₦airaland Forum

Lexusgs430:
Don't forget leasehold vs freehold dilemma & ongoing service charges...........🤣😜

I go for freehold....

lightnlife:
Happy Weekend!

Just had a discussion with a friend and it'll be nice to get more informed input.

Is it advisable for a first timer to get an apartment instead of a semi/detached house?

Essentially, pricing/affordability is responsible for this apartment consideration over a semi/detached structure. For context, the average newly built 2/3bed semi/detached house here starts at 400,000. But the apartment costs (2/3 beds, newly built) starts at 250,000. Apparently, it'll take a shorter time to raise the deposit for an apartment and the need to get more value for rent over time.

Another consideration is leaving the current location, due to pricey properties, to somewhere with lower rates and similar opportunities in terms of work. Some areas have full house (newly built) for 250K.

What are your thoughts please?

Affordability is the main thing...

Also anywhere you want to stay for a long time will also matters...

Best thing is to get into property ladder as soon as possible if you don't want to be paying your landlord's mortgage

lightnlife:
Congrats. Best wishes with the outstanding processes.

If I may ask, which area is the property located? The average cost for a 4-bed here is 500K, meaning I need about 75K for deposit.

2016 built house in South East England.

The house was valued at £440k, offered £390k and after several weeks of discussions, seller accepted the offer. Hopefully to complete the process in 4-6 weeks time.

Solumtoya:
Carry us along o. If you see any Lender that accepts 5% deposits for visa holders earning less than £100k, let us know

Don't worry you'll soon get....small small

My Mortgage was accepted last week by Halifax...doing solicitor documentation now.
Deposit was 15% for £390k 4 bed detached house.

Stevepop:
Thanks for this. Let's see what the solicitor comes back with , if I had known that it's not widely acceptable, would have explored other alternative saving options.

When was the last time the ajo monies enter your own account?

Stevepop:
Hi everyone, I just need someone to allay my fears and worries as I've been refreshing my mail every seconds.

We are currently in the process of buying an apartment. Our deposit is in a LISA account and the source is savings from salary and ajo/esusu/thrift. Coincidentally, the day we made reservation was when i came across a post on facebook group that some solicitors reject savings from thrift due to AML (and I think it's simply because some of the solicitors are rigid or simply do not understand the concept) while some are flexible about the whole thing. I've been on panic mode and really worried. Our solicitors have asked for proof of funds which I've supplied, I also explained all required inflows and attached the ajo agreement, hoping that would suffice, but haven't heard anything back from them (though I sent it 24 hours ago smiley).

Just wanted to ask if anyone used savings from Ajo for house purchase (as I'm guessing it should be a common thing with Nigerians here). How did you go about it? and did you encounter any issues?

Thanks in advance.

As you have explained to the solicitor, hopefully they will understand.

We used savings and funds from our LISA accounts and it was acceptable by our solicitor.

I do not do ajo...

Rent money is dead money according to Lexusgs430....

Solumtoya:
Services in the NHS is for only Citizens and Residents. A baby born here to immigrant parents has access for free for 3 months after which you either pay out of pocket, or get a visa fornthe baby.

The exceptions are some Emergency services that are for every person in the UK... Also, for minor cases, vaccinations, etc, most GPs won't bother charging. But such parents should pray the child doesn't need a surgery or treatment like hernia, the BILL would be heavy.

I know parents owing £15,000 NHS bills for simple hernia surgery their children born here in the UK without valid visas.. the bills are quite shocking to them...lol

Even the emergency services, it will be done for the children and the parents will receive normal International services NHS Bills later via the post...

Zahra29:
Not correct. I believe it's only the first 3 months, as long as they do not leave the country in this time. The parents are required to apply for a visa for the child within the 3 months. Below excerpt from NHS.uk:

Children born in the UK to those here lawfully for more than 6 months
If you give birth to a child in the UK, your child will be entitled to free NHS hospital treatment in England on the same basis as someone who's ordinarily resident up to 3 months of age, but only if they remain in the UK during that period.

You'll also need to meet one of these criteria:

you have a valid visa of more than 6 months and paid the surcharge for that visa
you have a valid visa of more than 6 months, but were exempt from paying the surcharge
you have a valid visa of more than 6 months, which you applied for prior to 6 April 2015

You should apply for a visa for your child during the 3-month period after your child's birth.

If required, you may have to pay the surcharge for your child. Failure to do so means you may be charged for NHS services provided for your child after the 3-month period.

Thank you for this response...l don't have time for too much arguments for what l know and have seen my patients born here in the uk without valid visa for their children being sent heavy bills after surgical procedures in my department.

Many people will get NHS international services bills soon if the child needs NHS services without valid visa for the child......

hayesconcept:
You don’t need to include the newborns in your visa application unless you’re planning to go to Naija with them.

Hmm if the babies no get visa...., make any of the babies no come get sickness that will require surgery or admissions in the hospital....NHS will send them better bills after discharge.

Jcole123:
Hi guys,

A friend of mine applied for a trainee Job in an engineering company. He was invited for a physical interview at the company's office. After the interview, he said the interviewers sounded very impressed and told him that his previous experience makes him over qualified for the trainee position and they would like to fit him into a qualified role with an improved pay. He was asked to come for a 4hrs trial work session to familiarise himself with the work environment and so they can better access his understanding of the job. After the trial session, the director once again reiterated the fact that my friend is very knowledgeable and would consult with the senior staff that accessed him to know the final step. However, he was asked to provide a reference from previous employer.

After providing reference, he recieved a mail from the company requesting additional 4hours trial work session and my friend feels a bit frustrated about the back and forth.

Please any advise for him?

Let your friend go again. Hopefully they will finalise it and he will start work soon. Congrats in advance.

hustla:
LOL Not like that o

I like to have back up plans for backup plans

Take it easy oo

brine:
Yes, that's actually very possible. I don't buy clothes monthly but I know I spend more than that (£200 x 12) yearly on clothes and shoes. I looked at a food delivery app I used some time ago and I discovered I spent roughly £12k on takeaways between Jan 2020 - Dec 2022 alone!

Well done....

AKALAMAGBO:
Please what’s the maximum speed allowance I can go on motorway 🛣️ ? I was on 77MPH yesterday and just about 100 metres away was this man standing by the bridge wearing black, sat in a black van 🚐 and pointing what looks like a Speed Gun towards my direction…. 😭😭😭

Should I be waiting for a letter 😭😭😭

Wetin de pursue you that you will not be on 70MPH?

I go by the speed limits on the roads...l am not a fan of 10% addition to speed limits.

Willie2015:
They are paying daily interest on uninvested part of my balance...

Yes, really good

Zahra29:
Yes definitely, these would be strong grounds to negotiate a reduction in the price with the vendor. It's only a request and the vendor can decide not to drop their price, however given the current market I imagine they would want to hold onto their buyer and will at least offer to meet you part way.

Same thoughts...seemingly a buyer's market now.

Thank you.

Zahra29:
Do you mean an Agreement in Principle (AIP/DIP) or a formal offer from the lender?

The estate agent is wary because the affordability checks on a higher LTV purchase are more stringent, especially with the recent interest rate hikes. If it is an AIP, then this is only indicative and may change when the underwriters conduct their in-depth checks, which may result in a lower borrowing amount being offered by the lender. In addition, a property can be down valued by the lender and the estate agent likely wants reassurance that you have enough savings to cover the difference if needed.

Essentially you might need to show the agent proof of funds significantly higher than the 5% deposit to reassure them that you have a decent enough buffer to continue the purchase if the lender offers you less than 95%, or the property is down valued( as well as enough to cover all the legal and other costs involved in buying a house)

If the lender down values a property, like a house of £400k and the lender down value it to £380k, should l go with the lender valuation and ask the seller to sell at the lender's valuation report, because l believe the actual valuation should be that of the lender.

Your opinion please

henrimoto:
Pls. If one wants to benefit on the upward movement of a stock's price due to an upcoming impressive quarterly earnings report, When is the suitable time to take advantage ? Is it before the report date or after the report date ?

Cc: coputa
Yok
Ukay2

It depends on your waiting time....

Like l expect good performance from Canadian Pacific Railway plc (CP) from their recent merger with the Kansas city railway, l took position at $73, l am in for a very long-term time with the CP now.

aremso:
Just did one analysis now, if the money I used to buy RBT is used to buy zenith Bank at even 20naira and zenith rose to max 70 naira max if I sell I will get about 700k as gain that is if it get to that point which I doubt cos what is coming to banking sector in naija is doing press up. The same money in RBT holding to my TP the gain will be 6.5m convert to naira. Foreign stock is the best bet.

God told Abraham to leave his comfort zone and he never looked back or compared his present location to his former location.

You have moved to NYSE, concentrate on your new zone and no need for comparison.

Move forward and keep mastering the NYSE....WELL DONE

justwise:
If you can afford it go for 5yrs and have rest of mind.

I was in your position couple of years ago and i wanted to fix for 5yrs at 2.3% but my mortgage broker suggested 2yrs that interest rate will drop after covid. I went with his suggestion.

By the time my mortgage is due for renewal interest rate was 5.5% and he emailed me asking me to pay £150 to help me renew it, i totally ignored him, i called my lender and spoke with them and i was asked to wait and watch the market before jumping to renew.

As i monitor the market and exploring other lenders the interest rate keep going up, i called the bank again 2months to the end of my fixed term and i was given 6.5%(i was overpaying my £120 monthly), angrily i allowed the mortgage to automatically rollover to variable but sadly at the rate of 7.5%.

I paid that for one month and decided to do myself, logged in to my mortgage account to explore how to fix it, guess what? i was given 3.99% with options of 5 and 10yrs fix, i went for 5yrs.


My biggest prob was not following my instinct right from the beginning of the process, i did so much research, watch YouTube videos, news about mortgage market and effect on mortgage after covid but my mortgage broker insisted otherwise.

Big lesson learned, in my next project i will do things differently.

Thank you Justwise for this. I was giving 6% fixed for 2 years and 5.5% fixed for 5 years at my AIP a few weeks ago.

I am likely going for the 5 years fixed when l apply for the mortgage. I am just thinking now the UK inflation rate is coming down, maybe the rates may start coming down soon if the inflation rates keep coming down.

Hopefully, with the inflation rate coming down, Bank of England may not continue to increase the lending rate going forward.

lightnlife:
Thanks for sharing your experience.

Whilst you're exploring other countries and waiting to naturalise/re-relocate, have you been saving in a LISA account for mortgage purposes? If yes, what happens if you don't eventually buy the property in the UK and leave? Also, how has it been renting over the last 5/6 years?

After Thought 1

It seems myriad of immigrants in the UK are just waiting to either get ILR or naturalise before exploring other countries for permanent residency. I reckon I'm on that list too.😊

Given this reality, I was analyzing a few things around mortgage savings (LISA) and rent.

So, I currently pay £1100 pcm as rent, that's about £13200 per annum. If I continue to rent till I get ILR or naturalise (4/5 years from now - ceteris paribus), I might be paying an average of £14000 per annum on rent. Meaning I'd have paid over £70,000 as rent with 5 - 6 years. Meanwhile, this 70k or some part of it could also have been used to start a mortgage plan. However, as I'm not certain on my next relocation plan, I'm unable to commit to a mortgage.

Question: If I start a mortgage plan and eventually leave the country after getting ILR or citizenship, can I sell the property? If yes, that's the modality for such?

With regards to LISA, if I eventually decide not to buy a house and leave to another country with a LISA savings of 50K (bonus inclusive), how much dem go give me? Would I better off saving the funds in another account outside of LISA, knowing I'm not interested in buying a property in the UK?

Lastly, is owning a house in the UK better off than renting in the long run? I have a property in Nigeria and mehn maintenance is draining - financially and mentally.

Thanks

Buy a good property instead of renting.....rent money is a dead money according to Lexusgs430. You can sell the house if you are leaving the UK and there's high probability of selling the house at higher price.

I know a house that was bought at £317,000 in 2017 and it's currently in the market for £400,000 as the owner has relocated to Poland.

Who knows, the UK may even favour you the more, before you finish getting the British citizenship self

Lexusgs430:
Have you tried webull...... Download make we enjoy slice of fractional share .......😜

https://www.webull-uk.com/s/vTzukLUlBsNM8qTFWv

I am OK with Trading212 and Freetrade for now...thank you Boss

aremso:
Bro. Thanks for the info, they might be right or wrong but for me am holding that stock to my target level. I have a personal assessment of stocks which I set, I may be wrong or right but that stock to me will move higher than where they predicted it will get to. So am a long time holder. I discovered the stock late so I entered late at 1.74$ it got to 2$ before pulling back for GAN and 0.94 for FIXX.

Be careful with penny stocks too....

Lexusgs430:
Wetin una do all this international brokerages...........🤣😂

Ask Emefiele

Willie2015:
Those of us that were able...
to open with Trading212 back in the days were lucky...
Nothing as smooth as zero trade commission...

Trading212 is quite a good platform...

jedisco:
Just stumbled on this, oddly, when I search they're not many mainstream UK media reporting it. The UK openly admits immigration fees as an essential source of revenue. Simply means that for workers to get their 6-7% wage rise, there has to be a minimum number of immigrants coming thru. The recently touted 8yr wait period for an ilr makes more sense now. I wonder what those who 'did not vote for black and brown people' think about the this. Perhaps, they would get EU citizens willing to pay so much for little in return.

Take a married 28yo who comes here for masters. They'd pay:

Initial visa fee
Initial ihs fee for 1-2 yrs
Uni school fees

Then;
PSW fee
IHS fee again for 1-2 yrs

Then;
Tier 2 visa fee
IHS fee for 5 yrs.
ILR fee
Passport fee

All these are aside income tax and NI and very importantly, the economic footprint they bring.

After giving 8-9 years of their productive life to the the UK economy, a whole lot of these people would still be lower bracket income earners. The UK adds to their life but in far less measure than what they have brought.

Reason why I asked how many Brits of similar age have contributed as much.
Without immigration, this economy would crumble under its own weight

Well said....

Tier4Dependant:
Police can stop you for the minutest of things.

Police once stopped me because my rear plate was covered with dust which made it not to be visible enough.

Why would I ever think I could get stopped for such.

And of cos if any driving doc is found missing, it would probably lead to a court case.

It's a driving offence for your plate number not to be visible

jideflash:
Never be to quick to assume.
Those that took action on this strong rumour then should be sitting on 50% since date.



Carry on Oga CustomStreet

I have been on Dangsugar since km 6...

megawealth01:
Really?

I have chopped enough from Alhaji.....Dang Flour, Dang Sugar and Dangote Cement

yMcy56:
I just don't want to make any comment in the Dangsugar and NASCON.......but as for me sha, I'll prefer to see what the details of the merger will look like.

You will never go wrong with ALHAJI Dangote

Lexusgs430:
That's £500 extra.......

Thank you

Solumtoya:
Hmmmm... This is not as simple o... In many cases, HP is often the better option

I prefer paying cash for car....average £5k car is ok...lool

Lexusgs430:
Let's assume your mortgage payment is £400 pcm........

By paying £100 extra every month, it would drastically reduce the length of your mortgage payment + paying less interest.......

What if the mortgage payment is £2000 pcm?