Upsizing to Second Home

Moonkat1992

Hi,

I'm looking for some advice about a small upsize to our 2nd home. We've recently moved out of the city into the a 3 bed semi in the commuter belt in the next county for 105k, commuting can be a little testing at times but we are okay with it and happy to stay out of the city where house prices are reasonable.

The problem is the village we have moved to is a village of two halves and unfortunately we live in the bad half with no hope of moving into the safe community in the southern end which has conveniently been walled off with 3 bed homes being £215k minimum.

We mainly moved here because we could not go on sharing a house anymore (9 years is quite enough), especially after some of the recent nightmare tenants we've had to share our home with. A house in this village was the best 3 bed we could afford as first time buyers with one okay salary and one temp 'umbrella' wage. We knew it wouldn't be the best neighbourhood but it's even worse than we thought. I have to take my car keys to bed at night, wake up to drunk jobless people shouting in the street at 4am and frequently step in dog poo right outside my front gate in the morning before work. I grew up in inner city Wolverhampton so believe me when I say I'm not being fussy - this place and a large portion of its inhabitants are not for me.

Basically, we want out within the next 5 years so we can move to the village my OH grew up in, 10 mins away but another world compared to this place, even has the luxury of a train station and our friends and fam live there. Problem is a move and small upgrade here would cost us an extra £50-60k. We borrowed 4x based on my salary only as lenders don't like temp umbrella workers like my OH, and have a 2 year fixed deal (3.4%) with a 5% deposit. Luckily we only owe £99750 and my OH is hoping to secure some kind of permanent employment whether full or part time within the next few years and I'm hoping for a salary increase of around 3-5k. We are also hoping to overpay every year (mortgage allows 10k a year) we're hoping to raise 5k each year or a bit more - although maybe this is too ambitious.

Do you think moving to a property worth £160-180k within 5 years is feasible? I don't want to get my hopes up but I really can't stay living here when I give up so much of my time to working. I want to come home to somewhere I feel safe and can settle down to have children.

Svenena

It depends entirely on your circumstances, but I think it's certainly feasible. I bought 50% of a shared ownership house for £125k just over four years ago, and when I reach the end of my 5 year fixed mortgage later this year I'll be looking to buy a full ownership property for around £250 - 275k.

In the past four years I've increased my salary, overpaid my mortgage (and replenished my cash savings), and it looks likely at the moment that I'll also benefit from a slight increase in the property value.

If you can both go on the mortgage next time, that will help. You should definitely overpay as much as possible, because your mortgage rate is relatively high (and much higher than you'll make in savings). Take a look at this calculator to see how much difference overpaying can actually make: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/mortgage-overpayment-calculator.

Rambosmum

Yes, I think it's feasible if your DH gets a more secure job and you pay off some of the debt.

Moonkat1992

Thanks - looks like overpaying is the way forward! I'll use the morning dog poo as motivation haha! It's still better than shared renting...