Getting A Joint Mortgage without ILR - Which banks?

No idea about their rate.  I only know how much their house cost from zoopla lol.

We also "spent" way less than we were approved for.  I can't imagine how horrific our payment would be if we had taken out as much as they were willing to lend. 

I'm a big fan of living well within your means.   

This is how I look at it too.  I'd rather start with a small house and can move later within our means if we need more space.

No idea about their rate.  I only know how much their house cost from zoopla lol.
This is how I look at it too.  I'd rather start with a small house and can move later within our means if we need more space.

I like to only budget based on one income.  So if one of us ends up out of work, it's not a big deal.  Just my 2p.  A lot of financial advisers will advise to max out as your income should only go up.  We all think differently.   

What we did in the US was to buy a house that was less than we could afford then make an extra payment on to the principle each month. E.g. an extra $100 per month would chop off seven years and save a large amount of interest. If our income ever dropped it would be the first thing to stop doing as it was optional.

However, when we got a mortgage here we found that during the fixed period (five years for us) extra payments were not allowed. I don't know if this is standard across all lenders in the UK but it is pretty crummy. When shopping around it might be worth asking if there are any "pre-payment penalties".

I like to only budget based on one income.  So if one of us ends up out of work, it's not a big deal.  Just my 2p.  A lot of financial advisers will advise to max out as your income should only go up.  We all think differently.   

This is what we did when we were looking for our flat!  Only my husband was working at the time although I had a few interviews (and actually the day I interviewed for my current job was the day we signed the contract on this flat).  Now that I'm working it's a big relief, but we know we could live here on just one income.