Buying a house
Mar. 9th, 2004 01:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ciphergothI've decided to buy a house. Somewhere on the southern end of the Northern line, with two double bedrooms and gas central heating.
Flood me with advice!
For "house", read "living accommodation of some sort", by the way; in Edinburgh I'd write "flat" without thinking.
I was going to rent, so that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
spikeylady could get out of her Wimbledon place and to make sure we can live together happily before buying. But she is now moving in with ergotia and lilithmagna, so we're in no rush; and the mortgage payments would be something I could afford by myself if need be, so in the unlikely event that we can't live together happily it won't be a disaster. And it seems wisest to get out of paying rent to someone else and start paying it to myself as soon as possible. Plus it means we can choose our own fridge and suchlike - I really enjoyed that flexibility when we lived in Mir.
To forestall some advice:
Flood me with advice!
For "house", read "living accommodation of some sort", by the way; in Edinburgh I'd write "flat" without thinking.
I was going to rent, so that
spikeylady could get out of her Wimbledon place and to make sure we can live together happily before buying. But she is now moving in with ergotia and lilithmagna, so we're in no rush; and the mortgage payments would be something I could afford by myself if need be, so in the unlikely event that we can't live together happily it won't be a disaster. And it seems wisest to get out of paying rent to someone else and start paying it to myself as soon as possible. Plus it means we can choose our own fridge and suchlike - I really enjoyed that flexibility when we lived in Mir.To forestall some advice:
- Yes, I'll go to a FIMBRA-regulated financial adviser
- Yes, I'll get a capital-and-interest repayment mortgage, not an endowment or interest-only
no subject
Date: 2004-03-09 07:17 am (UTC)Apparently around a quarter of mortgages being taken out are for 'buy to let' properties.
So, yes, it's quite possible it will pay to rent until the landlords go 'eeek' at supply being greater than demand and trying to sell.
But we could be wrong and you'll end up having to pay £50k more, as well as having paid rent for a year. I do suspect the current insane London property values won't crash unless interest rates rise dramatically. If they do, the crash will be very severe.
And when you do... sod the adviser, do the research yourself online, decide what level of risk you want to take (long-term fixed rate or short-term cheap deal, switching every couple of years) and save a small fortune in commission.