Buy now? Broker info, and address questions

cotea

I'm in my late 30's, FTB, have a 10% deposit in my LISA (could stretch to make it 15% deposit but would be all my savings) to buy a home. I'm debt free. I work at home fully remote.

Sadly I've just split amicably from my partner who owned their home so need somewhere else to live. I'm currently staying with a friend. 

1) I'm concerned about if now is the right time to buy in a declining market. Rates have obviously gone up prices don't seem to have dropped. Is it better to rent, stay with the friend longer term or get on a buy? Rents in the area are equal to mortgage payments. My preference is to get on with it and find a home but I'm worried if there's a crash. 

2) Can anyone recommend a free whole of market broker - MSE says L&C (which don't seem to get great reviews), Habito which there are warnings about going under.

3) I've not yet changed my address for banks/card etc. I'm concerned if I'm looking for a mortgage it would impact my credit file - should I get on and swap it to somewhere like my parents or leave it were it is? 

theartfullodger

Talk to a couple of brokers, see what they suggest (as long as it's honest....)

MFWannabe

1) certain people have been predicting a crash for years. Personally I would say it depends what you want to do; if you want to buy your own property then buy ; as you said rents are the same as mortgage costs anyway. You will be in a good position to buy as you are a FTB and can move quickly. 

Look around at what properties are about and see if there is anything you like, I think that will help you make your mind up if you want to definitely buy now or not or wait until you find the property you really like 

If you try and time the market and put it off until a property crash you may be waiting quite some time; in that time you could have been paying off your mortgage 

Ref brokers; do you have any family or friends that could recommend one? 

ArbitraryRandom

cotea said:

1) I'm concerned about if now is the right time to buy in a declining market. Rates have obviously gone up prices don't seem to have dropped. Is it better to rent, stay with the friend longer term or get on a buy? Rents in the area are equal to mortgage payments. My preference is to get on with it and find a home but I'm worried if there's a crash. 

As a FTB, 4-6 months is a reasonable timescale for a purchase from where you are now. Only you can judge how your friend might feel about you staying for another 6-12 months (or longer if you are waiting for a crash and recovery).

You could get an AST for 6 months, then move onto periodic until you are ready to purchase; but again only you can judge if the local rental costs and other expenses from solo living will eat into your deposit or give you time to bump things up so you can put down 15-20% when you're ready to buy. 

If I were you, I'd be thinking realistically - looking at what you can afford in your target area with your current funds, are you planning on buying something and moving again within the next 5 or so years? Or are you planning on staying a good while until some life event prompts a move? 

The longer you stay in your house, the less relevant any current price movement actually is to you, because by the time you are ready to sell the market will have moved on taking your house with it. In the more immediate term, if it takes 6 months for you to complete your purchase, if anything dramatic happens to prices or rates between now and then you can renegotiate, or if that fails pull out before exchanging contracts with a loss equivalent to perhaps a couple of months rent. If you think rates are going to drop significantly in the next year or two then you don't have to take a 5 year fix... 

But if you are planning on selling and moving within the short term (2-4 years) then I'd suggest you bear in mind that you will lose your FTB stamp duty discount; lose your LISA bonus (though you can still pay in towards a lump sum at retirement); and, if there is a sustained dip in house prices, are risking not having the value of your house/equity offsetting the cost of buying/selling/moving, thus have a lower deposit than you have now.