Getting a mortgage in the South East

henrygregory

barbarawright wrote: »

Could not your wife get a job nearer you? As a nurse surely she's pretty employable

Yes, she could go for one in Harlow, but, she only finished uni two years ago and is working so hard to get a promotion at her current hospital. I think it would be sensible for her to spend another year or two where she is first. But yes, good suggestion otherwise.

henrygregory

dlmcr wrote: »

I have to pick up on the point quoted and say that a 40k wage in central London is absolutely dreadful considering the cost of living pretty much anywhere in the south east plus the cost of commutin PLUS the time spent commuting PLUS the horrible rat race feeling all the time and in the long term it is extremely bad for your health to be living in this way. In my opinion it is insane commuting with all it entails for this length of time every day for this kind of salary, maybe if WFH was offered 2 days a week would make it more bearable. I appreciate that 40k is considered a very good salary by many people but really when you factor in the huge costs and time involved and stress in travelling it soon becomes a case of is it really worth it...?

Thanks for picking up on this, it is a really important area of concern for me.
Your remarks are really of interest, as quite a few friends tell me they just don't know how I manage it for what I get.

I have been given the flexibility (unofficially) of being able to WFH (as you rightfully suggested) two days pw for the past year.
I am also allowed to take school holiday time off (unofficially). Both of these really help both on sanity, motoring and commute costs and work-life balance.

The only down side is these are unofficial 'perks'. They are not in my contract and if my boss were to leave, I could be in a tricky position as the new boss may not be so thoughtful.

I used to be doing the same job (under a different boss) five days per week, no holiday other than 28 days p.a. all for £27,000. Last year, they bumped me up to £39,000 and gave me WFH and holidays. It is hard to find an employer who really values you or gives you that kind of a pay rise, which is why I have stuck around here for so long. The pay is not amazing, but they do look out for me. The place I worked for before was the total opposite, I ended up really ill working for them.

I have been keeping a keen eye on more local jobs. Cambridge is much closer to me, but sadly, my skills in public sector IT in education are not as transferable as I had hoped, and I have not been invited for interview to any more local jobs. There is a booming IT industry in Cambridge, just not in the area I have all of my experience. The local employment opportunities tend to be on a lower salary than £40k, so it is often a case of making some calculations on if the differential in salary is a good substitute for my commuting costs at the moment.

Lastly, you mention the job is in Central London, it is just outside in Tower Hamlets. Not that it makes all that much difference as it is still a very long drive to get there.

Thrugelmir

henrygregory wrote: »

When I use mortgage calculators on the websites I bank with, they make it sound quite affordable with monthly repayments of around £1200 per month on a £375k property with a 50k deposit.

Lenders base affordability on 6% - 7% interest rates. As that's what they could be one day in the future. A £325k mortgage over 25 years would rise to over £2k a month for comparison.

Kynthia's post is spot on. To start with many of us had to make do. Once on the property ladder it does get far progressively easier.

Grampus8

henrygregory wrote: »

Thanks, really helpful. You certainly know the area well. You are 100% correct, Braintree/Dunmow would be an affordable option for us, but it would be too much agro for me to get to work from which is a pest. We have looked at little at Dunmow, but it is just slightly too far out.

The only other option we do have is to wait until we can buy our rental property. It is owned by a housing association, and it is anticipated that some time next year, Right to Acquire should be available, giving us the option to acquire our housing association house...though what the asking price may be, who knows?! :rotfl:

There are trains to London every hour from Braintree.


Every fifteen from Witham.

henrygregory

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Lenders base affordability on 6% - 7% interest rates. As that's what they could be one day in the future. A £325k mortgage over 25 years would rise to over £2k a month for comparison.

Kynthia's post is spot on. To start with many of us had to make do. Once on the property ladder it does get far progressively easier.

Thanks. Very helpful. I just wanted to pick up on one of your points...
You mention that things get progressively easier...how is this? Is it because the price of the property you buy should rise meaning that you could hopefully sell it for more in the future, enabling you to move on to bigger and more expensive properties?

Magpie100

The problem is you have said you can't afford to buy the size of property you would like where you would like to live. So, if you really want to buy somewhere, something has to change. I take on board your points about your wife's potential promotions, but if she moved to work somewhere like PAH then the same would eventually happen there. At the moment her 22K wage (ok, but not great) seems to be anchoring you in one place...but it's a place you can't afford. Being geographically closer to your 40K income is surely a better choice, especially as nursing is so much easier to transfer in.

Cambridge-Harlow is 40 miles - it's not always going to be a great journey, but it's hardly the worst! If she is regularly doing night shifts then surely she would get used to a drive at the end of it?
I would have loved to stay in Sawbridgeworth, but we couldn't afford what we wanted there. Living in the south east means you will have to compromise somewhere, and if your wife can earn the equivalent salary in somewhere like Harlow (and then have low travel costs and a short journey herself) you could get a lot more for your money. You even say yourself there were some 'really good affordable places' a year back. Do you think waiting another year will make them any more affordable? I just don't see anywhere closer to Cambridge drastically declining in price.

Anyway. I do wish you luck with it all - but I do think you need to compromise on something if you want to achieve your goal.

henrygregory

Magpie100 wrote: »

The problem is you have said you can't afford to buy the size of property you would like where you would like to live. So, if you really want to buy somewhere, something has to change. I take on board your points about your wife's potential promotions, but if she moved to work somewhere like PAH then the same would eventually happen there. At the moment her 22K wage (ok, but not great) seems to be anchoring you in one place...but it's a place you can't afford. Being geographically closer to your 40K income is surely a better choice, especially as nursing is so much easier to transfer in.

Cambridge-Harlow is 40 miles - it's not always going to be a great journey, but it's hardly the worst! If she is regularly doing night shifts then surely she would get used to a drive at the end of it?
I would have loved to stay in Sawbridgeworth, but we couldn't afford what we wanted there. Living in the south east means you will have to compromise somewhere, and if your wife can earn the equivalent salary in somewhere like Harlow (and then have low travel costs and a short journey herself) you could get a lot more for your money. You even say yourself there were some 'really good affordable places' a year back. Do you think waiting another year will make them any more affordable? I just don't see anywhere closer to Cambridge drastically declining in price.

Anyway. I do wish you luck with it all - but I do think you need to compromise on something if you want to achieve your goal.

Thanks, yes I agree with what you say. The only down side to moving closer to Harlow is we would lose the element of child care. I have a mum with enough space, energy and free time to be offering full time child care for absolutely nothing. The catch is that we need to be relatively close to her for it to work.

Interestingly today, I have had an offer from a charitable housing association on a help to buy two bedroom house just outside of Stansted, Essex. It is a lovely house, brand new, a little small and only two bed but it is a start. The only catch is it is listed at £340k which is getting on to be quite expensive. A quick browse online reveals that there are private market properties for this and lower in a similar area.

The bonus with the help to buy house is that we don't have to buy all of it, although we were almost straight away approved on a 75% purchase arrangement based on my "larger than normal deposit". Apparently, most folk in the area are struggling to get a £5k deposit.
I am just not sure if we should bide our time on this and keep an eye on the private purchase market as there are some bargains cropping up for less than this, obviously not brand new or with the part buy, part rent option. A big decision as I have been given first choice on it and need to get back to them quite quickly.

wjr4

henrygregory wrote: »

Thanks, yes I agree with what you say. The only down side to moving closer to Harlow is we would lose the element of child care. I have a mum with enough space, energy and free time to be offering full time child care for absolutely nothing. The catch is that we need to be relatively close to her for it to work.

Interestingly today, I have had an offer from a charitable housing association on a help to buy two bedroom house just outside of Stansted, Essex. It is a lovely house, brand new, a little small and only two bed but it is a start. The only catch is it is listed at £340k which is getting on to be quite expensive. A quick browse online reveals that there are private market properties for this and lower in a similar area.

The bonus with the help to buy house is that we don't have to buy all of it, although we were almost straight away approved on a 75% purchase arrangement based on my "larger than normal deposit". Apparently, most folk in the area are struggling to get a £5k deposit.
I am just not sure if we should bide our time on this and keep an eye on the private purchase market as there are some bargains cropping up for less than this, obviously not brand new or with the part buy, part rent option. A big decision as I have been given first choice on it and need to get back to them quite quickly.

I wouldn't recommend shared ownership at all! Search the forum for it and there's loads of reasons why not. I looked at an apartment at Beauleiu Chelmsford and was accepted for the shared ownership and would have massively regretted going ahead with it. You are basically renting but paying for things like the boiler breaking etc! With your deposit you can afford somewhere better than that, but as mentioned above you will have to compromise. It's not ideal but we all have to make sacrifices when buying a property (especially in the south east!). I agree with the above comments about transferring to a nearer hospital than Cambridge. Have you been keeping an eye out on rightmove? It takes a while but eventually somewhere nice will show up! Also some properties on there look worse on the photos than in person (our house looked a lot smaller in the photos!) so I'd definitely recommend to start viewing a few when you decide on location.

Haylescom

Getting to the thread a bit late but here goes!
I was born in Harlow and lived there for 32 years, until I moved 8 months ago. There are some lovely areas (as Magpie100 says, Old Harlow especially) and compared to some other locations (Stortford for example), housing is slightly cheaper.
My bf works in Huntingdon and was doing this drive from Harlow every day for 2 years. He found it very manageable but I guess it's not for everyone.
PAH is a very busy hospital and I have friends who work there who have all done very well in terms of career progressionn especially as it incorporates St Margarets in Epping and Herts and Essex in Stortford.
We have recently moved to Elsenham, right next to Stansted. Houses here are much dearer compared to Harlow but from what I've seen a little cheaper than Stansted Mountfitchet. Despite moving a little way up the M11, BF's journey time hasn't reduced very much. I still work in Harlow and this is a 25 minute journey. Trains are nowhere near as regular; every half hour in rush hour, hourly otherwise. Harlow has the advantage of the Stansted Express stopping there (it rarely stops in Mountfitchet). Harlow is 20 minutes from Liverpool Street as well.
Good luck with whatever you decide!

Kynthia

Shared ownership is best for those who really need to live in an area where they won't be able to afford a whole property even if they waited and saved more, and really need more security than renting (often for children's stability and school place). I would not suggest it for anyone that could buy elsewhere or if they waited or if they bought something that needed a little work. New build shared ownership doesn't build the same equity during ownership, you need to pay rent and service charges, and the HA make things a nightmare when you come to staircase or sell.