any reason to consider 2 bedroom flat over 1 bed house?

Blackjack_Davy

House over flat and freehold over leasehold every time - leasehold is a licence to print money for the freehold/management agents and you have no say over what they charge you unless you can get together en masse with other leaseholders and then its usually a costly legal  battle. First Port have basically doubled the service charge here for the first 3 months next year to close on £500 and that doesn't include ground rent

MFWannabe

MFWannabe said:

Any update OP?

No comment from OP so I’m guessing indecisiveness has got the better of you again? 

OP Life really is too short, it’s not a dress rehearsal, you’re in a great position and you need to stop overthinking everything 

tiger135

Thanks happy to update. missed out on one of them, the garden one is still available plus another one a mile or so away in a new area i haveny checked out. 
There is also one for rent at 900 , i am wondering whether to rent in the area before buying. The lettings agent said sales can take 6 months whereas to let I could be in within weeks. 

MultiFuelBurner

And back to indecisive square one.

Merry Christmas Tiger but realistically you are no further forward.

tiger135

Merry christmas to you also. Do you see any benefit to renting for 900 pcm which is affordable within my wages and gives me time to be sure what to buy, and lets me move in quicker? My house money would sit there gathering interest. 
Or is that a bad idea? 

Herzlos

How long is the tennancy for?

You're going to save a lot of money just buying now instead of renting then buying. So if you can wait a few months before moving I'd go down the buying route.

MFWannabe

tiger135 said:

Merry christmas to you also. Do you see any benefit to renting for 900 pcm which is affordable within my wages and gives me time to be sure what to buy, and lets me move in quicker? My house money would sit there gathering interest. 
Or is that a bad idea? 

What benefit would there be? You know the areas you want to live in! 

Any rental property would be min 6 months tenancy = £5400 you’ve spent for what? 

You’re currently living at parents so not much outgoings so that £5400 could be sitting in the bank earning interest while your house purchase is going through 

tiger135

true i have pretty much decided on the area! 
with 5% interest on savings i am earning 833 a month so that pays a lot of the rent. i know its taxable tho im already paying more tax on my payslip due to past interest. any more pros and cons of buying/ renting and keeping money in savings?

Herzlos

tiger135 said:

any more pros and cons of buying/ renting and keeping money in savings?

What rates are you going to get on a mortgage? Since it's likely to be over 5% it's almost certainly better to take a smaller mortgage with a bigger deposit than keeping a huge amount of savings. The exception is if you can find an offset mortgage, where you have a mortgage and savings account with the same bank, and your savings account is deducted from the mortgage balance when calculating interest so you're paying less but still have the savings if you need them.

Of course you still want to keep something in savings for rainy days.

Given that £833/month @ 5% is about £200k, you're not quite able to buy the house outright and likely to hit the minimum mortgage levels (between £25-50k with most lenders), so you probably want to keep maybe £50k in savings and then put the rest towards the house.

tiger135

i have just about enough to buy outright at 215 , 200 is in a defined access account and 17 is in a lower paying account with no restrictions