Mortage & Outstanding debt

Rfrancis

Hi all,
My husband and I are planning to move house next year in order to be in a better area to secure a better primary school for my daughter (we have to apply for schools November '19).
We have done some rough calculations regarding our outstanding debts. Mine will be repaid by August '18 which means I can then start savings for the fees involve with moving house. However my husband will still have some debt left over (approx. £5k) by the time we want to move. Is it worth us paying off this debt rather than saving for the house move fees or is it generally ok to have some debt between us when applying for a mortgage?
According to the brief look at the mortgage calculators, with the £5k debt, we would be able to borrow enough for houses in the area in which we want to move to (housing market dependant of course!) but we really want to maximise our chances of getting the mortgage approval.
I hope that all make sense and someone can give me an idea as to which direction to work.

enthusiasticsaver

Moving house costs money and £5k of debt would be considered acceptable although it may reduce the amount you can borrow on affordability grounds. If you don't start saving for fees after August how were you going to pay for them?