Buying before Selling house owned outright

rich3245

Hi,

This is giving me a headache!

I have posted a few questions on here about selling in England to move to Scotland and this is the latest instalment (I'm now on Plan C!).

We own a home in Norfolk with a mortgage that we can pay off with no ERC. I've been keeping it open as it is an interest only offset and we are paying no interest as the offset is full.

We are moving to Scotland to start work in the New Year. We have found a property at £265k that is ideal. However, we would like (need, really, for various reasons) overlap between sale and purchase and in any case the differing conveyance systems make it challenging to sell in England and buy in Scotland concurrently.

So, I'm looking at paying off the mortgage on the England property and buying the Scotland property, taking out a new mortgage there - We can afford about a £40k deposit and according to the online calculators could gain the remainder on a mortgage (and more importantly, We could afford the monthly payments).

In the meantime we are selling the England property, expecting completion sometime in the New Year, but this hasn't reached exchange of contracts yet and won't for some time.

I'm not sure what my question is, but really I'm after reassurance that this is a feasible strategy and any pitfalls I may encounter. Particularly, are we likely to be able to gain a similar sized mortgage given that we already own a home.

I know of the issue of second home stamp duty being high, but as I would sell the England house soon, I understand we can claim this back - though it would still be an initial upfront cost to cater for.

I realise that renting or selling / buying concurrently are also options and I may go down one of those routes but in your replies to this post please assume that my scenario above is the option we are pursuing.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Richard

Pixie5740

You'll need to pay the LBTT Additional Dwelling Supplement in Scotland which you'll have 18 months to claim back.

Flugelhorn

I have done this before - bought a smaller "interim" house (ho ho ended up being 3 years) and then bought the house we are in now with a mortgage and later sold the smaller house. It was before there was higher stamp duty and you do have 2 lots of household bills / council tax etc but otherwise far less stressful.
Planning to do it again soon.

AnotherJoe

rich3245 wrote: »

Hi,

This is giving me a headache!

I have posted a few questions on here about selling in England to move to Scotland and this is the latest instalment (I'm now on Plan C!).

We own a home in Norfolk with a mortgage that we can pay off with no ERC. I've been keeping it open as it is an interest only offset and we are paying no interest as the offset is full.

We are moving to Scotland to start work in the New Year. We have found a property at £265k that is ideal. However, we would like (need, really, for various reasons) overlap between sale and purchase and in any case the differing conveyance systems make it challenging to sell in England and buy in Scotland concurrently.

So, I'm looking at paying off the mortgage on the England property and buying the Scotland property, taking out a new mortgage there - We can afford about a £40k deposit and according to the online calculators could gain the remainder on a mortgage (and more importantly, We could afford the monthly payments).

In the meantime we are selling the England property, expecting completion sometime in the New Year, but this hasn't reached exchange of contracts yet and won't for some time.

I'm not sure what my question is, but really I'm after reassurance that this is a feasible strategy and any pitfalls I may encounter. Particularly, are we likely to be able to gain a similar sized mortgage given that we already own a home.

I know of the issue of second home stamp duty being high, but as I would sell the England house soon, I understand we can claim this back - though it would still be an initial upfront cost to cater for.

I realise that renting or selling / buying concurrently are also options and I may go down one of those routes but in your replies to this post please assume that my scenario above is the option we are pursuing.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Richard

I think of more concern would be your jobs.

Are your job(s) moving or are these new jobs?

If the latter might be more difficult to get a mortgage as well, this all speaks to using broker.

rich3245

Another Joe,

Thanks, the jobs are different but are with the same employer and the pay is the same so this shouldn't have any impact.

Yes, a broker does seem wise. Is this sort of thing something that most brokers will be able to help with or do I need to search out a specialist?

AnotherJoe

I wouldthink any decent broker should be OK. I was more thinking if these were new jobs and no employment history.

If it was me I'd look for a broker based in Scotland since they will know any nuances of Scottish law bt others can comment on that i just know "they do things differently there"