 2014 at 3:33PM

Afternoon all

Having read through many of the threads on this forum I can see that there are lots of knowledgeable people on here and I'm hoping someone can help.

My partner and I are first time buyers living with her parents. We are both employed full time on permanent contracts. Our combined gross salary is £30,540 pa and we also receive £2280 in working tax credits and £1000 in child benefit pa as we have a three year old daughter.

We have a deposit of about £16k.

We have about £3k in debt which we are looking to clear and should do so in around 3 months. Our outgoings include £190 pm for a HP car and £380 for child care.

Also, whilst this probably isn't relevant, I'm due to qualify as a Legal Exec in a year and my salary will double to about £30k. Incidentally, the child care costs will also disappear around that time.

Having looked at a number of the online calculators to gauge how much we might be able to borrow, I am a little confused as to where I am! The most promising results came from Halifax, Barclays and Virgin Money and indicate that we would be able to lend approximately £150k. However, I have today spoken with London & Country and they have indicated that realistically the most we could borrow is £112k!

I was hoping for a bit of guidance as to the most reliable source of information as there will be a big difference in the properties we might be looking at depending on which budget we choose to go with.

I would appreciate any input.

Thanks

Alex

bsms1147 · 10 June 2014 at 3:39PM

Welcome to the site.

It depends on so many factors; your deposit, your credit-worthiness, your incomings and outgoings, your indebtedness etc.

The bottom line is speak to an expert, like you already have. You won't get more accurate answers from a gaggle of forum users. Another broker may be able to find you somewhere between the two, but I wouldn't rely on online calculators.

Personally I think 150k on your current combined salary would be too much (5x combined), especially after accounting for the outgoings you have listed, and 112k sounds more realistic.