How does Help To Buy work?

grumiofoundation

OP do you live at home? And pay rent? 

How much do you save per month? Can you increase this, there’s often ways to save more money (obviously sometimes this isn’t worth it for the sacrifice to quality of life/enjoyment!).

If you sit down and work out your spending, where money is going etc. 

If you feel there are may be ways to save more and you post this I’m sure plenty of posters would be able to help/input (I’m not sure if another board is more suitable, maybe another poster would know??)

Couple of easy ways to add to savings is bank switching (although not many around currently) and cashback (sites like TopCashback and Quidco - good for getting hit of money back on stuff you would buy anyway). 

Another way to quickly increase house deposit is lifetime ISA (I posted link to MSE article above). If you have 12k saved you can increase this to 14k within a couple of months using a lifetime ISA. Lifetime ISA can be used with shared ownership of you do go down this route. Make sure you research the pitfalls and potential problems this route might face (money not accessible penalty free, 450k limit etc). 

Essential1

Not paying but providing help otherwise, which is why I'm able to save about 850-900 now and over a grand when the pubs come back.

rachlikeswinter

Essential1 said:

What should my first step be? ring a mortgage advisor...will the be the one finding the property for him or is that someone else?

It doesn't hurt to get in touch with a mortgage advisor, no. They will take your income / outgoings info and give you the lay of the land in terms of what lenders may be willing to lend to you, and how much. That will at least tell you where you stand. Then continue to save and see if your position improves. 

You find the property yourself (or an estate agent.) The broker would just arrange the mortgage; it's up to you to find a property that the mortgage could be used to purchase.

FTB_Help

Essential1 said:

Not paying but providing help otherwise, which is why I'm able to save about 850-900 now and over a grand when the pubs come back.

Keep saving for the next 2 years minimum, so by end of 2022, you'll have about 33k, if you can hold off for atleast another year you'll have about 45k, which is more of a "decent" deposit it makes such a massive difference to have a larger deposit (you'll pay less int), my advice is try and hold off in buying for atleast 3/4 more years.

Have a scope around rightmove in areas you think you would like to move to and see where you think you could stretch to if you want to not go down the HtB route (east london zone 5+ on the tfl rail is affordable and you may potentially be able to get a 2 bed there, tfl rail is fast and goes to liverpool st).

Essential1

I guess If I have no other choice. I started feeling good bout myself because I was putting in hours plus weekend etc etc now the thought being here till 40 going to feel a bit !!!!!!. I might not have anywhere to go if something happens to my parentrs I don't get on with sisters etc last thing I would want is to get help from them they will throw it back in my face.

FTB_Help

If your relationship breaks down with family then you can always rent somewhere.

Buying isn't always the best for everyone and there is no shame in renting.

Don't get too upset that you're not on the ladder yet.

SO/HtB have many pitfalls (as well as positives) read up on them it could work for you.

If you really have to wait till your 40 to save enough for a std mortgage, then so be it

Essential1

Thanks for responding in a mature way some sites have been a pain. I always thought £15-20k deposit would be enough for a one bedroom in Harrow/Uxb. I guess I will have to keep saving.