Buy sooner or later?

theAnt

Evening all,

Myself and my partner are currently living, working and renting in London.

Combined, we have savings approaching £90k and we thinking of buying a flat in Manchester or Bristol, with the idea of having a fairly small/short mortgage (£50-60k).

We are wondering whether it is better to begin the buying process sooner or later. We both have jobs in London that are allowing us to build up our savings to the tune of around £5-10k a year. If anyone can give advice whether it would be worthwhile to either spend the next 2-3 years in London to continue saving or to bite the bullet and look to buy at the soonest opportunity, that would be much appreciated.

Cheers,

Ant

ognum

theAnt wrote: »

Evening all,

Myself and my partner are currently living, working and renting in London.

Combined, we have savings approaching £90k and we thinking of buying a flat in Manchester or Bristol, with the idea of having a fairly small/short mortgage (£50-60k).

We are wondering whether it is better to begin the buying process sooner or later. We both have jobs in London that are allowing us to build up our savings to the tune of around £5-10k a year. If anyone can give advice whether it would be worthwhile to either spend the next 2-3 years in London to continue saving or to bite the bullet and look to buy at the soonest opportunity, that would be much appreciated.

Cheers,

Ant

No one can tell, but, how will you pay your mortgage in Bristol or Manchester, can you relocate with your jobs or do you need to spend some time in jobs there before you apply for a mortgage.

For £140k in Bristol you will probably get a one bed flat in Manchester you might get a three bed house.

alchemist.1

You are looking at 250k upwards for that house in manchester . Wish it was 140k

theAnt

No one can tell, but, how will you pay your mortgage in Bristol or Manchester, can you relocate with your jobs or do you need to spend some time in jobs there before you apply for a mortgage.

For £140k in Bristol you will probably get a one bed flat in Manchester you might get a three bed house.

Thanks for the reply
We'll be relocating completely, so while we will try and sort out as much as possible from london (new jobs etc.) I envisage at least some time renting.

I guess I was wondering if there was any accepted wisdom that said getting on the property ladder as soon as possible was a good idea or if waiting a couple of years to save for a larger deposit would mean that house prices would rise faster than we can save - although I appreciate one can't truly predict what direction they will go.

Cheers,

ant

theAnt

You are looking at 250k upwards for that house in manchester . Wish it was 140k

Yeah, we are looking at 1-2 bed flats in both locations

Argghhh

there are 3 bed houses in sk16 area for 80k- 100k

alchemist.1

Argghhh wrote: »

there are 3 bed houses in sk16 area for 80k- 100k

If you ever been to Audenshaw/Duckinfield you will understand why.

You will probably find flats/houses in grotty areas of Bristol for 100k too

alchemist.1

theAnt wrote: »

Yeah, we are looking at 1-2 bed flats in both locations

You should be able to get that in a good area of Manchester fr the budget you have.
Definitely for the 1 bed. Maybe pushing it for the two bed.

ognum

theAnt wrote: »

Thanks for the reply
We'll be relocating completely, so while we will try and sort out as much as possible from london (new jobs etc.) I envisage at least some time renting.

I guess I was wondering if there was any accepted wisdom that said getting on the property ladder as soon as possible was a good idea or if waiting a couple of years to save for a larger deposit would mean that house prices would rise faster than we can save - although I appreciate one can't truly predict what direction they will go.

Cheers,

ant

In some areas you will not save as quickly as the prices are rising but it depends on the area.

marksoton

theAnt wrote: »

Evening all,

Myself and my partner are currently living, working and renting in London.

Combined, we have savings approaching £90k and we thinking of buying a flat in Manchester or Bristol, with the idea of having a fairly small/short mortgage (£50-60k).

We are wondering whether it is better to begin the buying process sooner or later. We both have jobs in London that are allowing us to build up our savings to the tune of around £5-10k a year. If anyone can give advice whether it would be worthwhile to either spend the next 2-3 years in London to continue saving or to bite the bullet and look to buy at the soonest opportunity, that would be much appreciated.

Cheers,

Ant

Have you factored in the potential salary change that moving from London might entail?

London weighting may not exist anymore in many jobs but unofficially it's still very prevalent...

theAnt

Mark - yes, we have factored in a 5-10k pay cut for moving out of London. We've tried to think through a few scenarios but we are still a bit stuck on whether to buy later have a bigger deposit or buy sooner to avoid any increase in house prices.