The Effect Kids have on Mortgage Lending

jd1983

Just wondering if anyone could provide some inside info regarding how much having kids affect your ability to lend. My wife and myself are thinking of buying, I kind of want to wait until the 2nd half of 2016 before doing so. However we're thinking about trying for a baby. This poses another question, do banks ask if you're pregnant or if your expect to have kids?

Peregrinus

They don't ask. It would be unlawful to discriminate in the provision of financial services on the grounds of family status. And, even if it wouldn't be unlawful, the answers they would get would not be very reliable, and they know this.

You need to ask yourself this, though. Having a baby is expensive, esp. if either party wants to (or turns out to need to) take more than the statutory paid maternity leave, so in terms of what you think you can afford to repay you need to build in some kind of buffer to cover additional costs when you have a child.

detoxkid

Peregrinus wrote: »

They don't ask. It would be unlawful to discriminate in the provision of financial services on the grounds of family status. And, even if it wouldn't be unlawful, the answers they would get would not be very reliable, and they know this.

You need to ask yourself this, though. Having a baby is expensive, esp. if either party wants to (or turns out to need to) take more than the statutory paid maternity leave, so in terms of what you think you can afford to repay you need to build in some kind of buffer to cover additional costs when you have a child.

They do ask!!! I can't remember how much bit they account for u spending a certain amount on your child per month. And they don't take children's allowance into account when considering income!

SeanPuddin_

They certainly do ask. A set amount of money per child/dependant, that differs from bank to bank is subtracted from your Net Disposible Income. It's somewhere in the region of 250 iirc but could be wrong. Childcare costs will be factored in as extras if you have that lifestyle. My bank accepted child allowance as valid income. You will find a large difference in the amount you can borrow with/without kids.

Best thing to do is speak to your bank and get a view on both current and hypothetical scenarios.

Good luck, and remember kids are better than houses.

simdan

If course they ask. They are dependants and obviously you spend lots of money on them! The bank would factor them into your budget. When my wife was not working the bank made it pretty much impossible for me to get a mortgage and would lend me less than 100k. Luckily she's working now and we bought a house 2 years ago. They want to see that you can save or pay monthly rent similar to the monthly mortgage. If you are doing this, you will be fine. When analysing our monthly expenses food was our largest cost.. We went on diets soon after!

Jen44

Peregrinus wrote: »

They don't ask. It would be unlawful to discriminate in the provision of financial services on the grounds of family status. And, even if it wouldn't be unlawful, the answers they would get would not be very reliable, and they know this.

You need to ask yourself this, though. Having a baby is expensive, esp. if either party wants to (or turns out to need to) take more than the statutory paid maternity leave, so in terms of what you think you can afford to repay you need to build in some kind of buffer to cover additional costs when you have a child.

They definitly do ask and they factor it in when they are considering if you will be able to make a stressed mortgage payment

Paulw

They ask if you have children, but they don't ask if you're pregnant or planning to have children. :rolleyes: They want to know you're ability to repay a mortgage, and not what might/might not happen in the future.

Gumbo

Ulster Bank put each child down as an approx €300 per month expense.

Tefral

kceire wrote: »

Ulster Bank put each child down as a €400 per month expense.

AIB add 300. Only spoke to them about this 3 months ago OP.

So if you have one kid and your applying to AIB as a Couple, you'll need €2400 left over after your rent etc comes out before they will give you one.

iainBB

they ask if you have dependent children alright but no if your are expecting, we had Bank of Ireland (ICS) and they ask for dependent children. they also take a copy of your bank statements which they can clearly see what you are spending on. we had none at the time for that very reason. house first then kids.

My mate earns a fortune but has 4 children, when he applied for the a mortgage it was serious reduced total. he had to stay renting in the end.