I am on 23,000 and live on my own, and manage to rent (480 per month) and pay the bills quite comfortably. When i lookked into taking out a mortgage before i rented the sums wouldnt add up and would of ended up struggling.

Like other members have said it isnt just the bills you have to worry about, its your furniture and even maintenance and running of your cars, also the daft things you dont even think about, clothes , birthdays, christmas all things you need to take in to account.

In honesty you probably could just afford it, but thats all you'll be able to do. Not sure of your age, but your social life ie going out would very much diminish.

Sorry to sound negative but it is a huge step, and its the little things you dont tend to think about

if you dont buy now..... when are you?

It doesnt really get any easier unless you forsee a large wage rise coming... or winning the lottery etc

IF he can do it, DO IT. Thats why speaking to an advisor will help... they'll soon tell you what you can afford.

Get it fixed for long enough if their worried about rates going up. Can get 5yrs fixed rate.

There bringing in 24k a year together....thats plenty to get a small flat & pay the bills if your sensible about it. Ive been doing just that for 4 years and its helped me get the leg up to buy something bigger now I/we can afford it.

It's all well and good you lot telling him to just go and buy a house, but IMO it is very VERY silly to do so on such a LOW salary! How they fuck is he going to afford to pay his mortgage if/when the interest rates go up!

hardest thing to do is you gotta save mate, me and my mrs went without new clothes did'nt go out much cleared all our debts pretty much and sold mrs car also, was a shame but we got few grand for deposit and few grand to furnish it and mrs got her new astra gsi not long after moving in so going without dont last forever if you want it bad enough

We got offered up to 4.5x our joint salary, I think we only needed somewhere around 3x for the 80% LTV mortgage we took out.

i need a better job.

bloody depressing. hate being here.

also mate dont take bills literally, they change and there are alot of un-expected bills like things wearing out, if you buy expensive furniture you have to replace it.....

food is massively expensive, biggest shock to me and mrs we do 150quid monthly shop and then 25-30 midweek everyweek for milk/bread etc etc you do the maths

its just the fact that everything wears out....... carpets for instance dont last long before you see the usual traffic wear in common areas etc etc

diy costs a fair bit to do unless you cowboy and just paint damaged walls etc lol

but typically we have,

mortgage
life cover x2
mortgage protection
account charge
c/tax
electric
water
internet
phone
tv licence
astra insurance
corsa insurance
bike insurance
house insurance

list is endless lol

regarding interest rates dont get dragged into the whole they will go up so dont buy etc etc mine is fixed at 6.29% for 5 years so im missing out at the min, but lets face it when my deal finishes and lets say they go back upto 6-7% ill notice hardly any change in my repayments anyway it would have to hit 8-9-10 before id start to complain which i dont think it will


[Edited on 21-08-2009 by corsa120]

but the best bet at this stage would be to have a chat with an independant mortgage advisor. They'll soon tell you what you can and cant do.

If you have any debts remember they'll be factored in.

fuckit.... go for the max you can afford...

Can you maybe ask parents to become gaurantours? That may help....

Or bring in a 3rd party.

We chipped in to help buy a house we dont even live in... we'll just take some of the profit when its sold on.

Disagree regarding leaving it. I got a mortgage 4 years ago on a low income & have just sold it for 25k more than I paid, thus allowing me to put down 20% deposit for a new house whuch I otherwise wouldnt have been able to do if i'd waited.

Housing marketyts bottomed out now IMO, get buying before the start going back up.

It would be a really stupid move to get a mortgage whilst earning so little - if interest rates went up (which they WILL) they would be fucked and could face repossession! :lol:

Or buy a cheaper property?

Flat maybe?

If you work on the basis that the house you want to buy is £130k, a 90% LTV means that you would have to get a mortgage of £117k and provide a £13k deposit.

The problem is your low salaries. Using Halifax as an example, if you tried to get a joint mortgage on your £12k and £10k salaries and say each applicant spends £200/month on outgoings for argument's sake, you would only collectively be able to get a mortgage for £41k - as you can see this would only cover less than a third of the value of the house... :o

My advice: don't bother even thinking of getting a mortgage unless one of you is earning at least £25k/year (sorry I know it's not what you wanted to hear).

[Edited on 21-08-2009 by Sam]

As for Monthly Bills, and this is very rough off the top of my head

Mortgage (everyone's will be different) £719.00
Water £26 (£320 per year paid bi-annually)
Gas £30
Electric £30
Council Tax £105
Insurances £65
TV License £10

Just under £1000 a month without Food & Drink

92k and i would need a 10k deposit.

bugger thats not much, most ok places are at least 130k

There are a number of useful links in there

http://www.corsasport.co.uk/board/viewthread.php?tid=329364

I would also assume that currently you'd be lucky to get any mortgage for more than 3x your collective salary (before Tax) and they will almost certainly go no higher than 90% LTV - so you would need to find 10% deposit. Assuming the person earning £12k is on a £15k salary and the person earning £10k is on a £12.5k salary you colelctive would be £27,500; allowing borrowing of around £82,500.

Allowing for a £92,000 house, with you supplying 10% deposit. They may also want you to term over 30/40 years instead of 25

if 2 ppl have a income of about 12k after tax and 10k after tax

how much would they be able to get as morgauge for?

and how much roughly does it cost a month to run a house?
elec
water
rates??
etc etc