First time buyers - opinions needed

ruggedtoast

samihostan wrote: »

oh come on. get a grip! of course that should buy. you always get your money back when you are on a mortgage.

buying house should be the first priority.

sami hostan

Thats right, mortgages are just the gift that keeps on giving arent they.

narced

mouche wrote: »

2) In your opinion should we buy now or wait till we've saved a bit more?

Wait and rent until the market becomes clearer. For your own sakes, do not buy now, you will regret it if you do.

carolt

Don't buy - sounds like you've saved hard for your deposit and it would be such a shame to see it all go down the plughole in a few months as the price of your property falls. Just a 5% fall would wipe out all your existing equity - more would put you in negative equity and make you unable to sell up and move if you so wished in a few years' time. All serious commentators are expecting falls over the next few months - the International Monetary Fund stated a couple of months back that UK prices were 40% overvalued. So if you haven't got loads of existing equity to cushion you, there is no point in risking it. When prices do fall, you'll be in an excellent position to buy. The UK experienced a housing crash in the early 90's and another is expected imminently.

Some people do have kids in flats in London but few would choose it - it's far from ideal. When I had kids, we moved out of London to commuterland, where houses ARE available for the prices of London flats (and schools/quality of life are better too).

Right now, don't buy, rent - those same flats you can buy for £1500 per month in London can be rented for about £1000 - if you want to live in London now, rent and bank the extra £500 per month now, for when you have kids.

That said, I would take out your mortgage and buy just before you have a family, as if you do stop work or have a reduced income it will reduce your the range of mortgages available to you and stop you getting the best rates - obviously you don't want to overstretch yourself anyway, but even if you feel comfortable on say a 4X income multiple for a few years while your child/ren are young, mortgage lenders will be happier to lend to you if it looks like a 3X multiple, if you get what I mean.

You can usually change to interest only, but as stated above, you need to check that out first. Hopefully, if prices fall far/fast enough in the meantime, or you decide you'd like some country air, then you won't need to borrow that much anyway....

$$$_12

narced wrote: »

Wait and rent until the market becomes clearer. For your own sakes, do not buy now, you will regret it if you do.

I'm in a similar position to OP (bit higher joint income - considerably more saved - no debts also). A mortgage of £200-250K would bother me enormously - particularly if you are planning a little one soonish (unless your income is a tiny fraction of OH's and they are expecting sizable salary increases in the next few years).

So I agree with narced - wait and see (and with a bit of luck - staying out for a few months will help make the correction a reality - Every little helps).

RMP_2

Sorry to hijack this discussion but where could I get a lovely house and garden 30 mins from London for £250k?

Cheers,

Bradford!

30 mins "flying":rolleyes: though

mouche

Thank you everyone for your advice. Husband and I have decided to hold off buying for a few months and monitor house prices around us. Though I don't think they will fall significantly, I dont think they will rise either so might as well save up a bit more before taking the plunge.

Unfortunately living outside London and commuting is not an option for us as my husband is a chef and works odd hours so we need to be within a distance that taxi fare from Cental London is not prohibitive. Also the last tube is at a later time than most train services.

We're renting one of those £1000 flats right now and we're fairly happy with it so buying a flat is not the end of the world for us. Hopefully by the time we have a child old enough to play outside, we'll be able to afford a house.

Thanks for all your advice. We really appreciate it.

PasturesNew

mouche wrote: »

my husband is a chef and works odd hours so we need to be within a distance that taxi fare from Cental London is not prohibitive. Also the last tube is at a later time than most train services.

Get a scooter. It's good enough for Jamie Oliver!

mouche

Hehe...nice idea except that if we did that and bought a house in say Peterborough (about 30 mins from Central London by train), I wouldn't fancy his chances of surviving a scooter ride from Central London to Peterborough at midnight (which is when he usually finishes work). And even if he did make it home in one piece, what time would he need to start his scooter ride the next morning to get to work by 8 am?

scrummy_mummy_2

mouche wrote: »

Hehe...nice idea except that if we did that and bought a house in say Peterborough (about 30 mins from Central London by train), I wouldn't fancy his chances of surviving a scooter ride from Central London to Peterborough at midnight (which is when he usually finishes work). And even if he did make it home in one piece, what time would he need to start his scooter ride the next morning to get to work by 8 am?

They have chefs in Peterborough too you know....perhaps you should relocate? It is only 40 minutes into central London from P'Boro so if you need to see family, just commute back to see them occassionally rather than commute to work daily. I'm from just outside Peterborough and moved to Berkshire 12 years ago....I still go home every 6 weeks or so with 3 kids.

Also, trust me, your life will change in ways you cannot imagine now once you have children....whatever you do, take decisions now that will give you OPTIONS in the future. The more options you have, the better.
On the mortgage front, why don't you take out an ISA and begin to pay money into it now. The fund will perform and grow your 'savings' and will give you a heads up start as the savings vehicle necessary to enable you to get an interest only mortgage when the time comes to buy.
Try www.fool.co.uk for best buy ISA's.

gingin_2

mouche wrote: »

Hehe...nice idea except that if we did that and bought a house in say Peterborough (about 30 mins from Central London by train), I wouldn't fancy his chances of surviving a scooter ride from Central London to Peterborough at midnight (which is when he usually finishes work). And even if he did make it home in one piece, what time would he need to start his scooter ride the next morning to get to work by 8 am?

Hi Mouche

Just offering friendly advice as you say you have only been in the country 2 years. We don't live too far from Peterborough, in Cambridge and my husband commutes into London. The commute takes him 3 1/2 hours a day door to door and costs us, thanks to increased rail fares (theiving b******S) around £500 pcm , my husband stays in London 1 or 2 nights a week as he also works long hours and can't really function at work without being able to do so..

Peterborough is a loooong way away from London and the commute would take even longer if he was returning at 12am. If you are paying out 1500 on a mortgage plus all travelling expenses and wanted to take time out from work to have a baby you would be financially stretched and probably a little lonely with him away for so much of the day.

I can see you are going to wait a little before buying which I think is sensible, just wanted to try and offer some advice.

Good Luck !