I’ve always been a renter. For the past decade, I’ve liked the convenience. Recently, though, I’ve started to wonder whether we might need to buy somewhere. Pip is nearly 3 and it is starting to weigh on my mind that school applications and now less than a year away. We need to start considering our options, and also whether it might be better to put down more permanent roots somewhere. Sure, we are settled here, but, along with freedom does come the risk that circumstances for our Landlord might change, and we’d need to move.
The terrifying thing is how high house prices are in North London. Actually, I should say flat prices, because there is no way we could afford a whole house round here. Having never actually considered a mortgage before, I didn’t really know where to start. So, I started searching for calculators. This is the best one I came across, from Santander. I found it really easy to use, and, very importantly, it asked questions about my finances in a way that was no trouble to answer, but gave me an indication of things that mortgage lenders take into account when deciding amounts to lend. For example, I got quite different figures with and without our nursery fees entered as an expense. I make no warranties as to the Santander mortgages themselves, but I liked the mortgage calculator.
Now we know the ballpark figure we can borrow, should we want to, and should we qualify for it, etc etc, we now need to start thinking about what, if anything, in this area it covers, and if not, where we might have to go to afford something we want to buy. And then, whether we like that option more, than the flexibility our current situation offers…
To be continued…
Post in conjunction with Santander
