We’re in Aberdeen this week (Picture: Newsline Media)
Welcome back to What I Own – Metro’s property series where we speak to homeowners about getting on the ladder.
For last week’s sister column, What I Rent, we visited Lauren May at her one-bedroom flat in Isleworth, West London. Having previously lived at home with her mum in Ealing, she decided it was time to fly the nest in 2020.
When Lauren came to buying her property just before the pandemic, she was faced with a dilemma, as she didn’t have the full deposit amount. However, she was able to borrow the shortfall from a rather unexpected donor: her boss.
This week, we’re up in Aberdeen visiting retired couple Fiona and Tim McKay, who sold their family home earlier this year and downsized into a retirement property to live mortgage-free.
The couple chose a place that was easier to maintain but didn’t compromise on space, in an effort to save time and money in their retirement.
Here’s what they had to say about their property journey…
Tell us about yourself!
We are a married couple in our early 60s with two grown-up married sons, a cat and two dogs. We have been together since our teens. We met at school in Aberdeen, where we were head boy and head girl together! We both took early retirement from our busy jobs in education and medicine.
Whereabouts is your property? What do you think of the area?
We now live in a Cala Home at the Craibstone Estate on the edge of Aberdeen. It’s a very peaceful area with lots of green spaces, yet it has excellent road, air and rail transport links very nearby.
When did you move in?
We moved into our new home in June 2024.
How much does your property cost?
Our home cost just under £550,000. Cala Homes offer a range of incentives to help people move and pay their LBTT (Land and Buildings Transaction Tax, a fee that’s paid on properties worth above a certain value in Scotland).
How much was your deposit?
We were able to reserve our home with a fee of just £1,000. On completion of the missives a couple of months later, we paid a further 2.5% of the purchase price.
What is the monthly cost of living here now, including mortgage and bills?
We are fortunate to be mortgage free, as the sale of our previous home covered the purchase price of our new home.
It’s too soon to compare the running costs here with our last property, but already the new house feels very warm, even with no heating on.
What made you want to buy rather than rent?
We were keen to live in a property that would be easier to maintain. We would have liked to self-build but couldn’t obtain planning permission on a suitable plot.
Instead, we started looking at nearby new build developments.
Where did you find your property?
Our previous home – which we owned – was nearby, and we first became aware of the Craibstone development in a …read more
Source:: Metro
