Can I get a postgraduate mortgage?

b>Q I am 28 and about to commence a PhD. I have looked into mortgages for postgraduates, but they don't seem to exist. I am funded for three years on £17,000 tax-free and will have excellent job prospects at the end of the three years.

It seems ridiculous that as soon as mortgage advisers hears the word "student" they are no longer interested. Is this the case with every mortgage company?

AW

A The problem isn't the word "student" but the short-term nature of your income according to Ray Boulger of independent mortgage advisers, John Charcol. However, if you could get either (or both) of your parents to act as guarantors for a mortgage, you would find a lot of lenders would be willing to lend to you (assuming that you met all their other lending requirements) including the big high-street names.

If your parents can't help, or you don't want to ask them, the only alternative would be a self-certification mortgage, which doesn't require you to provide proof of your income or say what its source is. However, self-certification mortgages tend to be expensive, you'll typically need to use a broker to find a suitable lender (which usually involves a fee) and you'll need a minimum deposit of around 15% of the valuation of the property.

I should also stress that "self-certification" doesn't mean that you can fib about your income (which would be a criminal offence). It merely means that you don't have to provide the kind of documentary proof that you need when getting a mainstream mortgage.

Finally, although you say that you will have excellent job prospects once you've completed your PhD, you don't say where those jobs will be. If you plan to move elsewhere once you've finished, it could well be that the costs involved in buying and selling property far outweigh the benefits of buying somewhere rather than renting.