Am I being unrealistic with my plan to use my student loan for a down-payment for a house?

[christian39]

@resjudicata Yeah it seems I'd be better off building my cv with relevant clinical experience for a couple years before

 

[jtc26]

@christian39 Hmm don't know if banks will allow the student loans to use as a deposit. But since you will be working in uni, you could say that some of the deposit came from savings from that too. The best thing would be to wait like 6 months into your PhD and then start applying for a mortgage in principal. Banks will want to see payslips and statements of your savings accounts/normal accounts. We got asked for 6 months, ours was built over time since graduating. Also they might question if your income is guaranteed as in whether it's a permanent job or not.

 

[liturgicaltime]

@christian39 Unless your PhD is permanent employment then they won’t count the income

 

[christian39]

@liturgicaltime Okay I'll keep that in mind

 

[liturgicaltime]

@gailt Student loan does count as debt on mortgage applications

 

[mjain3391]

@gailt Student loan is a debt, it's the first thing a mortgage broker asks you... Do you have a student loan?

Depends on the interest rates, they are no longer cheap loans. Its been 15 years since I graduated and the interest rate on my loan is now high enough to worry about it a little.

Either way, there is good debt and bad debt. If you're using the money to invest in property, and you get the right type of property, then it's likely you will fall into a good debt scenario

 

[hopefullove]

@christian39 I see that you’re 19 and I understand the optimism that’s at play but a few things to consider:
1) the assumption that you’ll immediately get on a hugely competitive PhD course straight from your integrated Master’s course without even knowing how you’ll get on from second year onwards is a lot of pressure on yourself.
2) as others have said, a PhD stipend won’t count against mortgage borrowing. I have three fellow PhD student friends who have bought homes in the past two years and all of their mortgages were lent on their partners’ salaries only.
3) the beauty of the NHS (or indeed academia, should you choose to go that way) is that you can move basically anywhere in the country that your skills are needed. The flipside of this is that mobility and flexibility are often a requirement to chase the best roles and owning a home can reduce this flexibility - having to sell up or find a tenant to move for a new job adds a layer of stress that others won’t have. You might consider waiting until you find the right job to put your money into property.
4) you say you’ll earn £~5k a year with your campus job. Why not just use the maintenance loan for its intended purpose (rent; food; fun) and save your salary plus the bursary? Then ok, you’re saving £~3k per year less but coming out of undergrad with almost £20k is nothing to be sniffed at. You can then top up with savings as you start to work (or while PhDing can top up with marking and casual teaching).

 

[sharon66]

@christian39 I don’t know any clinical psychologist that got into their doctorate straight out of uni. They had to do 4-10 years of work in different areas to get their application up to scratch.

Which is obviously paid… but really needs to be factored into your calculation.

Otherwise if you can finish uni with £30k+ of savings, good for you! Even if you can’t buy a house straight away, that’s a great place to start.