Moving house, advice needed!

Kobrakai

Kobrakai

Kobrakai

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Joined
19 Jan 2005
Posts
1,174
Location
Cambridge
Hi, just wondering if anyone could give me some advice?

I’m starting a new career in a few weeks and I will be relocating to Cambridge to be near the company where I will work. The company is about 20 minutes drive from Cambridge city centre and there is no suitable property to rent in that area. I am looking to live in the city centre to be close to the bus station for easy daily travel to work since I don’t drive.

Unfortunately Cambridge is far from the cheapest area to live and the average price for a 1 bedroom flat or apartment near the city centre is around £600-800 a month (bills not included). This will be my first flat as I’m still currently living with parents so I’m not sure what I can afford.

My starting salary will be £20,000 a year, and I’ve set a budget of £700 a month rent. The main things I would like to know are:

1) How much do you think I will have left from £20,000 after tax/NI/student loan deductions?
2) Could I afford to pay £700 a month rent on this salary? (I have a very limited social life)
3) Roughly how much do you think I would be paying for electric/water/council tax/etc on top of my rent?

Thanks in advance.
 
1) £1,290, if you have a student loan it'll be £1,250
2) No!
3) 30/20/90 - £140... dont forget, phone, tv, internet, insurance, etc... though
 
This might help. :)

Our council tax is around £125/month if I remember right, but it will vary a lot depending on the area.

We pay £40/month each for gas and electric and water is about £20.

Don't forget all the others which add up a lot faster than you think. TV licence, phone, mobile, internet, insurance, transport, food, etc.

With a rent of £700 you are basically looking at your cost of living being £1000 a month or more, which would not leave you with much spare cash at all.
 
Thanks for the advice guys. Im starting to think it may be a better idea to live 2-3 miles outside the centre and cycle in to save £100-150 a month on rent.
 
Very tight indeed

700 rent
100 council tax rough
water elec and gas about 60 a month all in and thats bottom line
food, at least 30 quid a week, possibly 25, so thats 100 at least
tv licence 12
any sky or internet + phone, lets say no digital tv but a 15 quid net conn and 15 quid phone, so thats 30

So around 1000 a month just to live to the bare minimum, what about travel and other stuff, a bus pass is what now?

You also defo need content insurance, likely about 100 a year

Leaves you with practically nothing to live on and if you are paid monthly a 5 week month could be awful.
 
As others have said you'll be pushing it with £700 just on rent earning £20k. Our mortgage is £450ish but that's only half of all the bills we have to pay every month.
 
[TW]Fox;11481628 said:
Becuase its very difficult to without a deposit and the sort of house you can buy on £15k a year isnt the sort that would be nice to live in?
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I had a 'nice' 3 bedroom house, with a garden and off road parking. Double glazing, new boiler, new pipes, cables etc. All I had to do was decorate.

So you're wrong.

for £650 a month you could raise ~85k, on a repayment mortgage. Or you could be clever and give the money to someone else, paying nothing for time.
 
Jon Frost said:
I had a 'nice' 3 bedroom house, with a garden and off road parking. Double glazing, new boiler, new pipes, cables etc. All I had to do was decorate.

So you're wrong.

for £650 a month you could raise ~85k, on a repayment mortgage. Or you could be clever and give the money to someone else, paying nothing for time.
Click to expand...

when was this?
 
Jon Frost said:
When did I say "no deposit"?
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Well then your comment was pretty irrelevant to the op query. If he had the means to buy I'm sure he would,

The only properties he could afford, assuming that the mortgage lenders would give him 4x pa earnings with no or little deposit, are 1 beds on the shared ownership schemes. Not really ideal.
 
Jon Frost said:
When did I say "no deposit"?
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You implied it by offering it as a recommendation to the guy. He doesn't have £5-30k kicking around spare in his bank account, so buying a house isnt an option. You asked why rent - well there is your reason right there.

£85k for a 3 bedroom house by the way, was it in Mosside or something? :p
 
Cyanide said:
5 times your income? What kind of lender would dish that out? :confused:

And I also wouldn't want to be to be left with only £350 a month to pay all the bills.
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guy i used to work with got just over 5 times he pay for his mortage.
100k on a second floor flat in a dive of an area, fool.
 
loopylou said:
Well then your comment was pretty irrelevant to the op query. If he had the means to buy I'm sure he would,
Click to expand...

Mmmm, quite likley. Hes an ex studant, I assume like you do that he has no savings. We could both be wrong though, maybe his parents could 'help him out'. Eitherway, Buying, is better than renting.

The only properties he could afford, assuming that the mortgage lenders would give him 4x pa earnings with no or little deposit, are 1 beds on the shared ownership schemes. Not really ideal.
Click to expand...

80k would get you more than a 1 bed out of the city centre. But then it all depends.

I would buy. If you can. Buy.
 
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