Deposit/buying query

pixiep

Hi

I'd love to get some advice on myself and my partners current financial situation.
We're 30 and 31, both professionals with permanent stable jobs thankfully.
We are eager to buy and have been saving but with paycuts etc it has been proving difficult over past while. A travelling trip in the past and going back to college also ate into savings. At present we have between us €26k between savings and gift. With this chunk of money we'll still be short on a deposit for a house in desired location. We're buying in Dublin (a case of necessity not choice due to job locations) and would be looking at house at €300,000-350,000.

I'm presuming we would need 10% or more of total amount as a deposit. So we're looking at still saving that extra €5k plus. We're trying hard but this years especially it has been extremely difficult. We're a little bit concerned with time, I suppose due to our age and the term of the mortgage. If we were to wait another year or two would that impact in a major way on a bank offering us a mortgage i.e. not being able to repay by 65 etc.? We would be happy to hang on for another couple of years before buying but only thing holding us back is the age thing and bank not approving us in couple of years.
Would anyone be able to enlighten us on this area.

We want to get married also in the future and need to save for this too so we're wondering whether we should just do this now and leave house purchase for another couple of years. Any advice would be much appreciated. Sorry for long muddled post. Thank you.

spockety

I don't think a mortgage term longer than 25 years is a good idea, so if you're looking to pay it off by 65 then in theory you could get a mortgage at 40 no problem.

If you are both 'professionals' and finding it 'extremely difficult' to save 5 grand then I would seriously question whether or not you are truly in a position to take on a 300K+ mortgage. The repayments on that amount when interest rates hit 6.5% will be over €2,000 a month (based on 25 year term), have you factored that in when considering what you can really afford?

I would hold on for another couple of years. The likelihood is that Ireland's drawn out property crash will still be in full swing by then and you could get that "300-350K" house for more like 200-250K. I don't think another couple of years added to your age will make any material difference in getting you a mortgage. In fact, another couple of years saving hard may make it easier to show the bank you capacity to repay.

Goldenlady

Hi,

I have just gotten a mortgage with my partner, they now give mortgage terms up to 70 years of age. We have taken a 25 year mortgage due to my partners age. We bought in Carlow, so our house price is almost half of what you require, however the banks were willing to offer us up to €600k which I couldn't believe, considering everything that is going on. We are both in permanent jobs and have good salaries.
With regard to the deposit, initially the bank said we had to have a 10% deposit which we did have, but when we were finalising the mortgage they offered us a 92% mortgage, meaning we could have worked with an 8% deposit, I opted to stay with the 10% as I felt the money we would have saved by going with an 8% would cost too much in interest to repay as part of the mortgage. Only other words of advice are, you will require a good bit of money for contents.... we were lucky that our house came with all floor boards, all tiles in the kitchens and bathroom, all carpets in the bedrooms and stairs and landing and fully painted.... we have €20k for other contents and solicitor fee's etc, and I think we could end up borrowing more to cover other costs, its still expensive to furnish a house.
As I said we bought at the right time, €179k for a 5 bed house. Hope everything works out for ye
GL
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