Getting a mortgage on a short fixed-term contract

[Deleted User]

Hi everyone,

Me and my partner are considering applying to buy our first property, but I am on a weird contract and I wanted to ask your opinion on whether I should do it, or potentially change jobs before even applying.

I got my doctorate two years ago and was immediately hired as a fixed-term lecturer in the department where I studied. This contract is renewed every 6 months as long as there is demand for additional teachers - at the moment, it has been running for 18 months and is in the process of being extended to 24 months. My partner is on a completely normal  permanent contract with her workplace. I'm just not sure mortgage lenders will like this uncertainty.

In my defense:
- My credit score is excellent and neither of us have any debts other than student loans
- We have a £50k deposit, and are only looking at properties in the £150-200k range (25-33% LTD)
- In the past 5 years, even as a student, I've consistently taken home 27-30k P/A because of my scholarship and working as a teacher/invigilator/etc at the university. I can prove this.
- In theory, according to most mortgage calculators, the amount we're trying to borrow is small enough that my partner could get it on her income alone. I'm just not sure if I will be seen as a liability rather than an asset, and screw this up.

Do you think it's worth a shot? Does anyone have any experience dealing with an application under similar circumstances? I am thinking we'll just go straight to a broker who will hopefully know a lender who is willing to look at earning history rather than getting hung up on the current contract. However, we're just wondering if this is worth our time, or if I should just immediately begin looking for a permanent contract elsewhere to make the application easier. I would really prefer to avoid this if possible, since I love my current job and workplace a lot, but I'm sick of renting and will give it up if I have to.

Really any inforation or tips you could offer would be helpful - I have read the entire first-time buyers guide and the whole process still feels overwhelming!

MovingForwards

Your OH has a permanent contract, you have history of having your FTC extended, go find your independent whole of market mortgage broker! 

Stop worrying as your OH will be the lead applicant with your as secondary applicant / income; still a normal joint applicant but as you've pointed out your OH's income is sufficient alone and yours is the cherry on top.

[Deleted User]

Brilliant, that makes me feel so much better! I was just legitimately concerned that having a partner with an unreliable contract might actually harm her application rather than boost it, which would cause us big trouble. Thankyou!

Sandtree

[Deleted User] said:

Brilliant, that makes me feel so much better! I was just legitimately concerned that having a partner with an unreliable contract might actually harm her application rather than boost it, which would cause us big trouble. Thankyou!

Ok, I'd been in this game for 8 years rather than 18 months but have never had a single contract longer than 6 months and never had more than 1 month between contracts. Was the lead applicant (partner has no income) and didn't have a problem getting a more substantial and higher LTV than you. 

As long as you can show history of renewals/securing new work etc then lenders are not automatically put off with fixed term contracts. 

[Deleted User]

The responses here are significantly more optimistic that I expected, haha. Can I ask who the lender was for that?