Basil

It irks me a little that the system does not encourage flexibility of family work. It used to- up to the 1980's you could pool your personal allowance with spouse- but the cries for independent taxation and womens' rights resulted in this being removed. It has rather backfired, in my opinion. I earn just over £50,000 pa - as an auditor / chartered accountant in insurance (age 37). I well appreciate that I am fortunate indeed. My wife stays at home to look after our children, as her teacher salary would be very poor net of childcare costs. We are fortunate that we can manage on one salary. I compare our situation with that of my sister and her husband. Both teachers- earn c£35,000 (him) and c£15,000 (her- on half a timetable). Technically they earn the same as me. However they qualify for full child tax credits (I get none); they also pay £4,500 less tax than I (before accounting for the considerable amount of tax credit). I am viewed as the 'rich one' in our family and expected to help out more than the others.

I earn a little over £50,000 a year - based in North Yorkshire. Sounds nice, but as previous poster notes it is the net / disposable figure that is important. My salary covers 5 (and soon to be 6) people, and it feels very stretched - lord only knows how 'average' and 'low' paid people manage. My wife doesn't earn- she looks after the children. As a teacher, it was no longer cost effective to work & pay childcare when our second was born. I am a STR (more by accident, having moved to the area recently), and am fortunate to be able to buy. Able- but not willing to commit to a 4x plus salary multiple loan.

Not quite true (unless you have an interest-only / endowment mortgage). The interest portion of your monthly payment will double, but the repayment element should remain the same. The split of your monthly payment between interest and capital will vary depending on how long the period of your mortgage is and how early into the mortgage you are. The capital portion could be anything from 25% to 75% of your monthly amount - and in the early years of a longer term (20-25 year) mortgage is likely to be around 30% ish. Mathematical semantics aside, I agree that SVRs are likely to be around the 6.5%- 7.5% and that's a big increase to absorb in anyone's book.

[duplicate post- sorry!]

You forgot the key phrase the accountancy study guides use in preamble - "rational investor". Yes your risk -adjusted return calculations are correct in principle, but no investment has more emotion attached (other than perhaps football club shares) than property. It also has the greatest herd mentality and suffers from the false assumption that every house owner knows and understands property economics (in the same way as every adult seems to have an expert opinion on teaching, as they once went to school).

I'm a higher rate taxpayer, so the investment will be in my wife's name. What's the net return on premium bonds then?

Mornin'. A quick question for all you investment experts out there. I'm shortly to be selling up and renting for a while - a minimum of 6 months; more like 12 months before buying elsewhere. I am 'sympathetic' rather than zealous about selling to rent, though. I'm out of the housing market for a while through circumstance rather than market conviction, as we are moving to a new area with few 'nice' houses on the market and a need to tie in to school starting in September. So- the upshot of this rambling message is that I will have £225,000 to invest for a period of around a year or so. I've found Sainsburys online investment account will pay 4.75% instant access - it looks probably the best deal at the moment (unless anyone can point me in a better direction) and isn't dependent on year end bonus (which we may not get if we buy the next house within 12 months). I'm rather nervous of equities at the moment, as they are rather volatile since Easter, and Mrs B will have bits surgically removed if I lose any of the equity. Any suggestions?

If I might ask - which part of the country is this house in?

Despite the general area being 'cautious' and the estate agents full of properties not shifting, I've still been frustrated in trying to buy character property in any of the villages north of York. For example - 250 yr old cottage (semi) needing complete renovation. On the market one week. Overwhelming demand for viewing. Brochure price £275,000 Many offers - 3 'best and final' over £300,000 with the winner (apparently) over £315,000. [Guess who didn't get the house!] This isn't the first house in the same situation either. There seems to be 2 different markets running at the same time: 1 for the 'run of the mill' houses - lots of modern stuff on the market and seem to have been there for many months. There are loads of modern estate houses around the £400,000 level - nice and new, characterless and with small gardens, and they're not shifting. I'm glad at least that I'm not trying to sell one of these... 2 for the 'twee' old houses (or those with potential or good gardens) - unless you are a cash buyer / renting with finance in place then you needn't bother. Just my general rants / observations, but typical that the market stagnation isn't working for me just when I need it! Off to plan B then - renting for a while

If ever there was a relevant quote for me! I'm selling on Banner Cross Road at the moment. You're right about no 69 - it took them 3 months to get an offer for the second sale (was up for £329,000) - and they'd done a fair bit of modernising to the house in the year they'd had it. Hence the gross profit was completely wiped out... The £370k paid for no 5 last year was an anomaly. A family relocated from London and were happy to pay way over the odds - much to the delight of the vendors. We however have not been able to replicate their feat and have found that there are lots of viewers who are very nervous price wise. I would definitely say that the market is (at best) stagnant since last summer, much to our disappointment!