Commuting costs on mortgage application

Countryfile75

Hi all, my partner and I are looking to sell our flat in London and relocate to Bristol. My partner is self employed and works from home and can continue to do this. We have a decent amount of equity currently, so should be able to borrow what we need on just her wage. However, we have seen some nicer properties that would mean I could potentially use my current wage to try and borrow a little more. The question is would lenders entertain me declaring commuting costs of about 12k per year on my wage? I take home just over 30k. Any advice would be much appreciated, thanks.

Countyfile75

csgohan4

it would be put in affordability calculations, so it would reduce the amount you borrow with that amount for commuting. 

ChloeManoey

Crikey that's a heck of a travel bill! I remember my mortgage broker telling me that some lenders ask about travel costs, but others don't. I'm not sure how you find out which though! You will have to provide bank statements though so if you pay monthly and they see it, they may ask about it 

[Deleted User]

Even if they don't care about the travel cost, they'll want to be sure it's sustainable and you're not just saying that to get the mortgage and you're actually going to quit and work elsewhere on day 1. Some lenders don't usually factor the actual cost in - but then as it's so significant, they might want it declared as an exceptionally high cost - as it's well over the modelled figures or 'national averages' that they might use.

I know Bristol well! When I lived much closer to London than Bristol for a few years, I wouldn't even entertain Central London jobs for less than £30k as I thought it just wasn't worth the commute. That's 100% a personal preference and choice of mine - but convincing an Underwriter you're going to commute consistently, on that salary, is going to be a challenge.

Underwriting is all about different perspectives though. Hardly any lending criteria will say you must be within X miles/X minutes, it'll be down to an Underwriter's judgement. My judgement would have been no chance... but somebody else might think that actually it's possible.

I think you'll need a broker for sure. If you're going to relocate down to Bristol and will be (eventually) looking for a job there (??), then now is potentially a very good time to be doing that - remote interviews etc. If you had a Bristol job that the Underwriter was happy was genuine, that income could be included (at some lenders) and there's no need to include commute costs/issue either!

Countryfile75

Thanks for the replies folks, much appreciated. We would be a able to purchase a property with a 100k mortgage just on my partner’s salary, but being able to borrow about 30k more would give us a lot more choice. I guess we should speak to a broker then.