Low interest rates and mortgage advice please! ;o)

hyle

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Hi all, a newbie to the forum (and to mortgages!) so I hope this is the right place to post this (feel free to redirect me).
I am looking to buy a flat in the north (liverpool/manchester- probably liverpool as it's much cheaper)
It'd be a new build as there's loads of wonderful new places in progress (new chinatown, pall mall etc).
So it'd be about £100-125k max.
I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts/general advice. Interest rates are insanely low, but as the properties still have a i year- year and a half to be completed and brexit there's that risk. And i haven't quite got the deposit but am fairly close.
I was wondering what general thoughts/advice people had about:

getting a mortgage in general
the current low rates
property market
new builds

Thanks so much! ;D
 

Jon

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hyle said:
Hi all, a newbie to the forum (and to mortgages!) so I hope this is the right place to post this (feel free to redirect me).
I am looking to buy a flat in the north (liverpool/manchester- probably liverpool as it's much cheaper)
It'd be a new build as there's loads of wonderful new places in progress (new chinatown, pall mall etc).
So it'd be about £100-125k max.
I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts/general advice. Interest rates are insanely low, but as the properties still have a i year- year and a half to be completed and brexit there's that risk. And i haven't quite got the deposit but am fairly close.
I was wondering what general thoughts/advice people had about:

getting a mortgage in general
the current low rates
property market
new builds

Thanks so much! ;D

Hey [member=4272]hyle[/member]

Getting a mortgage is honestly easy. We went through a mortgage broker who found us a deal for how much we wanted to borrow (yes I know the broker got a kickback but we don't care TBH)

We had a large deposit and only needed a £80k mortgage

We were asked to provide our payslips for the past 6 months I think but that's about it

We got mortgage in principal

We put offer in on house

mortgage went through and then we sorted out an exchange and competition date

It's not rocket science really. Just don't get a giant mortgage if you can't afford the repayments. Ours are £440 a month and well we were paying £600 a month in rent before we moved in!!

Yes the rates are very low and they probably will only go in one direction which is upwards so I would grab the deals while you can!!

Property market is what it is, no one can say what is going to happen next month or year but I wouldn't let that stop me from buying a house.

New Builds - I've always wanted one, everything is under warranty!!!

The only other thing you haven't mentioned is the money you can make from your property

We bought our 3 bedroom + garage end terrace in a very nice part of Leeds for £129k 7 years ago and we had it valued by two estate agents the other week and it's now worth £175k...

Quite a rate of return!!!
 

RickyRaj

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With rates this low you would be missing out if you didn't buy. Property is generally a good investment if the location is right. With new builds make sure to get it 'snagged' - checked for things that aren't quite right or not working.

I have a flat in Glasgow which is managed for me by a local letting agent up there. I bought it in 2004 but it hasn't gone up much in value however it has been a good rental property. Since coming off a fixed interest rate a few years ago my mortgage on it has remained on variable and with the rates lowering my repayments come down.
 

katykicker

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With new builds everything is under warranty, like Jon said, but doesn't necessarily mean they'll come out and sort it.

Here is a list of the problems we've had with our Barratt home so far:

Moved in 2010, was brand new, no-one had lived here before.

On our third boiler now
Our balcony bars weren't fixed on properly
Bedroom window fell in one day and broke my wrist
Had two sets of bathroom sink taps, one set of kitchen taps, one set of bathroom taps (new sets I mean, on top of the ones that were here when we moved in)
Had new wiring under the sink
Had no water on more than 20 occasions because the pump in our building is faulty. No pump = no water to any of the flats
The pipe underneath the bath (where the water drains away) has been replaced 3 times
A random shard of metal appeared through our hall floor a few weeks after we moved in
The ceiling in every single room has lots of little circle shapes that have cracked the paint off in places (this one is apparently a 'snagging' issue but they don't care)
Our wiring needed work, on more than one occasion, as at one point our electric was tripping off regularly, every 15 minutes, and it was some sort of fault with the building
No lights in our hallway, not even emergency lighting - not good when you're on the top floor
No working plugsockets in the outside hall (numerous times - meaning the cleaner who we pay disgusting amounts for can't hoover)

For six whole months there was a window in the ceiling that was stuck open because the arm broke on it. This was meant to be a safety feature, to help keep the hallways clear of smoke if there was a fire, to allow you to get out safely, and eventually I had to get environmental health involved. During the six month period it snowed, rained and there were storms. The carpets were ruined and they just took another year to replace that.

None of this is caused by the usual movement, for that we've had cracking all the way down the edges of our living room/kitchen (where the tape they've used has blown), and on the rare occasion they have come to fix something like this they've put this weird paint there, to stop staining and further problems, and then they can't even tell us what colour the paint was :D

And the biggest one...

The ceiling came in! I reported that there was a water mark a few weeks after we moved in, was told they wouldn't come unless it was leaky.


I think I've covered *most* things. Our estate is a shambles. One of the buildings we overlook part of the outside has just crumbled away and I see little bits of dust coming off in the wind. When it is windy I see our neighbours fence panels blow away, guttering coming off and even once I spotted the roof peeling off the building opposite us. They had months of scaffolding up before the repairs were completed.

There are definitely more issues I'm forgetting but these are the big ones.

IF you want to go new build be prepared to definitely not decorate for a minimum of 18-24 months, as that is best to save yourself the stress of constantly re-decorating and be realistic that there will be issues. Some of our smaller issues I've left out are just caused by settling and these are to be expected, however, the above have been a nightmare.

Thankfully a year or so ago our building was finally handed over to our housing association (we rent - praise the Lord hahahahaha) and they've been getting their sh!t together.

Next year we will move to a council house and buy that instead. Then we've just gotta deal with all the problems ourselves ;)
 

Twiggy

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[member=920]katykicker[/member] You don't need to answer this as it is a personal question, but how can you get a council house when you have such a high household income? Me and my husband are on a low household income (no benefits) and we would need our name down for about 7-8 years before even getting a sniff. I would love a council house, not to buy and then sell for a profit, but to actually live in with peace of mind that the rent is likely to stay affordable.

(BTW, I am against selling off social housing to people who can afford to buy somewhere else, which is what the government seem to be doing :-X

I don't want this to come across the wrong way though, just genuinely interested when I hear about people in good jobs getting a place, when I have tried many times and got nowhere.
 

Twiggy

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[member=4272]hyle[/member] I've heard many people say over the years, there is never a good or bad time to buy a home - that is if you plan on living in it. It's a different story if you plan on buying to sell in the short term for a profit. Just factor in the amount of money you will be paying if/when interest rates rise.
 

katykicker

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Twiggy said:
[member=920]katykicker[/member] You don't need to answer this as it is a personal question, but how can you get a council house when you have such a high household income? Me and my husband are on a low household income (no benefits) and we would need our name down for about 7-8 years before even getting a sniff. I would love a council house, not to buy and then sell for a profit, but to actually live in with peace of mind that the rent is likely to stay affordable.

(BTW, I am against selling off social housing to people who can afford to buy somewhere else, which is what the government seem to be doing :-X

I don't want this to come across the wrong way though, just genuinely interested when I hear about people in good jobs getting a place, when I have tried many times and got nowhere.

I live in a one bedroom flat, I received it when I was sleeping on sofas and living in room shares, for 4 years. Despite being classified as homeless it still took 4 years for me to get this flat. I was told unless I was pregnant, living in the park or fresh out of prison I'd not get any help. Because our flat is on the 3rd floor, obviously when I was offered it I wasn't thinking about how I'd manage a baby and a partially disabled body up 48 stairs, with no lift, we are allowed to be in the 2nd band, of 4 (running 1-4), meaning we should have a 2 bedroom house within 12-24 months.

When we moved here I had debt from a previous relationship and someone kindly using my name to the tune of many £1000s and an issue with proving whether it was me or not as it took so long to be picked up (obviously because I'd moved).

If we were living in a privately rented flat then obviously we wouldn't get so much help, but when we moved here our circumstances were different. Like yourselves we would be waiting years, in our case 20+ years in our town, just to get a potential chance to rent a council/HA place.

Our local council has a very strict policy with regards to personal savings, individual income and how long you have lived here, whether you work here and whether you have other local connections. When we re-applied, for a bigger place, we met all of these criteria (they want 5 years bank statements just for a start..!).

I'm not sure if you're under the impression I'm looking to buy and sell for a profit, I'm not. Like yourself I'm looking to achieve some sort of reassurance for my family. The property I live in now isn't actually cheap. It is a housing association and in the 6 years I have lived here the rent has gone up almost 50%, which until around 18 months ago meant that we had to go without a lot, had to scrimp by buying cheap food and my husband had to work overtime to keep up with everything. I know people privately renting who've not had increases for several years and yet ours has only just been capped by the government. Also, you can't sell a council house for at least five years after you buy it, or you have to give back 80,60,40,20% of your discount depending on when you sell.

Also, as to your comment against selling off social housing I can't afford to buy somewhere else. A 2 bedroom property, an old one not a flash new build, is around 5-6x our declarable income, as my husband has a good salary, most of the time, but his hours are regularly cut back to his contract, which is a difference of more than £10,000 a year alone. We have some money for a deposit, however, in the time we've been saving the prices of properties have gone up more than £30,000. By moving to a council place we will have cheaper rent, allowing us to save more for a deposit, and we will also get a discount because of the length of time we have lived in this property. We will be able to get around £80,000 as a discount and this difference means we could secure a mortgage.

I'm sorry to hear that you can't anywhere with your council but my situation was dire when I got this place, so I definitely deserved it. When I moved in for a good year or two we barely even had furniture ;D

I've worked hard in the last 18-24 months and have turned our financial situation around, this means we now have savings and can have nice things and life is good but also just to give you a little insight into what I don't disclose online I'll send you a PM :) Might make it a bit easier to understand why I have the monies and can't buy a house (yet).
 

Twiggy

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[member=920]katykicker[/member] the selling at a profit thing was not aimed personally at you, it is government thing I really disagree with.

I feel like I've been cheeky asking, you did not need to give me so much personal info, the trials and tribulations of social housing is a personal bug bear of mine. I guess you just make a judgement about people when you read bits about their lives online, hope I didn't offend you. I did find it interesting what you say about criteria about income and savings and so on, I don't really know about all that and what is taken into account, and I suppose it differs from local authority to local authority.

Thanks for the PM, I'll reply.
 

katykicker

I am a work from home Mum from Essex.
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Twiggy said:
[member=920]katykicker[/member] the selling at a profit thing was not aimed personally at you, it is government thing I really disagree with.

I feel like I've been cheeky asking, you did not need to give me so much personal info, the trials and tribulations of social housing is a personal bug bear of mine. I guess you just make a judgement about people when you read bits about their lives online, hope I didn't offend you. I did find it interesting what you say about criteria about income and savings and so on, I don't really know about all that and what is taken into account, and I suppose it differs from local authority to local authority.

Thanks for the PM, I'll reply.

It's alright, I only gave so much information as I assumed you weren't trying to be mean I'm quite open and honest, to a point, but obviously the stuff I sent in a PM I don't usually share everywhere.

I think the criteria in our local council is a single income or total savings of £50,000 why I hope to go over that eventually on taxable work it isn't just yet, also it doesn't apply to existing social housing tenants. So basically I'm in luck because I joined all those years ago, and now they reward me with letting me buy a discounted house. I think the cap is £77,900 or something. Although I don't think we'd get as much as that, just depends on the valuation I guess. We are going for older council places just because we know they are worth less and more chance of a sensible mortgage
 

Twiggy

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I replied to your PM, but I don't know if it sent or not ::)

I've been writing for a lot of letting agents, and find the whole debate about housing interesting.
 

katykicker

I am a work from home Mum from Essex.
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Twiggy said:
I replied to your PM, but I don't know if it sent or not ::)

I've been writing for a lot of letting agents, and find the whole debate about housing interesting.

I've seen it and replied :)

I have a friend who, in the time we've saved some deposit money, has made over £200,000 on property. Makes me a bit sick with jealousy sometimes :D
 

hyle

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Jon said:
hyle said:
Hi all, a newbie to the forum (and to mortgages!) so I hope this is the right place to post this (feel free to redirect me).
I am looking to buy a flat in the north (liverpool/manchester- probably liverpool as it's much cheaper)
It'd be a new build as there's loads of wonderful new places in progress (new chinatown, pall mall etc).
So it'd be about £100-125k max.
I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts/general advice. Interest rates are insanely low, but as the properties still have a i year- year and a half to be completed and brexit there's that risk. And i haven't quite got the deposit but am fairly close.
I was wondering what general thoughts/advice people had about:

getting a mortgage in general
the current low rates
property market
new builds

Thanks so much! ;D

Hey [member=4272]hyle[/member]

Getting a mortgage is honestly easy. We went through a mortgage broker who found us a deal for how much we wanted to borrow (yes I know the broker got a kickback but we don't care TBH)

We had a large deposit and only needed a £80k mortgage

We were asked to provide our payslips for the past 6 months I think but that's about it

We got mortgage in principal

We put offer in on house

mortgage went through and then we sorted out an exchange and competition date

It's not rocket science really. Just don't get a giant mortgage if you can't afford the repayments. Ours are £440 a month and well we were paying £600 a month in rent before we moved in!!

Yes the rates are very low and they probably will only go in one direction which is upwards so I would grab the deals while you can!!

Property market is what it is, no one can say what is going to happen next month or year but I wouldn't let that stop me from buying a house.

New Builds - I've always wanted one, everything is under warranty!!!

The only other thing you haven't mentioned is the money you can make from your property

We bought our 3 bedroom + garage end terrace in a very nice part of Leeds for £129k 7 years ago and we had it valued by two estate agents the other week and it's now worth £175k...

Quite a rate of return!!!

THANKS so much! You make it sound so easy (which I guess it can be ha).
As a newbie to it all, it is a teeny bit scary! But i'm not going to rush and i've still got until next year and maybe more to plan accordingly
The properties look lovely and infinitely cheaper than london!
they're by north point global liverpool (not sure if i can post links) either the new chinatown or pall mall.

I guess i haven't given it too much thought about the money as i think l'pool is a slower growth area whereas somewhere like manchester, the prices have already risen quite a lot in the past few years.

thanks, will let you know how i get on when i decide!
Any other tips in the meantime feel free to share! ;D
 

hyle

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Thanks everyone, really nice to have the support and thoughts of you all!
 

RickyRaj

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With the interest rate increase early this year I recently fixed my buy-to-let mortgage on my flat to 3 years @3.49% and also changed it to repayment from interest only.
 
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