Stepping off the property ladder temporarily

Hello,

My wife and I live in the East Midlands and we want to move to Sheffield. We don't have a job there yet but as a nurse, I'm not too worried about that. My wife does not yet have a job there and we expect she may have to drop her income by about £10,000 to around £22,000. This means we would have a joint income of around £45,000.

We currently own a house which is worth about £25,000 more than we paid for it and all in all, if we sell for that value, we should have about £55,000 in cash.

Here is my question. We are terrible at organising things and the thought of having to organise selling the house, both finding new jobs and a new place to live, all at the same time, terrifying.
So we thought we'd sell our house first and rent where we live now whilst looking for new jobs up in Sheffield. This would leave us free to move quickly into rented housing in Sheffield once we find jobs. And then, once there, we start looking for a house to buy. We are thinking that all of this should take a year or so and this would be financially affordable.

Is this a bad idea, stepping g off the housing ladder? Would we struggle to get a new mortgage? Assuming my wife will have a new job by the time we'd apply?

Comments

  • AnotherJoe
    AnotherJoe Posts: 19,622 Forumite
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    I'd say it's very good idea. And not uncommon.
  • davidmcn
    davidmcn Posts: 23,596 Forumite
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    Is this a bad idea, stepping off the housing ladder? Would we struggle to get a new mortgage?
    As far as I'm aware, lenders will only be interested in whether you have a record of servicing a mortgage successfully - they won't care whether you currently have a mortgage or have already paid it off.
  • AnotherJoe
    AnotherJoe Posts: 19,622 Forumite
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    p.s. many lenders wont lend if you would be more than a commutable distance away from where you currently live either, so it might make it easier to get one rather than more difficult.
  • I did this. Some advantages - renting in the area allowed me to get to know it before buying, being a chain free buyer meant my offer was preferred by the vendor.
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