Sensible mortgage payment amount

tearfulheart

I was hoping to get second opinions on this, just so I'm not going to go down with something crazy!

I'm currently on £40k p/a salary, with £2390 in the pocket each month.

I'm in my mid 20s, looking to buy my first home and intending to repay the mortgage on my own.

The property I'm hoping to buy is £250k, I have a deposit of £46k.

The Halifax mortgage calculator is estimating I'll pay £869-£936/month for 25 years. The property I'm hoping to buy has 2 bedrooms so I'm intending to rent it out. In the area, I think I should be able to rent out a room at £400-£500/month.

The property is an apartment so it does mean there will be service charge, ground rent, building insurance, etc totalling currently at about an additional ongoing £2k p/a. Council tax is about £1.6k.

My additional monthly costs for utility bills, phone bills, petrol, car insurance and food I estimate to be around £450.

So on £2390, if a minus:

• £1000 (mortgage repayment)
• £170 (apartment additional charges)
• £140 (council tax)
• £450 (additional costs for bills, food, etc)

I'm left with £630 each month. Please note that I've rounded up on a few of those cost figures.

Is this reasonable? I'm fully expecting not to always have rental income help, but even without that I think it's doable?

getmore4less

Do a full SOA not just some of the stuff.

£450 could be low for the other stuff.

eg. car will be more than just insurance and fuel you need to factor in maintenance and replacements.

http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php

have a read of threads on debtfreewanabe to get an idea of what needs including.

Use your last year of outgoings to get an idea of where your money goes now.

With a house and a car you will be wanting to rebuild some savings to over the stuff you forget to include in your budget.

Nebulous2

Everybody is different. We are very frugal in some areas and quite extravagant in others (We'd really struggle on the food bills some people see as quite normal on the debt free wannabe forum.)

Much of what people see as 'essential' are in fact lifestyle choices. We took a big drop in family income by changing direction at one point and were amazed at how much spending we could cut out and still enjoy ourselves.

At the same time most people expect to be hard up in the first couple of years after buying a house. You will have unexpected expenses, will want to decorate or replace some things.

julicorn

Is there anyone else on the mortgage? Just asking because most of the time they'll only lend you around 4.5 times your salary, for affordability reasons. Generally, they'll also means test your repayments for rising interest rates, i.e. would you still be able to repay if the rates rise to say 8-9% in a few years' time?

(Sorry, not really answering your question, just something to bear in mind)

tlc678910

Would it be possible to buy a house instead within your budget/area and save on that extra £170 each month?