omariqy Posted June 23, 2013 Share Posted June 23, 2013 ....is bloody stressful. Only been looking for a week really and its already given me plenty of grey hairs. Considering the Help to Buy scheme but trying to balance it with saving enough to pay it off within 10 years. Also looking in London, which doesn't help at all. Such a bubble. What are peoples thoughts on the scheme and new builds in general? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villaajax Posted June 23, 2013 Share Posted June 23, 2013 New builds? We're still under a Tory government aren't we? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony Posted June 23, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted June 23, 2013 New builds are nice - you shouldn't have rat/mice/leaking/subsidence. On the other hand The sound insulation can be shite, even though there are building regs... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Pangloss Posted June 23, 2013 Share Posted June 23, 2013 ....is bloody stressful. Only been looking for a week really and its already given me plenty of grey hairs. Considering the Help to Buy scheme but trying to balance it with saving enough to pay it off within 10 years. Also looking in London, which doesn't help at all. Such a bubble. What are peoples thoughts on the scheme and new builds in general? That might be a major hitch, unless you are earning a lot of money of course. I personally think buying in London is stupid, because what you will get for your money will be absolutely shite compared with what you would get else where in the country for the same price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFCforever1991 Posted June 23, 2013 Share Posted June 23, 2013 Rent. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omariqy Posted June 23, 2013 Author Share Posted June 23, 2013 I work in London and the Wife is at Uni in London for the next two years. We don't have much of a choice. We looked at Elstree & Borehamwood at the wknd which is as far out as we are likely to go. Technically not London but only 15mins or so into London. We saw the show room and loved it and it was right next to the station. Sadly the 2 bed flat that was so awkwardly laid out that it put us off. Have a look for yourself..http://www.fairview.co.uk/?xhtml=xhtml/developments/Vantage/properties/thehensonthewarner.html&xsl=property.xsl Bedroom 1 and Bedroom 2 cut into each other meaning they are not quite big enough. The entrance hall is massive though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xela Posted June 23, 2013 Share Posted June 23, 2013 Good luck! I've just started the process to buy my first place. Similar type of property to the one you are looking at as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omariqy Posted June 23, 2013 Author Share Posted June 23, 2013 Where abouts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xela Posted June 23, 2013 Share Posted June 23, 2013 In Sutton Coldfield. It's a scary process... just seems to be fee after fee! But mortgage will be slightly less than my rent so it makes sense to buy. It's all the extra stuff to consider like critical illness cover, income protection etc... just a myriad of insurances they pitch to you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villarule123 Posted June 23, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted June 23, 2013 They absolutely destroy you as a first time buyer. We're paying 6.9% on a £115k mortgage, even with a 20% deposit. When I look online now I can get around 3-3.5% interest, we didn't think it would go much lower at the time so we got a 5 year fixed mortgage It will cost us £3.5k to exit the fixed mortgage and set up a new one, but we'll still save money over the course of the 2 remaining years. We're looking to move to a bigger house in a couple of years, I can't wait for all this process shit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omariqy Posted June 23, 2013 Author Share Posted June 23, 2013 Thoughts on leasehold properties. I got quoted 3.19% for 5 year fixed today and 2.64% for 3 year. Reasonable I thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony Posted June 23, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted June 23, 2013 You don't get a fixed rate to save money, you get one so that your outgoings are predictable, which is kinda handy if it's your first purchase. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted June 23, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted June 23, 2013 They absolutely destroy you as a first time buyer. We're paying 6.9% on a £115k mortgage, even with a 20% deposit. When I look online now I can get around 3-3.5% interest, we didn't think it would go much lower at the time so we got a 5 year fixed mortgage It will cost us £3.5k to exit the fixed mortgage and set up a new one, but we'll still save money over the course of the 2 remaining years. We're looking to move to a bigger house in a couple of years, I can't wait for all this process shit When did you get the mortgage?! I got mine 3 years ago. 15% deposit on a £113k mortgage and I got 5.5% Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omariqy Posted June 23, 2013 Author Share Posted June 23, 2013 You don't get a fixed rate to save money, you get one so that your outgoings are predictable, which is kinda handy if it's your first purchase. Yup. Would be the only reason I would get fixed tbh. I know where I stand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowychap Posted June 23, 2013 Share Posted June 23, 2013 (edited) Thoughts on leasehold properties.A flat? Part of a large development or not?Don't go in to it blind.How long is left on the lease? What's the possibility for an extension on that?Do as much research as you can about service charges/ground rent; what work may have been done to the block/communal areas; what you may or may not be liable for; whether the freeholder is a management company made up of the residents or a third party, and more. Edited June 23, 2013 by snowychap Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villarule123 Posted June 23, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted June 23, 2013 They absolutely destroy you as a first time buyer. We're paying 6.9% on a £115k mortgage, even with a 20% deposit. When I look online now I can get around 3-3.5% interest, we didn't think it would go much lower at the time so we got a 5 year fixed mortgage It will cost us £3.5k to exit the fixed mortgage and set up a new one, but we'll still save money over the course of the 2 remaining years. We're looking to move to a bigger house in a couple of years, I can't wait for all this process shit When did you get the mortgage?! I got mine 3 years ago. 15% deposit on a £113k mortgage and I got 5.5% April 2011 We're getting murdered compared to today's rates! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted June 24, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted June 24, 2013 They absolutely destroy you as a first time buyer. We're paying 6.9% on a £115k mortgage, even with a 20% deposit. When I look online now I can get around 3-3.5% interest, we didn't think it would go much lower at the time so we got a 5 year fixed mortgage It will cost us £3.5k to exit the fixed mortgage and set up a new one, but we'll still save money over the course of the 2 remaining years. We're looking to move to a bigger house in a couple of years, I can't wait for all this process shit When did you get the mortgage?! I got mine 3 years ago. 15% deposit on a £113k mortgage and I got 5.5% April 2011 We're getting murdered compared to today's rates! You're getting murdered compared to the rate I got 6 months before you got yours! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lapal_fan Posted June 24, 2013 Share Posted June 24, 2013 I bought my first house 2 1/2 years ago, it's alright. Ours was a gutting job, every room from top to bottom. Boiler went a couple of weeks ago.. it's these things that piss you right off and make you wish you had rented. Going to cost me the best part of £1500 to get a new one installed. Just make sure you have a pot of savings, if you can afford too because anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterms Posted June 24, 2013 Share Posted June 24, 2013 I work in London and the Wife is at Uni in London for the next two years. We don't have much of a choice. We looked at Elstree & Borehamwood at the wknd which is as far out as we are likely to go. Technically not London but only 15mins or so into London. We saw the show room and loved it and it was right next to the station. Sadly the 2 bed flat that was so awkwardly laid out that it put us off. Have a look for yourself..http://www.fairview.co.uk/?xhtml=xhtml/developments/Vantage/properties/thehensonthewarner.html&xsl=property.xsl Bedroom 1 and Bedroom 2 cut into each other meaning they are not quite big enough. The entrance hall is massive though! It's so much a matter of personal taste, but I've never seen a new build I would buy. Space standards are usually inadequate, the layout is often so clumsy that you have little or no choice how to configure the rooms, the quality of finish is often poor, sound insulation is poor, and functionality is sacrificed in order to lever in a couple of features demanded by the marketing department. With that flat, it looks like the usual thing of having to have one bedroom "en-suite", so two bathrooms have been squeezed into a very small flat, with the layout being twisted to fit. Around a quarter of the flat is taken up with bathrooms and hallway - is that how you would choose to allocate what looks like a pretty small overall floor area? The bedrooms are difficult, with the top end of bedroom 1 taken up by door opening space (because of having to fit in the now-obligatory en-suite). How would the layout of bedroom furniture work? What choices do you have about what to go where? It's worth cutting a sheet of paper into shapes which are accurately scaled to represent items of furniture and placing them on the plan, to get a feel for it. The second bedroom is 9ft wide. With 3ft for the door, that means you can get a double bed in, with 1 ft to spare. That will feel pretty cramped. The kitchen area has no window, and the only natural light comes from a window at the far end of the living room. It's likely to feel dark and confined. There's little room for cupboard space, little work surface area - ok if you subsist on takeaways and microwaved ready meals, cramped and difficult if you ever cook anything. The flat as a whole is single aspect, again because they are squashing them in. So light from only one direction, no chance of opening windows on opposite sides to get a through breeze. Some people don't mind that. The balcony is a token effort. As a whole, it looks designed to be able to let the marketers use the key phrases "two bedroom" and "en-suite", while jamming in as many flats as possible, with little thought to the useability of the space in practice. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omariqy Posted June 24, 2013 Author Share Posted June 24, 2013 I would agree with that tbh. We looked at new builds because of the help to buy scheme. We've decided to not go down this route. Budget is £250k, with £40k deposit. Ideally north/north west (kanye) London area is where we are looking. Not sure how realistic that budget is but I am ready to find out. The leasehold was for 125 years. However, the wifes cousin is a property lawyer and told us to avoid leasehold if we can. Especially in developments like this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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