Does commute time make a difference to mortgage application?

AndyDufresne

If I want to buy a property, does the lender take into account the distance and/or time of commute between my normal place of work and the location of the property I want to purchase? 

I am thinking of buying a house roughly 40-50 miles away from my current place of work, but I only live about 7 miles away currently. However, the new commute would use a motorway which would make the total commute roughly 40-70 minutes (depending on traffic). My current commute is about 15 minutes.

Does the lender account for this? I'm a first time buyer, so not sure if this is a 'thing' to worry about or not.

What would be the maximum viable commute distance a lender will consider?

I've heard the lender can suspect the property wouldn't be used for own residential purposes if it is too far away from the current place of work, but I don't know if the lender would offer less due to more risk of losing employment (e.g. redundancy due to consistent lateness) due to a longer commute.

TDPIX

I'm not a mortgage broker... but I've never heard of this being a thing. I don't think it's a consideration at all, and I think you're worrying unnecessarily 🙂

Plenty of people live and work in very different locations. A 40-70 minute commute is barely anything in the grand scheme of things. There's many people living in South Wales who work in London, for example.

[Deleted User]

There are certainly lenders that get super hung up on commuting distances.  Had one with Accord where the underwriter rejected a 45 mile journey !!!!!!!  

For the most part its going to be plausible that you do that commute or it isnt.  There wont be any middle ground.    Someone travelling a couple of hours to london for a 6 figure salary is going to raise less eyebrows than someone travelling 2 hours for a £15k salary.   Also someone who is self employed with a client base in an area is going to struggle to claim their income isnt impacted by setting up business in a different town.  

For the most part not an issue, but it does come up infrequently

ACG

Some lenders are better than others. 

If we assume you do a 9-5 job then that probably means we are looking at the 70 minute commute. 
There are lenders I would probably avoid, but relying on luck rather than judgement and you would be unlucky if this was a problem, it is a minority of lenders who would have issue with it. 

15JM83

Can I ask are you using a broker or lender direct ?

Thrugelmir

Will your part time job be feasible as well.  As that's 12 hours working (excluding breaks) plus potentially 2 hours plus a day commuting. 

AndyDufresne

15JM83 said:

Can I ask are you using a broker or lender direct ?

I'll probably use a broker. As Deleted_User said a 45 mile commute was rejected, I'll want to find a lender that doesn't care about commute distance. I've has a look on lender criteria (for intermediaries) but haven't found anything related to commute time.

Thrugelmir said:

Will your part time job be feasible as well.  As that's 12 hours working (excluding breaks) plus potentially 2 hours plus a day commuting. 

Should be, I've been working a part time job with my full time job on-off for a few years and should hopefully have 6-12 months of history in the same job arrangement by the time I apply. The second job I have is a bit closer to the new house and about a 20 minute commute from where I live now (should be the same from new house).

15JM83

The lender won’t really care about the commute time , more about your committed travel costs, your broker can help complete this and tell you how much lenders will lend 

lonibra

AndyDufresne said:

15JM83 said:

Can I ask are you using a broker or lender direct ?

I'll probably use a broker. As Deleted_User said a 45 mile commute was rejected, I'll want to find a lender that doesn't care about commute distance. I've has a look on lender criteria (for intermediaries) but haven't found anything related to commute time.

Thrugelmir said:

Will your part time job be feasible as well.  As that's 12 hours working (excluding breaks) plus potentially 2 hours plus a day commuting. 

Should be, I've been working a part time job with my full time job on-off for a few years and should hopefully have 6-12 months of history in the same job arrangement by the time I apply. The second job I have is a bit closer to the new house and about a 20 minute commute from where I live now (should be the same from new house).

There's no bank who will 'not care' about whether a commute looks doable or not with the context of your job. They are looking out for fraud, that's their concern not how much it costs you to commute.

I don't think you will find any written guidelines saying "up to X miles or minutes is acceptable", it's a judgement call like Deleted_User said.

ACG

AndyDufresne said:

15JM83 said:

Can I ask are you using a broker or lender direct ?

I'll probably use a broker. As Deleted_User said a 45 mile commute was rejected, I'll want to find a lender that doesn't care about commute distance. I've has a look on lender criteria (for intermediaries) but haven't found anything related to commute time.

It is not really black and white. 

If you have someone on £8k a year working part time on minimum wage, it might be more of an issue than someone who is on say £200k a year. I would do a 2 hour commute for £200k, I probably wouldnt for £8k. 

You may also be doing a condensed week or only working from the office 1-2 days a week. 

It is just one of those things we would normally pick up the phone and have the conversation with our account managers to find out if acceptable or not.  

amnblog

Lender's don't care how long it takes you to get to work.

They do care if you are buying to let whilst telling them you are buying to live. One of the key indicators for this is buying out of area.

When they pick up the commuting distance they will then take a view on what you do, who you work for, and how much you earn to help them decide if it makes sense.

Your best chance of getting a case like this through (and you probably will ) is via a Broker.