House buying and savings

Shankers

I'd like to hear some opinions please on what I could be doing in my situation regarding house buying.

My family are in workplace accommodation at the moment which we have recently learned is going to be extended until mid-2024 if we need it, which is a good position to be in. We're trying to sell a property in a different part of the country where prices are a bit cheaper to buy in the area where my job is. Our house is currently on the market. I work, my wife doesn't.

We've got a house to sell with a reasonable amount of equity in it. Nevertheless, even with maxing out mortgage borrowings this leaves us able to afford a house up to £450k, which is about what we would need for the kind of house we want based on current prices. 

My question regards what to do with any other savings we have while we are waiting to sell and buy when we are in workplace accommodation? I reckon we will need £25k for selling and buying (estate agents' fees, stamp duty, conveyancing, mortgage product fee, removals, repairs etc.). With any other money, part of me thinks keep it in cash because house prices might go up and so we would need to supplement the equity from our house sale and mortgage. The other part of me thinks that we do not want to lose the value of money to inflation and over-stretch ourselves in this time of high cost of living, so invest money beyond the £25k needed for moving in something like income funds. 

anotheruser

If you invest, it may be hard to access when you need.

Schwarzwald

Put the £25k into an Shares ISA and Invest it into a UK REIT as a kinda hedge against property price development until you are ready to buy.