Know how much I can get, but how much mortgage should I get?

Sparklestar1127

Our new mortgage will be around 22% of our joint income. 40% seems high. 

getmore4less

To retire in 20-25years
33% buy a house. 
33% save
33% live off.

JeffMason

steve866 said:

JeffMason said:

steve866 said:

When I started looking to move in summer 2019, I was looking for a house in one area or a flat in nicer area with a budget of around 22% of post tax income, for mortgage payments. which was an amount I felt comfortable with. 

I realized 2 things over the last year.
1) Moving house is stressful, time consuming and expensive, especially when moving to a 2nd or 3rd home (as opposed to being a FTB).
2) Lockdown made me realize how much money I was wasting (e.g. eating out every day for lunch, coffees, smoothies etc).
I decided to max out my borrowing to avoid having to move again, with mortgage payments now at 35% of post tax income. 
I am very confident I have made the right decision and complete next week

Makes a lot of sense. And you're not worried about the interest rates going up?

I am slightly concerned, although I will he making overpayments where I can. I also think that I would be pretty screwed in general if interest rates suddenly rose to 6k. What difference in property would you get from borrowing more? If it’s the difference between leasehold and freehold I would borrow more. 

Both are freehold. Borrowing more would mean more square footage (at least 125 sq ft) and a better (and more likely to go up) area.