Should we take out the maximum help-to-buy equity loan?

A reader looking to buy a property in London seeks advice on whether or not to go with a higher mortgage

Q My partner and I are looking to buy a property in London using the help-to-buy scheme, which means we can pay a deposit of as little as 5% and get an equity loan of up to 40%, then take out a 55% mortgage. We have a deposit of about 10% saved up and can afford a 70% mortgage. Interest rates are low right now and that doesn’t seem to be changing any time soon, so I am tempted to go with a higher mortgage and deposit, so we can own more of our property. People think I am crazy not to take advantage of the upper limit of the help-to-buy equity loan, but I hate the idea that the amount I could owe someone might keep rising (even though it could fall as well … but hopefully not). Am I being too conservative and naive? Should I take advantage of the equity loan?
MW

A I think you are right to be cautious about taking out the maximum 40% equity loan just because you can. You are also being sensible in wanting to own as much of your property as possible. And you are right that the main drawback of the help-to-buy scheme is that – assuming house prices keep rising – the amount you have to pay back to Homes England (which provides the equity loan) will also keep rising. Conversely, the amount you owe on a mortgage keeps going down because you are only allowed to take out a repayment mortgage – which can now have a term of up to 35 years – under the conditions of the help-to-buy scheme.

Continue reading...

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

Buying at auction: A ‘how to’ guide Nottingham Estate Agents

Buying your first property at auction may seem like a frightening prospect but by following some simple steps you can reap the rewards of this tried and tested method of sale. Whether you are looking at residential or commercial, a piece of land or something unusual, the auction process is simple but the key to making it successful is […]

The post Buying at auction: A ‘how to’ guide appeared first on OnTheMarket.com blog.

from OnTheMarket.com blog https://ift.tt/37CQeel
via IFTTT

Most affordable commuter towns for five UK cities revealed

Property website Zoopla ranks Grays in Essex as best-value location within hour of London

The most affordable towns for people commuting into London, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh have been revealed.

With rail fares rising for many commuters, the property website Zoopla combined season ticket and mortgage costs to work out the best-value locations for those looking to live within an hour’s travel time of the five cities.

Continue reading...

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

'Even dust can be interesting': the woman who photographs housework

Clare Gallagher works full-time then comes home to the ‘mind-numbing’ toil of laundry, dishes, cooking and cleaning. So what happened when she started photographing it all?

‘I hate housework!” the American comedian Joan Rivers quipped. “You make the beds, you do the dishes and six months later you have to start all over again.” In her intriguing photobook, The Second Shift, Clare Gallagher places that quote next to an altogether more serious one by the French writer and philosopher Simone de Beauvoir, who famously compared the repetitive grind of housework to “the torture of Sisyphus”.

Several years in the making and self-published in a limited edition of 500, The Second Shift is an artist’s book that, despite its apparently mundane subject matter, often approaches the sublime. Gallagher captures the familiar workload of family life (piles of laundry, baskets of unironed clothes) as well as the constant creeping chaos that attends it (dirty dishes, food scraps, sinks blocked with slimy domestic detritus).

Continue reading...

from Property | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2SWBfI6
via IFTTT

The look of Aus: the eucalyptus tree

The Australian icon that thrives both Down Under and in our gardens over here…

Sometimes garden inspiration can come from surprising places. Re-watching David Attenborough’s Seven Worlds, One Planetfor the fourth time, I know I should have been wowed by epic aerial shots of kangaroos and wombats on snowy mountain tops, but all I could focus on were the amazing plants. Statuesque alpine snow gums rising out of the cold and ice, with lacy, evergreen canopies swaying in the breeze, were to me something straight out of a sci-fi film. The incongruity of such fresh, green life against the face of all environmental adversity just felt so magical. Perhaps the most wonderful thing about it all is that such rugged origins mean these impossibly exotic trees will be perfectly happy in Old Blighty. In fact, there are few trees that are better suited to increasingly small, urban plots, and yet they still remain inexplicably underused.

The highland home of snow gums (Eucalyptus pauciflora subsp niphophila) has turned a plant whose lowland relatives include some of the tallest trees on Earth into a true dwarf, up to 90% smaller. Reaching a maximum of 10m tall when allowed to grow as an upright standard, it can be further shrunk by cutting out the leader after planting, resulting in a beautiful, multi-stemmed specimen reaching as little as 4m tall. This pruning will also constrict the root growth, improve the character of the tree and prevent it toppling in high winds, so I can’t urge you strongly enough to do this, especially on smaller plots.

Continue reading...

from Home And Garden | The Guardian https://ift.tt/35q8W7m
via IFTTT

The look of Aus: the eucalyptus tree

The Australian icon that thrives both Down Under and in our gardens over here…

Sometimes garden inspiration can come from surprising places. Re-watching David Attenborough’s Seven Worlds, One Planetfor the fourth time, I know I should have been wowed by epic aerial shots of kangaroos and wombats on snowy mountain tops, but all I could focus on were the amazing plants. Statuesque alpine snow gums rising out of the cold and ice, with lacy, evergreen canopies swaying in the breeze, were to me something straight out of a sci-fi film. The incongruity of such fresh, green life against the face of all environmental adversity just felt so magical. Perhaps the most wonderful thing about it all is that such rugged origins mean these impossibly exotic trees will be perfectly happy in Old Blighty. In fact, there are few trees that are better suited to increasingly small, urban plots, and yet they still remain inexplicably underused.

The highland home of snow gums (Eucalyptus pauciflora subsp niphophila) has turned a plant whose lowland relatives include some of the tallest trees on Earth into a true dwarf, up to 90% smaller. Reaching a maximum of 10m tall when allowed to grow as an upright standard, it can be further shrunk by cutting out the leader after planting, resulting in a beautiful, multi-stemmed specimen reaching as little as 4m tall. This pruning will also constrict the root growth, improve the character of the tree and prevent it toppling in high winds, so I can’t urge you strongly enough to do this, especially on smaller plots.

Continue reading...

from Property | The Guardian https://ift.tt/35q8W7m
via IFTTT

Plan your plot for 2020: think about seeds and new beds

It’s cold and quiet, but the stirrings of a brighter future are starting

New dawn, new day, new year. Feeling good about it. Things have turned, honestly. Though there is bound to be wind and rain, maybe snow, we will have an hour a day’s more daylight by the end of the month. The sun is moving, but not yet the temperature, though welcome frost will break up heavy soil.

Try to keep off wet ground to avoid compacting it, but think about seed potatoes. This is the month to order your choices and lay them out in trays to chit. First earlies should be ready for planting in mid-March in warmer areas, but leave it until later where it is cooler. Look out for nearby potato fairs (potato-days.net) where you can also buy onion sets and shallots for planting in the coming months. Reacquaint yourself with a good garden centre.

Continue reading...

from Home And Garden | The Guardian https://ift.tt/35qXNU1
via IFTTT