Tips For Saving For Your First Home In 2022
Are you considering buying your first home? How exciting! Getting on the ladder is a significant step in anyone's life, and there's nothing like the sense of owning a home. However, with cost of living in the UK reaching new highs, getting there may appear to be more difficult than before. So, with this in mind, we’ve put together some helpful tips for saving for your first home in 2022, and covered some of the small changes you can make to help you own the property of your dreams. Don’t forget, you can always speak to one of our Miller Homes sales representatives about your options.
Map Everything Out
When saving for a new home, it’s a good idea to work out exactly what you’ll be needing to pay and when, then you can work backwards in figuring out how much you need to save and when by. Some of the most costly elements involved include:
- Your deposit
- Furnishing or renovating a new home
- The solicitors fees
We’d also recommend including items such as moving costs from your previous property within your budget too, so you don’t have any nasty surprises when it comes to completion.
Check What You Can Afford To Buy
We recommend receiving a free mortgage estimate online or speaking to an advisor, and then using that to narrow down your housing search. It's important to keep an open mind regarding the different types of options accessible to you; and to work to what you can afford without stretching yourself too much. This is such an exciting time after all, and you want to feel proud but not worn out and penniless!
Establish Clear Saving Goals And Boundaries
Now that you know what sort of mortgage you can afford, start putting saving goals in place to help achieve your target. Having a set goal of say £500 a month to save is a good place to start. Work out your total cost of living (e.g., bills, food shopping, debts) and if you’re in a position to do so, some good advice is to handle your wage with an 80/20 split, with 20% going to your savings. Saving this portion of your income a month is a quick way to build up some cash for your deposit. If you’re saving to buy with somebody else, now is also a good time to have some conversations around their financials too, so you’re both contributing what you can afford to put away.
Can You Use The Equity Loan Scheme?
Saving for a deposit can be daunting, but the Government’s Equity Loan Scheme (formerly known as Help to Buy) is an attractive option to many first time buyers in England. Sometimes, you only need a 5% deposit to own 100% of your own property! It’s available on plenty of new builds and may be something you consider when planning on saving for your first home. You can read more about the option here.
Look At Your Spending
Though cancelling a subscription or cutting out takeaways isn’t going to magic up a deposit, budgeting sensibly is definitely a good idea. If you can work out where you’re spending money each month, you can quickly figure out the things you can live without – then any money saved can be put away for your first home. Making sacrifices comes with saving for anything, but don’t put too much pressure on yourself either! There’s often a misconception and unnecessary pressure about what age you should be when you buy a property, but did you know the average person completes at 32? Regardless, you should only be saving and making the choice to do so when you’re in a comfortable position to come to these decisions.
Consider Money Saving Options
As we mentioned earlier, one of the biggest expenses when purchasing a house is furnishing it. Do you know when you buy through Miller Homes, there may be an offer running on your plot or across your development that will give you money towards choosing options for your first home such as flooring? It’s worth keeping your eye on this whilst you’re looking to buy, as the money saved here can be used elsewhere in your property journey.
Keep Up To Date With The Latest Advice
Finally, whilst the economy fluctuates (as it tends to!) we’d always recommend keeping up to date with resources such as Money Saving Expert with Martin Lewis, who can give you the best financial advice relating to the current climate. Education is key and understanding your own money situation as well as that of the wider population, is definitely a good tip for when saving for your first home in 2022.
Once you’ve established your goals and how you can start to save, you’re well on your way to becoming a property owner! Doesn’t that feel good? To start your search, we’d recommend using the search tool on our website to find new build homes in your area. If you’re in need of more guidance and advice, book an appointment at one of our sales centres where a Miller Homes development sales manager can talk you through your options.
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