Buy to let with small deposit/ clergy couple trying to get on housing ladder

mrscatherine · 19 January 2015 at 12:55PM

Hello all

This is my first time posting onto the forums so apologies in advance if I accidentally don't keep to ettiquette!

I was wondering if anyone has any experience getting a buy to let mortgage with a small deposit and as first time buyers?

For background, husband and I are both in our late twenties. He starts working as a vicar next year and therefore we will be provided with a place to live. This is obviously a great help, but also means that we won't be getting on the housing ladder in the normal way (i.e. purchasing a place to live in). We would like to get on the housing ladder in the next couple of years as a long term investment for retirement and also in the hope it produces some income in the short term to help replace my income if kids come along.

Trouble is we haven't been able to save much in our twenties and so realistically we are thinking that in a year's time we could have approx 20,000 in the bank for deposit. We could probably get some help from family to cover fees. I would be planning to buy a 1 or 2 bedroom property worth around 70,000 - 100,000 to rent out. Both of us have good credit record and I earn approx 33000 as a solicitor, but I have outrageous travel costs.

Does anyone have experience of buying in similar circumstances or have any insight as to whether it's financially viable? If so, recommendations for good brokers and lenders would be super helpful!