For Justine and Andrew Boniface, the dream of buying a home slipped further away with every year they spent renting after returning to the UK from Spain.
The couple, both 55, had already climbed onto the property ladder once before. They bought their first home in Hemel Hempstead in 1998 for just over £70,000.
But they sold it nearly a decade later for around £205,000 and moved to the Costa del Sol with their three sons in 2008, renting a property.
At the time, they expected the move to be permanent. Speaking to The i Paper, Andrew said: “We fully intended to stay in Spain. Unfortunately, we moved the year the first recession hit, so it wasn’t quite the dream that we thought it would be, but we loved it and we took what we could from it.
“When we came back, things had really changed with mortgages. I’m self-employed and before we left, we had self-certified mortgages as an option. But when we returned, they didn’t exist anymore.”
Justine added: “When we moved to Spain, the pound was strong and Andrew was still working in the UK. When this changed not only did work dry up a little but the change in exchange rate impacted our outgoings and we had to rely on our savings from selling our house to see us through the leaner times.”
They moved back home because their eldest son was about to study for his A-levels and they wanted him to have the opportunity to go to university where he wanted to back home.
Self-certified mortgages, once commonly used by self-employed borrowers, allowed applicants to declare their income without extensive documentation. The couple had one before they made the move to Spain but they were banned following the financial crisis.
That change hit Andrew, a self-employed fire engineering consultant, particularly hard.
Without a large enough deposit, the couple repeatedly found themselves rejected when applying for mortgages, despite their steady income and long history of paying rent.
For years, the family rented around Milton Keynes as costs spiralled. Andrew said: “Initially, we moved to a three-bed property, and we were paying about £900 a month for it.
“But at the last rental we lived in, we were paying £2,300 a month for a four-bed house, which is a huge amount of money.
“The frustration was, although we were paying that amount of money in rent, up to the point where we sourced our current mortgage, nobody would take that into account when we were looking at lending options.
“With my income, I could go and get a £70,000 car. I could go and get numerous credit cards with credit limits. But I couldn’t get a mortgage.”
The emotional toll of renting for so long became just as difficult as the financial pressure.
Justine said: “I never felt settled or at ease as I felt we could be served notice to quit at any time and especially anxious when rental contracts were coming to renewal time.”
Over the 12 years they spent back in the UK, the family moved between four different rented homes, none of which they could properly make their own.
She said: “It was extremely stressful when we did have to move to start again the process of finding a property which suited our needs in the area we needed.
“None of which we could make our own or make long-term changes and as a family that was often unsettling.”
As time passed, the couple increasingly feared that age itself would stop them ever buying again.
Andrew said they thought getting back on the property ladder again “would never happen”.
The breakthrough finally came when they heard about track-record mortgages, which allow renters with a strong history of payments to buy without needing a traditional deposit.
They secured a mortgage with Skipton Building Society and moved into a four-bedroom home in a village outside Milton Keynes in February 2024.
The moment they realised they were homeowners again is one they still remember vividly.
Justine said: “Once the movers had left, we sat in the living room, surrounded by boxes whilst eating fish and chips with our family, and Andrew said, ‘This is our home’.
“Even now, when asked the question, ‘Are you a homeowner?’ We think twice and have a moment when we remember that we are.”
The couple bought the property for £390,000 on a five-year fixed mortgage costing £2,510 a month – only slightly more than the rent they had already been paying.
But after spending more than a decade believing they had missed their chance, the biggest change is simply the security of knowing the home is finally theirs again.
Justine said she now feels “completely safe” and “really relaxed”.
Andrew added: “At our age, being able to say, ‘This is our home’, is a massive relief.”
Track-record mortgages
Several lenders now offer track-record mortgages aimed at renters who may struggle to prove affordability through traditional income multiples alone. These deals use evidence of regular rent payments to support applications.
Firms offering track-record-style mortgages include Skipton Building Society, April Mortgages, Accord Mortgages and Generation Home.
Pros
Helps renters prove affordability using payment history Can benefit first-time buyers with smaller deposits May allow borrowers to access larger loans Useful for people with strong rental records but non-traditional incomesCons
Still subject to affordability and credit checks Some products may have higher interest rates Limited number of lenders currently offer them Larger monthly mortgage repayments are still possible as rates riseHence then, the article about i regret selling our home to move to spain it took 12 years to buy again was published today ( ) and is available on inews ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
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