Owning your own home

You'll likely you need 10% - 15% deposit for high street rates. You could free up equity from your current place for home improvements, on a buy-to-let basis, but if your current provider thinks that you are using the money for a new pad, the amount you can borrow for a new place would likely reduce a commensurate amount.

tl;dr alternative facts ftw

Worth noting that new tax rules mean you won't be able to claim mortgage interest as an expense against the rental income (gradually starting from next year) so you might end up paying out more than you're getting in rent, depending on how big the mortgage is.

Also as mentioned up in the thread somewhere, if you buy a new place without selling the old one, 3% additional stamp duty is payable on the new place.

= govt trying to stop ppl doing it...

I didn't even know you could claim interest as an expense. I definitely expect the new mortgage to be more than what the smaller place would bring in... London's Famous London.

If my partner bought the new place that won't attract an extra 3%? What if we are both on the mortgage for the new place but only I'm on the mortgage for the old place?

Stamp duty wasn't so bad on the first place but it starts to sting when skanky flats cost half a million quid :S

Yeah, depends if you're OK with potentially losing money on the flat you're renting out month to month and waiting for it to go up in value. I think for a lot of people it's not worth the hassle of dealing with tenants. Calculator here anyway: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/buy/buy-to-let-calculator-how-will-new-tax-reduce-your-profit/ (apols for Telegraph link)

The new place would need to be solely in your partner's name to avoid the 3% (and you can't be married/in a civil partnership), which means you probably couldn't be on the mortgage either.

Possibility could be to buy the new place but make sure you sell the old place within 3 years, and you'd get a refund on the 3%.

Anyway, #internetadvice YMMV IANAL etc - more info here http://www.zoopla.co.uk/discover/buying/q-a-new-3-stamp-duty-surcharges/#LEDKFURBZ1cmuvV9.97

We're looking to buy our first place and wondering if anyone can recommend a mortgage broker?
We have a bit of an issue in that Mrs mjw is a PhD student. She has a tax free stippend for the next 2 years whilst also running her own business (she has 2 or 3 years of tax returns sorted).
I'm just your usual salary man, and we have a good size deposit
Does anyone have experience of trying to get a mortgage with a PhD stippend? We heard it is possible?
Thanks

Thanks, I'll have a read.

My great property purchasing pension plan plummets in priority...

Do you want to buy a place in Twickenham btw...

Um, not really considered Twickers. I've been in Ealing for 12 years and quite like it.
Easy to get to Central Line, District Line and Overground/Crossrail whereas Twickenham is a bit isolated, no? What are you selling?

Nah, you could get outbuildings for less than £600k in Cambridgeshire without having to go full yokel and go to Norfolk. A friend of mine bought this recently:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/new-homes-for-sale/property-49919291.html

Triple garage with car port, workshop space, and 3 acres. Arse end of nowhere though and it'd take more than an hour to get into Central London from there.

Amazing place but hope he/she doesn't come to London too often! Peterborough is a great hub and fast line to London - 50 minutes - but that is 40 minute drive away! Pressing a trivial point perhaps, but there is a pretty direct correlation between price and London-commutability, and the markets have long figured it out.

Nope, he works in Cambridge in the Science Park. Not too bad a commute apparently.

Then, he's won the game of life life and I weep at his good fortune!

Hardly. He has only one bike, and it's a tatty old Marin MTB.

And a tractor. He has a tractor.

How many goats does he own?

Also, that place looks nice, add 1m to the price to find the same in Hampshire though.

The daft thing is, if you asked a builder in Cambridge / Ldn / Oxford / most southern cities to built a 4100sqft house they'd quote more than the price of that house just for the build.

No goats when they moved in, dunno now, but probably.

He does. It still needs a supercharged TR4 engine transplant though. And some new tyres.

No goats. Just two dogs. One of which is nearly as big as me.

Must keep trying to push the goats argument. Either fainting goats or pygmy goats. The latter, preferably.

So electric heating/ hot water people (if there are any).

1. I want to change our dying wreck of a heater with something smaller and more economical. I would like to go to tankless set up, to free up some space- and out put is 2 bathrooms and a kitchen-which are rarely used at the same- so not a massive need for a tank in the first place.
   
2. Anyone seen any nice electric radiators that have smart apps? I'd like to update our 15yr old space heaters which are innefectual and add a couple more to try and keep the place warm- but want better control/ centralised thermostat.
   
   

We cannot get gas, so electric only please.
thanks

One thing you will want to look out for is how the new system effects your electricity Tarrifs? Currently we have a multi rate, cheap for heating and hot water and standard for everything else. I believe if we were to move away from Storage heaters we would have to move onto a standard tarrif. There are newer storage heaters on the market however which do offer a better level of control and would mean you could keep the cheap rate. Sorry I can't help you further but this is something I would be considering if I was changing out my current heaters.

I'm a big fan of Sunamp heat batteries, PV charge them in the daytime and top them up overnight on an economy tariff in the Winter (if needed).

Very compact, very efficient, very low standing losses, great for the environment.

My expectation is that considering all our units are 15years old, a modern replacement would be more efficient.
Brief research suggests that the tankless water heater would be more expensive initially but then cheaper in the long run.

Peterborough is a great hub and fast line to London - 50 minutes

Parents are up in Peterborough, was a bit in the local press recently that said prices have only gone up c.20% in the last ten years...you can get a generously sized four-bed in a nice area for well within £250k.

We did consider moving up that way when looking for our first house, but with both of us working in Westminster we baulked at the annual £14,968 train season tickets (or £12,632 on the slower Great Northern Line) to get us to and from work without taking into account any extra cost for using the Tube or bus!

True dat. I lived in Grantham for a few years (next stop) and communted to London daily, for me only possible because I lived 10 minutes from the stn.