Advice needed.

[stevezodiac]

I need some advice. At present I live in the family home - a council flat in Southwark, London but I would very much like to move out of London to the quieter suburbs. The thing is I am now 59. Is that too old to consider applying for a mortgage? A friend recently bought a small flat for himself in Hemel Hempstead and it cost him £132,000. I’m not too fussed about how small a place it was as long as it was in a nicer area. I have about £50,000 in savings and am so desperate to move that I am considering selling my comic collection which numbers about 50,000 items and must be worth at least a hundred grand. I have thought of perhaps renting a room to start off with just so I can have time to think things over. My sister is 60 and she might agree to join with me in getting a mortgage. I figure two of us might stand a better chance than one. I will buy one of the small ads papers like Loot just to see what is on the market. Do any forum members have experience of renting rooms? Does anyone here know about mortgages? My retirement age is 67 but I have worked in the public sector since 1975 so should have a good pension.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

[starscape]

You can use your pension to fund a mortgage. Why not use the internet to get a decision in principle? It can tell you how much the bank is likely to give you based on your age and income. Alternatively, pop along to your local TSB or whoever for them to calculate it in a bit more detail. They're usually quite friendly and will advise readily.

You may also have success in swapping your council home with another.

[stevezodiac]

Last night on Radio Five they had an estate agent on and i sent a text which was the first one answered. He advised me to go to an independent mortgage advisor rather than a high street bank as the latter would give you a mortgage regardless of whether or not you could afford it. The trouble with the web is that it is so vast and one does not know where to start looking. I looked for Loot magazine in Tesco tonight but they did not have a copy. Is it still published? I will look to renting a room first and move on from there. looking at the small ads in my company's internal website and people are asking £400 to £600 just for a room! That sort of sum would be equivalent to a monthly mortgage repayment wouldn't it?

[starscape]

Have a look here for property, renting or buying:
http://rightmove.co.uk

[stevezodiac]

Thanks. I've heard of Rightmove but didn't realise it has mortgage calculators and such.

[Phoenix]

I will look to renting a room first and move on from there. looking at the small ads in my company's internal website and people are asking £400 to £600 just for a room!

I got home from London this afternoon, but I've spent the last ten days in just such a place, Steve, that being my son Andrew's 'flat' in Wimbledon Park Road, Southfields. When I visit he sleeps in his partner's flat in Putney. For his own place he pays about £650 per month for what estate agents call a studio apartment. This consists of one room, which serves as a lounge, a bedroom, and a kitchen, with a handful of built-in cupboards for storing his books, files, and DVDs, and a smaller room off it containing the toilet, a wash basin and a shower. In the lounge there is a fridge, which is used appropriately for his cans and bottles, a cooker, which he has never used, the oven section of which, on my advice, has become permanently an extra cupboard, and a sink. But of course he needs more storage than that so he had to buy a wardrobe, a wooden chest with wide drawers, on which he plonked his TV, and another set of drawers in a kind of plastic tower for toiletries, socks, underwear, and toys, games and changes of clothes for Aurora (3) and Kelsey (11 months) for when he has them over at the weekend. His landline is on top of the wardrobe. I wasn't surprised to learn that last weekend but one Aurora said,''Daddy, this place is a mess''. Incidentally Andrew has a decent landlord (in London these two words are normally a contradiction in terms, but not in this case). Whatever you choose to rent or buy, Steve, don't get a studio. I think I know you well enough to be pretty sure that you'll be insane within a fortnight.

[stevezodiac]

Renting costs a fortune - I was paying £950 a month for a two bedroom flat. I found all my paperwork last week and I actually have £67 grand in savings. I would definitely not choose a bedsit/studio flat. One has to have a bedroom as somewhere to "retire" to at the end of the day. Wimbledon is a nice area.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

Wow, Steve, just say a grand a month for rent---

67 months: less than 6 years' rent, with nothing to show at the end of it.

It's an absolute scandal, and this disease is spreading up here to Scotland as well.

A lot of young people here especially just seem to be working long hours to pay sky-high rent.

[stevezodiac]

When I see four figure sums for monthly rent I wonder why people just don't get a mortgage. At least you have a legacy when the home is paid for.

[Phoenix]

When I see four figure sums for monthly rent I wonder why people just don't get a mortgage. At least you have a legacy when the home is paid for.

Andrew's problem is exacerbated by the fact that his partner wants to go and live in Wokingham, where she can get a decent four-bedroom semi for approximately 450 grand (check on Rightmove), but as he works in the City his travelling time, not to mention his costs, would treble, in and out, with two changes of train en route to boot.

[stevezodiac]

I find having my head buried in an Alexander Kent novel takes my mind of the commute.