r/Mortgageadviceuk

Hi all, I'm not super savvy when it comes to mortgage rates, obviously understand the basic principles, but by no means an expert.

I am due to remortgage in November. I'm looking to lock in a fixed rate, but not sure whether to lock in for 2 years and readdress the situation in 2028 (are we ancitipating things will be better by then?!) OR lock for 5 years at somewhere in the 4% region....

Thoughts from anyone with experience / expertise is welcomed!

Hello!

So I’m buying my first house and basically me and my partner have been sending my parents money for the last few years saving up for the deposit. They have now sent the money back so I can give proof of funds, however, I’m unsure how to proceed.

Do I state it’s a gifted deposit or would I advise of the proper circumstances?

My mortgage broker said to do gifted as otherwise they’ll have to go back and search for each payment we have made to them for it. I’m confused and unsure as my parents said to tell them the exact situation.

Thank you for your advice.

My 85-year-old mother plans to sell her house and move into a bungalow. She has a lifetime Scottish Widows interest-only mortgage, split into two parts – one being variable and the other fixed rate, with £177,000 outstanding in total. She will be porting this mortgage. Since I've only had repayment mortgages, I find hers confusing. We have a phone call scheduled next week, but I'd appreciate any explanations, so I have a better understanding prior to this. Her current home should sell for about £310,000, and the new property may cost a bit more. Also, if she decideds not to sell, would she be able to release any equity? Thanks in advance.

On Monday we had our mortgage approved after the lender valued the house so we’ve started doing solicitors forms.

The house is £325k, we are putting down £32.5k 10% and in November 2024 (so 18 months ago) my partner received £3k (to a current account that was then put into his LISA) from a grandparent which we didn’t declare on the mortgage application. Very naive on our part however we assumed “gifts” were more substantial sums a lot closer to the time of purchase however the solicitors have said it’s a gift and should have been declared to the lender on application.

Is this likely to screw up our already approved mortgage at all or just cause a tiny bit of admin?

Obvious answer is of course ask our mortgage advisor but they are off this afternoon so would appreciate Reddit (hopefully) putting our minds at ease until tomorrow morning!

Hey folks,

So silly pro active me submitted an application to nationwide this morning moving from our cushy 0.99% deal to 4.89%. I just read that Nationwide tomorrow are cutting their rates (more so for first time but right across the board). Do you know if I will be able to back out of my committment today? No product fee was paid and it isn't due to move until the 1st August.

I appreciate it could be just a small amount - but every little helps these days!

Thanks,

Chris

I have seen that mortgage payments first really only pay off the interest

So for example if I buy a house for say 100k pay 1k a month mortgage each month for 12 months then try and sell I will have tiny equity even though I have paid 12k into it?

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Hi all,

I have recently submitted a mortgage application to HSBC through my mortgage broker for a lovely two bedroom leasehold that I had an offer accepted on, however I heard from my broker today that it has been downvalued.

The downvaluation is 18k less than what my offer was, which is a real shame because it was a really nice place! The EA is pushing for a new lender application, which I don't think is worth the credit score search just for them to potentially say the same thing.

As a FTB, I did not even know this could happen, the property was originally listed for offers over 135k and I had the offer accepted at 138k. Moving forward from here, I don't know if it's worth just pulling out completely as I doubt they will drop it by 18k.

Has anyone been in similar situations?

Thanks for reading!!

EDIT:

The EA is now liaising with my advisor to appeal the valuation, but in my opinion, I don't see that changing anything. They've also asked me to try a different lender, which I don't think is a good idea as I now know that's its only worth 120K. Ultimately, I will need to go back and renegotiate.

My (37M) OH (45F) have an 8 year age gap and, because of this, we are being quoted (by an indepedent mortgage advisor) only a 23 year term up to her retirement age. I am 38 years old and according to my research, I should be able to get a mortgage term of 33 years.

My broker is adamant that we can only borrow based on my wife's age. Can anyone here verify this, or is there hope for me still? Ideally i'd like a 30 year mortgage as the monthly repayments on a 23 year are too high for my budget right now. I have generally been the primary earner and likely will do, with life insurance to cover should anything happy to me, so I feel comfortable with taking up a 30 year mortgage.

Hello, hoping for a bit of advice.

Situation as it stands is i have perfect credit, my partner not so much. Ive grafted to clear most of it up however theres still some markers from 2021, and some arrangement to pay back in 2025 which is settled.

Broker is offering a specialist rate of 5.8% on a 2 yesr fix. I feel that we should be able to get a mid tier rate of 5.1/5.3%. 85% ltv, im the higher earner earning double my partner and as i said above i have perfect credit as well, bar the one arrangement to pay her credit isnt even that bad.

Am i being delusional thinking we dont count as specialist? Or am i right to push back? Im on a relatively short deadline as its a new build but im tempted to go find a new broker, feels like im going to pay a 1k fee for someone to fight my corner to get the service i could have got from a no fee broker.

Any insight is welcome.

Hi, Just coming of a 5 year fix at a really good rate. Our options are a new 5 year fix, 2 year - or possibly 2 year tracker? Obviously it will cost a lot more whatever we choose, but the tracker is 50 quid a month less than the fixed

Just curious if anyone else is in the same boat and what decision you made?

I've just had an offer on a house accepted. The estate agents need the name of my solicitor before they issue memo of sale. But the solicitor I've chosen needs to know the lender I'm going with before they send me the client care pack.

Am I fine to let the EA know the solicitor's name before I've confirmed my lender, or do I need to submit a mortgage application first? And if so, do I need to wait for the mortgage to be approved before I tell the solicitor the name of the lender I'm using?

I am in the process of remortgaging with a decision in principle and a valuation visit tomorrow. I have been offered free legals or £500 cashback. I am also having to pay an ex off for transfer of equity so the house ends up in my sole name. I have approached a solicitor I have used before and they are quoting around £2k for the whole process? That seems a lot even if I would need to pay extra on top of the free legals? Opinions?

Hi again

We have found a property we love and now submitted an offer, our broker provided a DIP from HSBC and we submitted 3 months payslips and bank statements.

I have my salary paid in here and also save my money in LISA from this bank and it’s all visible. (2.7k per month salary paid and save around 1.5k per month in savings/Lisa)

I am worried about some cash transactions on there.

1. A cash deposit of £1400 - I won a large football accumulator off £20 and deposited this cash in the bank. I don’t like to bet online - this was over 2 months ago but scared they will question
2. Around £500 withdrew cash over the 3 months - £270 of this was cash taken for a holiday to exchange to euros and maybe £100 was for a night out as like to pay in cash to manage spending on the night, the rest is car washes, hungover chineses and maybe £80 used on bets.

Will this be scrutinised, I don’t have any debt and pay off my credit card in full each month. Ultimate worrier with all this!

I’m in a chain of 4 and just got this update from the agent:
The seller wants 3–4 weeks between exchange and completion. However, your buyer has said they can only exchange and complete on the same day due to their Islamic mortgage requirements. I will revert with further information shortly.
So basically:
Seller wants a normal gap between exchange and completion
One buyer in the chain apparently needs same-day exchange and completion
Agent is now “looking into it”
My questions:
Is this actually a normal thing in chains ?

Hello everyone, sorry for the long post. I have provided a bit of a background for more info.

We’re planning to sell our house and have been trying to work out what we could realistically borrow for our next purchase.

We’re planning to sell our current house and, after repaying the mortgage and covering all sale/purchase costs (EA, stamp duty on the next property, solicitors for selling and buying, mortgage penalty, and moving costs), we expect to have around £280k available as a deposit for our next home. Obviously, we are not FTB anymore.

Our combined PAYE income is approximately £79,100. We are both on Plan 2 student loans.

In addition, I receive an EU disability pension of about £700 per month (around £8,400 annually). Due to the tax treaty between my home country and the UK, this pension is taxable only in my home country, however pensions are not taxed there, so effectively it is tax-free at the moment. I’ve confirmed this with two companies specializing in international tax treaties and with the HMRC as well. Since I’m PAYE in the UK and do not complete Self Assessment, I have been told that there is no requirement for me to declare this income in the UK.

We have no debts, loans, credit cards, missed payments, defaults, or CCJs. I’ve checked both of our credit reports and everything is clean. Also, both of are British nationals as well.

Ideally, we are looking at properties around the £700k mark. Based on online affordability calculators, lenders such as Halifax, Lloyds Bank, NatWest, and Santander UK appear to offer borrowing up to around 5x–5.5x income in some cases.

I understand that may be stretching affordability somewhat, but we are only slightly short if borrowing is capped at 4.75x income. So I’m trying to understand:

1. Are there lenders that commonly offer 5x or x5.5 income multiples in cases like ours?
2. What conditions usually apply for higher income multiples (for example lower LTV, higher salaries, specific professions, etc.)? My partner is a key worker if that is relevant
3. Would any lenders potentially take my EU pension into account as additional income, given it’s regular and ongoing and therefore increasing the income for borrowing purposes (I would be able to supply all paperwork from the said country and get it verified, however I would not be able to show the self-assessments due to not being chargeable income in the UK) ?
4. How much do Plan 2 student loans typically affect affordability calculations?

As another option, both of our families have offered to cover all purchase/sale-related fees, which would save us roughly £40k and allow us to increase our deposit to bridge the gap,

Sorry for the long post.... I’m finding it quite difficult to understand how lenders decide when they offer higher multiples and what factors make the biggest difference. Any advice would be appreciated.

Good evening all,

Apologies if this post has been answered many times but myself and partner are looking for advice on where to start.

For a bit of context, both myself (28m) and my partner (29f) are looking to start the first steps in buying a property of our own. After having rented for the last 10 years, and our son growing up. We're looking at buying our forever home.

We have very little credit history which I can break down if needed. We're both on relatively okay wages with myself being on £41k per annum and my partner being on £14k per annum.

Im not really sure what information I need to provide but we are just really overwhelmed on where to begin. I assume we would need to contact a mortgage advisor to get the ball rolling but other than that we're relatively clueless.

Just looking for some guidance or helpful tips really.

Cheers for reading.

Hi all. My partner and I are FTBs looking to buy a property that's listed at offers over 475k. It's our dream house with a beautiful garden and driveway, and recently done up so no refurbishment cost etc.

Our rough take home per month is 6000, and with a 15% deposit, mortgage repayments would be just about 2000. With utilities and other basic costs (eg: fuel for commute to work, basic food costs, car loan about £310 and few small bits) I estimate we'd have roughly 1800 left for other spends + saving. This would include any 'wants' plus extra expenses (car service/repairs, yearly car insurance, indemnity fees etc). We're also saving up for a wedding fund for next year.

After deposit + stamp duty + other fees, we'll probably be left with roughly 10k in savings as emergency fund.

We could probably afford this but worried we might be stretching ourselves too thin. There's every possibility of a pay rise in a year's time for us, but would like opinions/different perspectives please. Thanks!

Hi everyone.

To set the scene, 5 years ago my wife and I were renting a shared two bed flat with a flatmate during covid. I was on circa 30k and she was on 28k ish salaries and about 40k in the bank between us. An inheritance, 2 job changes, some promotions, a house purchase and a wedding later we find ourselves in a predicament.

I'm on 77k salary before small bonuses (2-5k), my wife on 37k, we're 35 and 33 respectively. We've found a new build plot we like, we negotiated a price of 730k, with flooring, stamp duty, and 10k for our deposit included while they buy our house for 430k in part exchange (v fair value) so no agent fees. The house is energy efficient, we'd never need anything bigger, great location and great views.

We're looking at a 35yr 75LVT mortgage of 546k,with the rest in equity and will be left with 46k leftover with 30k of further inheritance due next year and mortgage payments between 2620-2740 a month. It's 41% of our take home (6500) currently though I'd like to add a bit more to my pension contributions, specially with my student loan due to clear in 4 years.

My question is, with the 41% of take home blowing 28/30% rule out the water and such high interest to pay, is this a stupid decision?

We plan to live in this house until retirement and then downsize and there's a question mark over having maximum 1 child in future. The alternative would be to stay where we are and let this opportunity pass us by, save and potentially move to something between what we have now and that house in 5 years time to be able to invest/retire earlier.

I can't tell if its my mentality holding me back because inflation / one more promotion will take care of the cash flow in the next few years and the mortgage payments will get easier or whether it really is stretching too far.

Thanks all, any thoughts are appreciated

My (29) partner (28) and I are first time buyers in the south east of England and wondering if we’re stretching ourselves too much.

Combined take-home pay is about £6,300/month (£3,400 + £2,900). I work in cyber security and my partner is a UX designer. We’re considering a 4 bed detached house at ~£575k with a ~£245k deposit, so the mortgage would be around £330k with payments of roughly £1,700/month for a 35 year, 3 year fixed rate mortgage.

We own our car outright, have no debt, and no kids yet (but would like 1–2 in the next 5 years).

What makes us unsure is that we’ve lived with parents while saving, so we haven’t really experienced full housing/living costs for a while. We’re worried we may be underestimating the true cost of bills, maintenance, childcare in future, etc.

Does this sound sensible for our income, or are we taking on too much for a forever home? Would appreciate anyone’s thoughts / experience from a similar situation

Looking to move in with my boyfriend. I’m 30, he’s 28. We’ve been together for a year, all going well etc. The complication being, that I own a one bed flat in London, whilst he rents a studio. Would really appreciate advice on which of the below is the best option:

⁃ he moves in with me. He doesn’t want to: it’s a bit too small to be comfortable, and he doesn’t like the idea of invading my space, rather than creating something that’s ours. I’m in agreement that this isn’t the right option.

⁃ I rent my flat out, and we rent a different flat together. My mortgage is currently £1,250. My guesstimate would be that my flat could rent for about £1,600. To get the kind of place we’d want to rent, we’d probably be paying £1,500 a month each. I suppose it’s whether the faff of me renting out my flat is worth it - aware you have to change your mortgage to buy to let, pay tax on any earnings etc. I would find an agency to manage the day to day of tenants.

⁃ Sell my flat and rent together. Having worked hard to get on the property ladder, this feels like a big backwards step. It would be nice to have the equity back from my flat, but equally I don’t think it’s the best time to sell, think I’d do well to get back what I paid for it in 2021.

⁃ Sell my flat and buy together. Feels like quite a big move having never lived together

Any thoughts that I haven’t considered/outside perspectives would be much appreciated.