I want to buy a home – can I get a mortgage now I'm freelance?

I’m wondering if I should wait until I have two full years of business accounts

Q My wife and I are planning to buy our first home some time towards the end of next year. At the beginning of this year (January 2019) I went freelance and while I expect to make more than my previous salary this year and next, I am concerned that this will compromise our ability to get a mortgage. By the time we are ready to apply for a mortgage I will have two years of tax returns, and about 20 months of business accounts.

Is it worth delaying buying our first home until I have two full years of business accounts? Or is my freelance career jeopardising our chances of getting a mortgage and I should go back to being an employee in order to improve our chances?

Continue reading...

from Property | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2KgN0Ey
via IFTTT

Suburb in the sky: how Jakartans built an entire village on top of a mall

Depending who you ask, Cosmo Park is an ingenious urban oasis or an ill-conceived dystopia

It’s Thursday and the residents of Jakarta’s Cosmo Park are out jogging, watering their plants or walking their dogs along neat asphalt roads.

Neighbourhood kids pedal their bikes under frangipani trees and peach-coloured bougainvillea to the pool and tennis court. Apartments, comfortable and modern, sit side by side, with barbecues and toys stacked outside.

Continue reading...

from Property | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2MCm8QY
via IFTTT

Buying or renting a listed building? Everything you need to know Nottingham Estate Agents

Owning a listed property can give a property an edge when it comes to selling. OnTheMarket.com reveals a guide to buying a listed building here. What does ‘listed’ mean? The property is on a national register of buildings with architectural or historical importance. To check if a house is listed, visit this website. What does this […]

The post Buying or renting a listed building? Everything you need to know appeared first on OnTheMarket.com blog.

from OnTheMarket.com blog https://ift.tt/1DGCbEq
via IFTTT

Lilies that won’t let you down

Towering eucomis may look exotic but it’s resilient enough to grow outside

Every aspect of the pineapple lily Eucomis sp is just so unbelievably exotic. They hail from sunny southern Africa, throw up dazzling, jungly blooms that look like something straight out of a kid’s story book and some can produce massive rosettes of leaves that tower over you. Yet if you have a sunny spot with well-drained soil, they are some of the easiest and most affordable garden plants to grow, even on our chilly North Atlantic islands.

Like something from the understorey of a Rousseau painting that has come to life, Eucomis bicolor creates big, fat flower spikes about 30cm high, consisting of dozens of cream and lime green star-shaped blooms, each petal of which is delicately painted bright burgundy. Wide, strappy leaves are matched with a top-knot of leafy growth above the flower spike, making the whole plant look like a florist’s recreation of a pineapple.

Continue reading...

from Home And Garden | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2yE7JeM
via IFTTT

Lilies that won’t let you down

Towering eucomis may look exotic but it’s resilient enough to grow outside

Every aspect of the pineapple lily Eucomis sp is just so unbelievably exotic. They hail from sunny southern Africa, throw up dazzling, jungly blooms that look like something straight out of a kid’s story book and some can produce massive rosettes of leaves that tower over you. Yet if you have a sunny spot with well-drained soil, they are some of the easiest and most affordable garden plants to grow, even on our chilly North Atlantic islands.

Like something from the understorey of a Rousseau painting that has come to life, Eucomis bicolor creates big, fat flower spikes about 30cm high, consisting of dozens of cream and lime green star-shaped blooms, each petal of which is delicately painted bright burgundy. Wide, strappy leaves are matched with a top-knot of leafy growth above the flower spike, making the whole plant look like a florist’s recreation of a pineapple.

Continue reading...

from Property | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2yE7JeM
via IFTTT

Inside August’s quirkiest and most exclusive homes

They're all pretty special.

from Property blog https://ift.tt/2ZufEqR
via IFTTT

Allan Jenkins on gardening | Get your timing right for summer-sown greens

Sow successive rows of spinach and spring cabbage if you have room, and it’s nearly the last chance for ‘Oriental leaves’

August gardening means autumn (sorry). That doesn’t mean the weather won’t be hot and dry, though it can be a sultry month. Land will likely need constant watering and weeding, mulching maybe. There isn’t as much to sow, though, so try to make good use of summer space that opens up as potatoes are lifted, peas finish, and shallots and onions are dried.

Timing is more of a thing now, so sow successive rows of spinach and spring cabbage if you have room. It is nearing your last chance to sow chard and ‘Oriental leaves’. Pak choi, mibuna, mizuna, and komatsuna (mustard spinach) are mostly fast-growing and widely available in garden stores or online from Chiltern (chilternseeds.co.uk), Real Seeds (realseeds.co.uk), and Kings (kingsseeds.com), among others.

Continue reading...

from Home And Garden | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2Zsjpxe
via IFTTT