Being engaged to your partner is an exciting time, but having the available finances for a wedding may leave you feeling conflicted on whether to arrange the big day or invest your money into property. In this article, we’ll discuss whether you should buy a house or get married…

For most couples, marriage, purchasing a house, and having children are significant parts of building their lives together. Although, the order in which to do this is often unclear to many. There is no right or wrong way to do life. Some people don’t want to get married, others don’t want to have children, and some couples want to do both. But if purchasing a house and getting married is on the agenda, figuring out what to do first is a concern of many.

The process of residential conveyancing and planning a marriage can be stressful, and that’s why when you make a decision on what you will do first, you appoint a conveyancing solicitor or wedding planner.

To learn more about whether you should buy a house or get married, keep reading…

What Are the Benefits of Purchasing a House?

It’s an Investment

Purchasing your own home over renting someone else’s is an investment. Instead of spending money that is going into paying off someone else’s mortgage, you are paying off your own. Property value has the potential to increase in the future. For example, you might purchase your home for £280,000, and in 30 years, there is the possibility that it may be valued significantly more.

Your Mortgage Might Be Cheaper Than Renting

Depending on your interest rate and the amount you borrowed from your mortgage lender, your monthly mortgage is likely to be cheaper than if you were to rent a property.

You Can Decorate it How You Want

With rented property, you most often don’t have the power to make it exactly how you want. You may not even be able to paint the walls, put photographs or shelves up, let alone undertake bigger home renovation projects.

For more information on the benefits of purchasing a house, take a look at Home Owners Alliance article on Buying vs Renting: Benefits of buying.

What Are the Benefits of Getting Married?

Increased Borrowing Power

This is an important aspect to keep in mind when you are considering getting married or buying a house. If you marry prior to purchasing a house, your marriage can provide benefits when it comes to borrowing money for your home purchase, whether that is concerning your mortgage, renovations or purchasing furniture.

Inheritance Tax Benefits

Being married not only comes with many benefits during your life, but you can also get some advantages when you pass away. These advantages can include, reducing the amount of inheritance tax your estate will need to pay.

When you leave anything valued above the threshold of your estate to your spouse, your estate will not need to pay inheritance tax. This means anything under the threshold can be left to anyone you want, children, siblings, friends, etc. Inheritance tax is also not due when you leave your entire estate to your spouse.

To learn more about the financial perks of getting married, take a look at the article Experian has: What Are the Financial Perks of Getting Married?

What Is More Beneficial Marriage or Purchasing a House?

Sadly we cannot provide you with a definitive answer as each person’s circumstances, wants, and needs can be entirely different from another individual’s. Both buying a house and getting married have benefits, but both also have cons.

The main factor to keep in mind when you decide to do one or the other is if you are using up all your savings. As, if you are, it may take a considerable amount of time to save that money again. Moreover, it is essential to consider what is more important to you.

You can make the decision by weighing up the pros and cons and taking the time to have a clear discussion with your partner about both. This will ensure that you and your partner are on the same wavelength and are both happy with the decision made.

The Decision of Whether to Buy a House or Get Married Is Yours

What we can conclude from this article is that there are both benefits to purchasing property and getting married. Although, ultimately, the decision of what order to do this in is entirely your own and what works best for you and your partner.

Let us know in the comment box below whether you are planning to buy a house first or get married.

Please be advised that this article is for general informational purposes only, and should not be used as a substitute for advice from a trained legal professional. Be sure to consult a lawyer/solicitor if you’re seeking advice on the law. We are not liable for risks or issues associated with using or acting upon the information on this site.

Disclosure – this is a collaborative post