What I Own: We downsized from our family home to buy a £550,000 retirement property mortgage-free

Welcome backmost to What I Own – Metro’s spot bid wherever we talk to homeowners astir getting on the ladder.

For past week’s sister column, What I Rent, we visited Lauren May astatine her one-bedroom level successful Isleworth, West London. Having antecedently lived astatine location with her mum successful Ealing, she decided it was clip to alert the nest successful 2020.

When Lauren came to buying her spot conscionable earlier the pandemic, she was faced with a dilemma, arsenic she didn’t person the afloat deposit amount. However, she was capable to get the shortfall from a alternatively unexpected donor: her boss.

This week, we’re up successful Aberdeen visiting retired mates Fiona and Tim McKay, who sold their household location earlier this twelvemonth and downsized into a status spot to unrecorded mortgage-free.

The mates chose a spot that was easier to support but didn’t compromise connected space, successful an effort to prevention clip and wealth successful their retirement.

Here’s what they had to accidental astir their spot journey…

Tell america astir yourself!

We are a joined mates successful our aboriginal 60s with 2 grown-up joined sons, a feline and 2 dogs. We person been unneurotic since our teens. We met astatine school successful Aberdeen, wherever we were caput lad and caput miss together! We some took aboriginal status from our engaged jobs successful acquisition and medicine.

Whereabouts is your property? What bash you deliberation of the area?

We present unrecorded successful a Cala Home astatine the Craibstone Estate connected the borderline of Aberdeen. It’s a precise peaceful country with tons of greenish spaces, yet it has fantabulous road, aerial and obstruction transport links precise nearby.

When did you determination in?

We moved into our caller location successful June 2024.

How overmuch does your spot cost?

Our location outgo conscionable nether £550,000. Cala Homes connection a scope of incentives to assistance radical determination and wage their LBTT (Land and Buildings Transaction Tax, a interest that’s paid connected properties worthy supra a definite worth successful Scotland).

How overmuch was your deposit?

We were capable to reserve our location with a interest of conscionable £1,000. On completion of the missives a mates of months later, we paid a further 2.5% of the acquisition price.

What is the monthly outgo of surviving present now, including owe and bills?

We are fortunate to beryllium owe free, arsenic the merchantability of our erstwhile location covered the acquisition terms of our caller home.

It’s excessively soon to comparison the moving costs present with our past property, but already the caller location feels precise warm, adjacent with nary heating on.

What made you privation to bargain alternatively than rent?

We were keen to unrecorded successful a spot that would beryllium easier to maintain. We would person liked to self-build but couldn’t get readying support connected a suitable plot.

Instead, we started looking astatine adjacent caller physique developments.

Where did you find your property?

Our erstwhile location – which we owned – was nearby, and we archetypal became alert of the Craibstone improvement successful a flyer that came successful the post. That led to america making an assignment to presumption the development, and we were highly impressed astatine what we saw.

What made you take it?

We looked astatine respective antithetic location styles and plots. We chose Cala’s Kennedy location layout, which champion met our needs, and 1 was being built connected a beauteous crippled with an unfastened outlook to the beforehand positive a secluded rear garden.

How person you made the spot consciousness similar home? What’s the inspiration for your interior decor style?

As we reserved the location 7 months anterior to moving in, and astatine an aboriginal signifier of the interior being constructed, we were fortunate to beryllium capable to take level coverings, wardrobe, vanity portion and room portion colours.

We had respective months to program however we would usage rooms, bargain caller furnishings wherever needed, and determine wherever to bent paintings/place decorative items etc.

Our inspiration for plan comes from speechmaking Ideal Home since childhood, having a keen appreciation of art, and enjoying collecting absorbing pieces to furnish a home. We besides recovered amusement homes precise absorbing to visit, peculiarly the Kennedy astatine Friarsfield successful Cults.

What’s your favourite country and why?

Our favourite country is the open-plan kitchen, eating and household room, which overlooks the plot and gets prima from precocious greeting to evening.

Do you consciousness similar you person capable space?

We consciousness this location has an perfect magnitude of abstraction for us. We didn’t privation to majorly downsize our surviving space, conscionable person a location that wouldn’t request extended maintenance, and extracurricular abstraction which was smaller, frankincense not needing tons of clip oregon carnal effort to look aft it.

Do you person plans to alteration the property?

We paid for a fewer upgrades to our property, specified arsenic a silestone worktop and Amtico level bordering.

What bash you privation radical to cognize astir buying a home?

We had nary acquisition of buying a marque caller location before, but recovered the full process and the extremity effect to beryllium smooth, stress-free, and exciting.

What are your plans for the future, successful presumption of housing? Do you program to enactment present long-term?

We bash spot this arsenic our semipermanent home, arsenic it volition beryllium casual to support some wrong and out. A origin looking aft each the greenish spaces, including woodland, connected the property was a immense positive constituent for us.

We besides picked the Kennedy benignant arsenic it would alteration america to unrecorded connected the crushed level should mobility issues successful aboriginal marque climbing stairs problematic.

Shall we instrumentality a look around?

Do you person a communicative to share?

Get successful interaction by emailing [email protected].

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