Owning your own home

What's the rough rule of thumb for mortgages for a couple? 3x, 4x, somewhere inbetween?

4.5x isn't unusual

I was always told; 5x highest earner. Or 4x combined.

Multiples are edging higher. A friend of mine just got offered 4.9x joint

Interesting. I always thought it was lower than that.

Maybe I will move in next to Brun.

Yeah it’s london or bust for us. Looking around where we want to be there are properties coming onto the market that are moving back into our price range. But we’re not ready to sell, so it’s all just a bit hypothetical currently.

I'm also accidental land lord as we relocated abroad due to wife's work our rent covers mortgage and a small profit I would say this is a good way as the profit has covered problems that have occurred with the house white goods being replaced etc, meaning we break even most years.

Won't that mean your property price is decreasing too?
@cornelius_blackfoot

Yield being worse than other obvious investments

Other investments that I could stay in during summer?

Yes but overall price decrease should mean wins for upsizing, losses for downsizing.

If they have a higher yield you could spend that on somewhere to stay, yeah

BTL mortgages usually get stroppy if the mortgage holder starts staying in the property

I have in no way thought this through, and given that I'll outlive my dependants (as they're cats) I've got no real motivation to create any sort of inheritance, but not having a truly awful retirement strikes me as being A Thing that I'd like.

I should probably speak to a proper financial advisor and work out what I actually need to do in order to retire in 17 years time, and how that differs from retiring in 12 years time.

Vendors withdrawn the place I'm buying from sale. Half way through the searches etc.
Irritating... really. quite. irritating.

Is there a specific brand of frozen sausages for such a situation?

Brand is irrelevant, would suggest the XL Lidl Value family pack

Yep, but since ex council flats were never really over priced to begin with, don’t think it’ll make much of a difference, if it’s priced relatively competitively.

Ugh..
Sorry to hear that -.-

whats a good shop for radiators?

Not an expert but we bought some from bestheating.com and price, delivery and post sale support were good

Wickes

Wickes one look fine tbh .. type 21 or 22?

Type 22 kick out more heat by the looks of it. So depends on how big your rooms are.

There are online calculators which will tell you roughly how much output you want for a given room. If in doubt, go for more output as you can always turn down with the room stat.

Any thoughts on a very approximate cost to refurb a 3 bed Victorian terrace?

E.g. rewire, replaster, new boiler, new plumbing, windows replaced, a few walls knocked down, etc It's pretty much a shell at the moment.

Also, approximate cost per square metre for a side return. Suggestions online seem to differ hugely

I'd say about 70-100k plus for pretty much everything , excluding the side return, assuming you are in the south. However much depends on the spec of the kitchen and bathroom, whether plumbing is done in copper or plastic, whether it needs a new roof or ceilings, whether the externals are sound or whether it needs repointing, whether you'll do the loft at the same time, landscape in anyway etc etc etc.

Funny I was going to ask the same question

How seriously are we all taking the 15-20% drop in house prices that is projected as part of our Brexit dividend?