Buying First House Questions

Financial Chat
1

Hi Guys,

Few questions about Buying your First House that I would really like to understand from a range of people. Please answer as many as you can but also if you do not want to answer certain ones then please skip over. Thank you so much in advance!

  1. What was the cost of your first home?
  2. Was it a new build?
  3. What was your deposit?
  4. How long did it take you to save?
  5. What is your monthly mortgage rate?
  6. What was your salary at the time? (please don’t feel obliged to answer)

I have not really got many people to ask these questions so I thought I would come to the wonderful community at Monzo :slight_smile:

Much appreciated!

3 Likes
2

I can’t really answer all of your questions as we’ve only got as far as having our offer accepted on our first home – but I did want to say that I am absolutely losing my mind already.

2 Likes
3

£163k

I work in construction and would never buy new from the vast majority of housebuilders. So no, it was 100 years old.

35k

Ten years

1.85% / 670 p/m

Wasn’t super great - Around 48k for both of us.

2 Likes
4

It gets so much better once all the crap is out of the way.

2 Likes
5

1. What was the cost of your first home?
£115k
2. Was it a new build?
Yes
3. What was your deposit?
£8k + 20% on the government help to buy scheme
4. How long did it take you to save?
2 years
5. What is your monthly mortgage rate?
I can’t remember the rate but payment was ~£315 pm

6

£62500 in 2004

No

0% (in fact I took one of those 105% mortgages to cover all my costs)
Note: This was a really bad idea.

see above. no savings

When I bought the house: 5.6% variable
Now; 0.79% APR (tracks Bank of England Base Rate)
Current repayment ~£500/mo

So long ago I can’t recall but I think it around £17000/year.

Not sure any of my answers will help you, but the things I learnt from buying, re-mortgaging and owning a house.

  1. Things take longer than you expect. Be patient
  2. Don’t miss deadlines. Put them in your calendars, diaries and make sure you do what you need to in good time.
  3. Saving before you buy is much easier than overpaying on a mortgage once you have
  4. whatever you estimate your bills will be; they will be higher. Houes break and need repairing. Budget for it.
  5. The length of your mortgage has a much greater impact on your total repayment (and speed of building equity) than the interest rate.

Hope the above is helpful.

David

3 Likes
7

Thanks David, really useful!

8

1. What was the cost of your first home?
£200,000

2. Was it a new build?
Yes.

3. What was your deposit?
£10,000 from me + 20% Help to Buy

4. How long did it take you to save?
1 Year or so

5. What is your monthly mortgage rate?
Currently pay £500/month + 1.89%

6. What was your salary at the time? (please don’t feel obliged to answer)
When I bought it was about £44k

9

Cost - £140k
New? - No
Deposit - £14k
How long to save? - Around 3 years
Monthly mortgage - To start £600, now £350
Salary - £35k (combined)

10

1. What was the cost of your first home?
2. Was it a new build?
£320,000 for new build 2 bed flat in Barking. We did shared ownership, so £144,000 for a 45% share

3. What was your deposit?
£15,000

4. How long did it take you to save?
I had been saving slowly for 3 yearsish, topped up with inheritance from a grandparent.

5. What is your monthly mortgage rate?
We were very restricted to who we could get a mortgage with. My partner had just changed jobs so couldn’t provide enough payslips on her new salary. So we’re currently stuck on a 2 year fixed rate with Halifax at 3.15%.

6. What was your salary at the time?
Me and my partner both earn just slightly over 30k

1 Like
11

As someone looking to buy soon, this is really useful information

5 Likes
13

Cost: 250,000
New build: yes
Deposit: £13,500 + 20% help to buy
How long: Gifted by my dad
Monthly mortgage: £750 pm (2.23% - Nationwide 2 year fix)
Salary: £32k + £19k (other half)

14

First mortgage done this month with Halifax

What was the cost of your first home? £180,000
Was it a new build? No
What was your deposit? £18,000
How long did it take you to save? Gifted
What is your monthly mortgage rate? £700
What was your salary at the time? (please don’t feel obliged to answer) £27k + £16k

15

If you don’t mind answering, what is it you’ve seen/know of that would prevent you from buying new?

3 Likes
16

Its a race to the bottom.

The cheapest materials, the cheapest labour resulting in the poorest workmanship, houses thrown up as fast as you can, to be sold for the biggest profit.

I could tell and show you horror stories, three tonne beams with less then an inch bearing about to hold 4 tons of roof and eventually people.

Cutting costs on mortar (which is already the cheapest part of building) leading to catastrophic failure in brickwork across a full site.

Cutting and notching stuff that shouldn’t be cut, stuff that is imperative stays where it is.

Smashing all of the supports out of a roof or floor joist to avoid having to move a pipe 100mm to the left.

Not allowing measuring time, meaning nothing ever fits properly.

A general poor standard of finish.

(Just things I’ve seen in the last two weeks.)

Don’t get me wrong, there are good major housebuilders out there…I just couldn’t name any :rofl:

2 Likes
17

And yet the government only allows the Help To Buy Scheme on new builds… hmmm

1 Like
18

How are the rich getting richer?!?
:rofl:

1 Like
19

Anyone on here that did use the Help To Buy Scheme - could you give me your reasons why? Was it mainly the financial help?

I think I’d rather not go without the Scheme but would like some first hand anecdotes/ reasoning.

20

Thank you so much for this post.

Reading through different peoples circumstances and range of salaries has made me realise that home ownership is much more acheivable than I previously thought, I had resigned myself to the possibility that it may never happen for us but reading everyones responses gives me hope!

4 Likes
21

It’s even easier if you’re on the ladder already, as you’re creating equity every month, especially if you expect house prices to go up.

Don’t be afraid to start with somewhere small and work towards your forever home.