@christian39 First of all, never ask reddit, especially this one, for this type of advice. Noone here likes seeing young ambitious people do what they couldn't. The few nuggets of information you get are not worth the judgement, ridicule and doubt that these people will put into your mind.
I have hands-on experience on this as a 20 Yr old that's incredibly close to buying a house myself.
Here's some actual advice:
- You will need to prove your deposit, every penny of it since you're young, because of due diligence checks. You will use your maintenence to live and work (get paid into) /save the work money in a separate account. Keep all your payslips and ensure your ni contributions are being recorded on your gateway/tax account. Don't count on the bank allowing you to use any of your slc disbursements towards your deposit. Just use it to live and save your salary.
- You will need to prove your income to get the mortgage, 3 months payslips and salary credited bank statements is the industry average. But as others have said you may not be able to use your PhD grant. What I would recommend is take a gap year, after your masters, to work at a job for 3-6 months while making your PhD application more competitive.
Please not that you will most likely start paying sfe repayments after the April after you graduate, try to get your payslips before this happens so your affordability isn't affected at the time you purchase.
Armed with your deposit and this salary from your job, you should be able to get a mortgage agreed in principle.
- Find a house, get a solicitor, get a broker (if you don't wanna research yourself), make an offer, get it accepted, do your searches, exchange and complete
A few tips: make sure your credit is good, get a couple credit cards, make sure your electoral roll is registered at a home address that doesn't need to be moved too often, and make sure you have all your documents. Pay your taxes on any and every income. And open a Lisa. Those 1ks build up quick.
Goodluck OP, and remember, reddit isn't your friend, they're a munch of strangers that don't know you or your position from a short post.