Higher mortgage rates ‘changed what we were looking for’published at 13:57 BST 18 June
13:57 BST 18 June
Kris Bramwell
BBC News
Image source, Charlotte and OliverImage caption,
First-time buyers Charlotte and Oliver
First-time buyers Charlotte and Oliver, both 25, had been planning to move into a new home in August.
But everything changed when the Iran war broke out in late February. A spike in mortgage rates forced them to cut their budget from £375,000 to £325,000.
“We had a mortgage in principle withdrawn and increased from £1,275 to £1,330 within two days,” says Charlotte.
Initially, they were looking at properties in North Hertfordshire where Charlotte’s parents live, but eventually bought cheaper home 20 minutes away in south Cambridgeshire.
Charlotte and Oliver, who earn a combined £60,000 a year, had been “saving for a very long time,” she says.
“We’ve had to cut back quite a lot while trying to buy a house,” she says, including on trips to their local pub and on holidays.
“We’ve both worked really hard to have a place to call our own,” she says. “It’s not planned out as we wanted.”
