New Job - Affordability Test ?

cerees

Hi,

I am planning to get a mortgage mid next year - FTB.

However, I am job hunting and have 2 job offers. One job is local & is in the area of my preferred house search - but is £1800 less pay per year - and the other job is approx 20 miles away and is £1800 more pay. I know there is not much in it - but would the lender view the 20 miles each day for work a negative in terms of affordability (petrol, car usage) - would it be best to stay with the local job?

Thanks

Contemptuous

You're overthinking this.
The lender would only really have an issue if you had a lengthy commute (like 1.5hrs+ each way).

HappyMJ

cerees wrote: »

Hi,

I am planning to get a mortgage mid next year - FTB.

However, I am job hunting and have 2 job offers. One job is local & is in the area of my preferred house search - but is £1800 less pay per year - and the other job is approx 20 miles away and is £1800 more pay. I know there is not much in it - but would the lender view the 20 miles each day for work a negative in terms of affordability (petrol, car usage) - would it be best to stay with the local job?

Thanks

The lender does not calculate your affordability in such fine detail.

From my point of view from £1,800 more pay I would net £1,224 after tax and NI. An extra 40 miles a day would over 46.4 weeks add up to 9,280 miles. It costs an additional 25 pence per mile to run my car so it would cost me an extra £2,320 to commute. I would be losing out by £1,096 per year and I would take the lower paid job instead.

£21 a week is a lot of money to be paying out each week.

minimike2

Actually it depends on the lender.

Some use ONS averages for travel. I know one lender which does a VERY in depth breakdown of all outgoings including travel to work costs being split out from personal travel costs.

My advice would be to go or the job which you feel is right for you, as it is far more important to work in a job you enjoy and offers you what you are looking for.

cerees

Thanks all for your interesting responses : ) Always worth asking, even though I am overthinking about my every move at the moment in preparation for buying! Cheers!

cerees

@HappyMJ - thank you for the breakdown too