If I have a mortgage in principal for £180,000 and I have a deposit of £20,000 does that mean I can bid £200,000 on a house?

Yes if you also have about £2k for your solicitors fee's and some other money set aside for costs. You wouldn't pay stamp duty on a £200k house. However, the house would have to be worth £200k for the lender to give you £180k and you pay £20k. A lot of houses are going for more than what they're home report value says at the moment.

You would perhaps be better to look at houses with home report values of maybe £185k. That way they will lend you £148k, you pay 10% which is £14.8k then have just over £5k to pay more than home report value. It would be tight but doable. If you only have £20k and no more extra for fee's, look for houses in the £175k home report value. I hope you get what I mean

/r/UKPersonalFinance Thread