Hi would anybody be able to tell me if 30,000pounds is enough for a deposit to buy a house in the uk?

Also do banks in the uk class family tax credits as income?

Thanks in advance

You will need about 20% of the value of the house, plus a very clean credit history and a permanent job on a good wage. They will allow about 3.5 times your wages, but as you have children this multiplier may reduce as more people have to live on the salary.

You wont get many (if any) banks that will count welfare payments as income now. The banks got their fingers burnt, plus welfare payments are being reduced.

They are scrutinising affordability more closely now.
So if your total household expenditure goes north of 75% of income expect the options to dwindle.

Depends on the price of the house. If it's a $120,000 home, then yes, if it's a $450,000 home then no. I've heard everything from 15% to 25% being required, so 20% that formula suggested is a good minimum to aim for I'd say.

Also, as formula said, you will need a good credit history, which will generally have to be a UK credit history. People on here have had trouble borrowing money to buy a car or get a cell phone even when they first return, and they are loans for a much lower value. We are assuming that we will have to rent for a while, have a stable income for a while and get some credit behind us before we even consider looking at buying anywhere.

You can actually borrow money from an offshore lender if you need to before building up US credit history and then switch to a high street lender after a few years. Google ex pat mortgage brokers in the UK and you find quite a few offering help with this. Interest rates are a bit higher though and you generally can't borrow less than £100K.

Hi HSBC will lend you 90% and also I think Lloyds, 30,000 is a good deposit but also depends on what your wanting to pay for a home, the higher the price of the home the higher the deposit etc. Not sure about family tax (we do not recieve that). My OH works overseas and pays tax overseas so we do not pay any here on his income.

Good luck