Impact of son at uni on mortgage renewal

EdithSitwell

Hi,
My son starts uni next month & in December I can apply for my next fix on our mortgage. Anyone know if financial support for kids at uni is seen differently by lenders than cost of having them at home? For his rent, we could pay his first year up front and therefore he would not need a guarantor nor would termly payments need to be declared on my outgoings. Would that help in the context of a mortgage application? Our LTV is below 40% and we want to secure the lowest fix possible probably for five years.

Thanks in advance 

BarelySentientAI

If you're taking a new product with the same lender then nobody will care.

<60% LTV is usually the best rates anyway, they don't really get better lower than that.

MattMattMattUK

EdithSitwell said:

Hi,
My son starts uni next month & in December I can apply for my next fix on our mortgage. Anyone know if financial support for kids at uni is seen differently by lenders than cost of having them at home? For his rent, we could pay his first year up front and therefore he would not need a guarantor nor would termly payments need to be declared on my outgoings. Would that help in the context of a mortgage application? Our LTV is below 40% and we want to secure the lowest fix possible probably for five years.

Thanks in advance 

Are you applying for a new mortgage or going to accept one of the roll on offers from your existing lender? If the former then it might have an impact, it depends on the lender, if the latter then it will make no difference at all.

It may depend on your specific circumstances but as it stands five year deals seem like a much worse bet at the moment than two year deals. 

kingstreet

Remortgage (new mortgage with new lender) = full status and cost declarable for affordability.

Rate switch/product transfer with existing lender - no disclosure necessary.

EdithSitwell

Thanks all. I'll take the lowest rate available, switching lenders if necessary. I'm open to a 2 year fix, that's what we have right now, but either way I want to be aware of the impact of supporting a uni student (then potentially our second son too from 2026 onwards).

silvercar

Your son going to uni should get a student maintenance loan, 90% of UK students do take the loan. Also, most students live at home or in halls in their first year, so you won’t need to act as guarantor in the first year and hall fees are timed to coincide with student maintenance loan payments. You’ll probably need to help your son out, either because he won’t get a full loan or because the full loan isn’t enough to live on in most university towns. 

kingstreet

silvercar said:

Your son going to uni should get a student maintenance loan, 90% of UK students do take the loan. Also, most students live at home or in halls in their first year, so you won’t need to act as guarantor in the first year and hall fees are timed to coincide with student maintenance loan payments. You’ll probably need to help your son out, either because he won’t get a full loan or because the full loan isn’t enough to live on in most university towns. 

Yep. We ended up shelling out about £7-8k a year while our daughter was at MMU.