Author Topic: Mortgage advice for a prospective over fifty first time buyer  (Read 4928 times)

Wascally Weasel

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Mortgage advice for a prospective over fifty first time buyer
« on: 24 January, 2018, 03:17:43 pm »
Hi,  I’m not in a position to think about it just yet, and might not be for another five years – this would put me at age 53, which obviously puts me well over the threshold for a twenty year mortgage before pensionable age, let alone a twenty five year mortgage.

My question is, how likely am I to be granted a twenty year mortgage at that age for a first property using the argument that my pension income (company not state pension) would be sufficient to keep paying the mortgage? One retirement I would be able to take a reasonably large sum and possibly pay the mortgage off in full then anyway, can this be taken into account or should I just give up on the idea of property ownership?

Would be nice to paint a wall or be able to hang a picture before I retire – would also be good to be free from the ever present fear of “Will I have to move house when the landlord decides they want more money for rent than I can afford?”

Currently got a good rental situation (for London) but have no idea how long that will last.

Mrs Pingu

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Re: Mortgage advice for a prospective over fifty first time buyer
« Reply #1 on: 25 January, 2018, 02:44:25 pm »
Can't believe you've not had an answer to this yet.... I would have thought 'somebody' would take that on.
Probably a financial adviser would be able to pin it down better though.
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Dave_C

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ElyDave

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Re: Mortgage advice for a prospective over fifty first time buyer
« Reply #3 on: 25 January, 2018, 03:22:14 pm »
a work colleague of mine has just upsized aged 60 with a big increase in mortgage that was not an issue.
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

Re: Mortgage advice for a prospective over fifty first time buyer
« Reply #4 on: 25 January, 2018, 03:41:37 pm »
Wascally, I am in that situation.  Well, nto the first mortgage.
I am 53 and in full time employment. The Nationwide didn't seem concerned to have me take on a 15 year mortgage.
What they were concerned about was my earnings and outgoings, very keen to make sure I coudl afford the replayments.
I think they expectation is/was that when I get to retirement age the bulk of the amoutn will be paid off and I should be able to pay
the rest off with savings, or to continue to make the payments.

So dont let your age put you off. Its much more about your ability to pay off the debt.

Another strange thing this time around - I Was using savings to fund a part of the purchase. they were very keen to find out where the savings came from. There is much more attention being paid to money laundering these days, and I beleive banks/building societies cannot take it on face value where you have gots lots of $$$ from.

And one last thing - we went though long interviews with a financial adviser from the buildign society. Get it fixed in your head now what sort of mortgage you want from your providers portfolio. the adviser is being recorded, and they cannot and will not choose any given product for you. If I am not wrong they really do not want to be accused of mis-selling.














Re: Mortgage advice for a prospective over fifty first time buyer
« Reply #5 on: 25 January, 2018, 03:47:16 pm »
Wascally, just to underline what I was saying. Dont let your age put you off - it is a matter of your ability to pay the debt without beggaring yourself.
In my particular situation we did not have to raise a deposit, which made things simpler. I sympathise with you at the though of having to get a sizeable deposit together.

Also I would recommend finding a friendly mortgage adviser.
In our case we had a local solicitor, who was superb and responsive. Sadly he was not 'on the board' for the Nationwide, which meant that the Nationwide woudl only deal with their recommended solicitors. Your 'normal' scolicitor can in a way subcontract to a Nationwide approved solicitor.
But we ended up going with the NAtionwide approved ones. It looks to me like there are a few very large law firms which do this for Nationwide and other mortgage lenders.
I woudl have felt much better going with the local solicitor, who knows the area and as I said had already given us good advice.

Tim Hall

  • Victoria is my queen
Re: Mortgage advice for a prospective over fifty first time buyer
« Reply #6 on: 25 January, 2018, 11:04:34 pm »
I too am in a similar situation and I'll be 57 (how did that happen?) this year. Got an offer all lined up from Nationwide, just waiting (and waiting and waiting) for my chain to get its arse into gear and I'll have a mortgage (again).  I used the financial adviser recommended by the estate agent I'm buying the flat through. 
There are two ways you can get exercise out of a bicycle: you can
"overhaul" it, or you can ride it.  (Jerome K Jerome)

Gattopardo

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Re: Mortgage advice for a prospective over fifty first time buyer
« Reply #7 on: 26 January, 2018, 12:44:26 am »
Marry a very rich person, or one that has a large property.

Wascally Weasel

  • Slayer of Dragons and killer of threads.
Re: Mortgage advice for a prospective over fifty first time buyer
« Reply #8 on: 26 January, 2018, 12:08:13 pm »
Thanks all - good to know all is not lost!

rogerzilla

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Re: Mortgage advice for a prospective over fifty first time buyer
« Reply #9 on: 27 January, 2018, 03:45:40 pm »
I had to do it at almost 45.  I took a 15 year mortgage with the intention of clearing it in 10 years (I have a fairly useless free-standing orphan pension which should make enough to pay off the remaining capital; it's currently worth £16k and I need it to be £20k by 2024).

Annoyingly, I first bought a house at 22 and kept the end date the same through several other properties, actually bringing it forward to October 2014 through overpayments, so I was six months away from being mortgage-free when the former Mrs Z and I split.  But that's the price of freedom, and I have pretty much repaired the damage to my pension by now, too.  The good news is that you spend a lot less when you don't have a joint account  :)
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Re: Mortgage advice for a prospective over fifty first time buyer
« Reply #10 on: 09 February, 2018, 08:37:47 pm »
Also I would recommend finding a friendly mortgage adviser.
In our case we had a local solicitor, who was superb and responsive. Sadly he was not 'on the board' for the Nationwide, which meant that the Nationwide woudl only deal with their recommended solicitors. Your 'normal' scolicitor can in a way subcontract to a Nationwide approved solicitor.


If you want legal advice, go to a solicitor.  If you want financial advice, go to a financial adviser, specifically for mortgage advice a specialist mortgage adviser.  There are lots of them, and they'll be looking at the entire market with your objectives and circumstances in mind.  May cost a little (probably less than a solicitor's fees), but should pay for itself.

I am not, nor ever have been, a mortgage adviser, nor used one (they were not so prevalent back in the 70s when I took out a mortgage) but both my son and daughter have used them (different ones in different parts of the country) and had excellent service.

Adam

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Re: Mortgage advice for a prospective over fifty first time buyer
« Reply #11 on: 10 February, 2018, 12:54:09 pm »
There shouldn't be too much of a problem getting a mortgage, especially as the FCA have been flagging up in recent years that lenders shouldn't penalise older borrowers. Definitely go via a mortgage broker or IFA who does mortgages though.
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.” -Albert Einstein

Re: Mortgage advice for a prospective over fifty first time buyer
« Reply #12 on: 11 February, 2018, 09:25:55 am »
One of the first questions for anyone over 40 will be "when are you intending to retire". Be ready with an answer to this, people don't routinely retire at 65 nowadays. Even if you can demonstrate that your pension is likely to cover the last few years of the mortgage, it's going to be a lot easier just to say you're intending to retire at 70.

Another thing that's not been mentioned above is that you should expect to remortgage every few years, at least at the beginning when the outstanding amount is large, but keeping the end date the same. This is normal: you get a 2 or 5 year fixed rate then remortgage when it expires. Expect your broker to be more keen on the 2 year variety for obvious reasons, so make sure they give you figures for both and use your own judgment.
Quote from: tiermat
that's not science, it's semantics.

Re: Mortgage advice for a prospective over fifty first time buyer
« Reply #13 on: 13 February, 2018, 01:50:45 pm »
Do not believe your very senior banker brother who says that a 5 year fixed rate mortgage is good as “rates are due to rise very soon”. This was said 4 years ago! 

Re: Mortgage advice for a prospective over fifty first time buyer
« Reply #14 on: 15 February, 2018, 03:17:34 pm »
Do not believe your very senior banker brother who says that a 5 year fixed rate mortgage is good as “rates are due to rise very soon”. This was said 4 years ago!
As someone who in 2008 took out a 5 year fix at 4.89% in preference to a base-0.5% floating rate (because rates were historically low), this has some resonance with me!  :'(

Re: Mortgage advice for a prospective over fifty first time buyer
« Reply #15 on: 15 February, 2018, 03:39:34 pm »
I think mine is about 3% but I have significantly overpaid compared to a 2 year fixed

Re: Mortgage advice for a prospective over fifty first time buyer
« Reply #16 on: 15 February, 2018, 06:37:29 pm »
Do not believe your very senior banker brother who says that a 5 year fixed rate mortgage is good as “rates are due to rise very soon”. This was said 4 years ago!

I think that someone saying that today would be more credible.
A concern for anyone buying now is whether the property will maintain its value.
But all this might change in 5 years.

ian

Re: Mortgage advice for a prospective over fifty first time buyer
« Reply #17 on: 15 February, 2018, 09:39:27 pm »
They great thing about economics predictions is that you'll eventually be right. Eventually. Most economists, financial advisers, et al. have realised there is a career in this. If interests rates don't rise or fall, stick to your guns, and twenty or so years later, remind everyone that you predicted it.

arabella

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Re: Mortgage advice for a prospective over fifty first time buyer
« Reply #18 on: 19 February, 2018, 08:02:02 pm »
I'd assume that if you can wave a current pension statement saying your pension inclme will be x then there's unlikely to be a problem.  but icbw
Any fool can admire a mountain.  It takes real discernment to appreciate the fens.

Re: Mortgage advice for a prospective over fifty first time buyer
« Reply #19 on: 17 March, 2018, 11:07:44 pm »
Just in case this is still a live subject, here are three snippets from my recent experience:
1. Santander do mortgages up to the age of 75.
2. Mortgage companies don’t want to hear that you’re going to pay it all off in the near future, so it’s better to say you’ll be working longer.
3. Affordability is key: they want to see that you can afford the repayments if rates rise.

This does not constitute advice!

Re: Mortgage advice for a prospective over fifty first time buyer
« Reply #20 on: 18 March, 2018, 08:12:09 am »
You'll be able to get a mortgage in my opinion. 

The lender will have a very clear idea of the asset value that they are lending against and it is already well established that folk are not generally retiring at 60 or 65 now, even when modest private or paultry state pensions kick in.   You can and will I presume insure (or is it assure?) yourself against sickness and unemployment to keep payments happening for a while.

The workforce is ageing and the lenders and baby boomers still want to take their pound(s) of flesh ...

Re: Mortgage advice for a prospective over fifty first time buyer
« Reply #21 on: 18 March, 2018, 10:21:49 am »
My financial advisor mate (we grew up together in North Manchester) arranged a very good mortgage for
me in Apr 2008 (late 40s by then). 0.59% above the base rate. :jurek: :thumbsup: :-D . I've been over-paying on it for
the past five years. Hopefully pension lump sum will have it paid off in two year's time.

hellymedic

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Re: Mortgage advice for a prospective over fifty first time buyer
« Reply #22 on: 18 March, 2018, 02:05:42 pm »
My financial advisor mate (we grew up together in North Manchester) arranged a very good mortgage for
me in Apr 2008 (late 40s by then). 0.59% above the base rate. :jurek: :thumbsup: :-D . I've been over-paying on it for
the past five years. Hopefully pension lump sum will have it paid off in two year's time.

That's the way to go!

I had no mates in the trade but chose a flexible, variable mortgage, overpaid whenever I could and was fully repaid after 4½ years of an 8 year term.

Re: Mortgage advice for a prospective over fifty first time buyer
« Reply #23 on: 18 March, 2018, 04:57:48 pm »

My financial advisor mate (we grew up together in North Manchester) arranged a very good mortgage for
me in Apr 2008 (late 40s by then). 0.59% above the base rate. :jurek: :thumbsup: :-D . I've been over-paying on it for
the past five years. Hopefully pension lump sum will have it paid off in two year's time.


That's the way to go!

I had no mates in the trade but chose a flexible, variable mortgage, overpaid whenever I could and was fully repaid after 4½ years of an 8 year term.
I borrowed remortgaged £108k. Should be about £50k in 18 months time (inc 3 0.25% rate rises)

Re: Mortgage advice for a prospective over fifty first time buyer
« Reply #24 on: 19 March, 2018, 09:24:40 pm »
I'm resisting the temptation to overpay on the mortgage, even though I specifically asked for one that allows it. Although it gives a warm feeling to reduce your debts and become debt free, it doesn't make sense when inflation is higher than mortgage rates.
Quote from: tiermat
that's not science, it's semantics.