Affordability - Monthly Spend on Holidays

cammo12

Applied for a Santander mortgage today via a broker. In the affordability section (monthly spend on food etc) the broker said that Santander use national avergaes to fill this in. Food was £700, Bills £300. But the holiday spend was £0. I just accepted this and didn't think twice and submitted. Is it bad that this is £0 even though we go on holiday?

csgohan4

you go on holiday every month, do you even need a mortgage?

cammo12

Haha, no, the requirement is average monthly spend. So if you take 1 holiday a year at a cost of 2000 then the average monthly spend is 166.

Neutrinno

csgohan4 wrote: »

you go on holiday every month, do you even need a mortgage?

It needs a monthly average; annual divided by 12. £0 implies he will never have a holiday going forward.

cammo12

Neutrinno wrote: »

It needs a monthly average; annual divided by 12. £0 implies he will never have a holiday going forward.

So from your point of view as a broker, do you think this will be an issue? We have more than enough leeway in our monthly budget for this not to be a problem. It is just about whether or not they think it it is bad that we put £0.

cammo12

cammo12 wrote: »

So from your point of view as a broker, do you think this will be an issue? We have more than enough leeway in our monthly budget for this not to be a problem. It is just about whether or not they think it it is bad that we put £0.

Another point to add is that going forward we don't plant to go on holiday for the next few years - this is because our money will be going into the house as it requires a bit of work. So perhaps this is OK as it is going forward?

clairebeth

I'm still stuck on the fact that the national average spend on food is £700 a month!

cammo12

clairebeth wrote: »

I'm still stuck on the fact that the national average spend on food is £700 a month!

The £700 was actually for "food and clothes". Also I'm in the South East, and perhaps this spend varies regionally.

Lokolo

I'd expect £700 for food and clothes for a family of 5. Not for an average family. The average household is 2.3 people. I would say, and being very generous, this is about £400 a month.

badmemory

The employees at Santander obviously need to spend some time on this site re housekeeping type costs but also need a reality check regarding bills!

spadoosh

OP i doubt it will cause issues.

As long as you can afford to pay the mortgage i doubt santander care how many or the cost of holidays you take.

Ultimately you need a fair representation of your finances. If youre not planning any holidays for a few years putting £0 in the holiday column is fair.