Buy house or save higher deposit?

Hi,
Myself and GF are planning on buying house in few years. It's in Dublin, houses probably in 300k region. We're working towards target of 100k deposit in order to have lower LTV, obviously planning to save 50k each.
I currently have 65k saved, she has 10k. Hence, i have my half of deposit saved already. It will take her another four years to get to 50k. We are currently renting at cost of 1500 per month, spilt between us. Im saving 1k per month at moment, separate to the house deposit fund. No debts either of us.

Couple of questions:
1. If we aren't going to buy for four years, and i have my 50k, should i invest my 1k monthly savings? Not asking for investment advice, just if it's good ideas in general. I know people say it's silly to invest when you're paying 4% mortgage, but at moment I'm not.
2. Should we use my 65k as deposit and buy sooner than four years? We will have spent almost 80k in rent by that time, which could have been paying mortgage. However, since we won't have bigger deposit, our LTV will be higher, so will we pay more than 80k over lifetime of mortgage? Anyone do a pro/con calculation on that?
3. Would it be unwise using my 65k for deposit in both legal/emotional sense? I think we'd both prefer 50/50 from that perspective.

Any opinions?
Thanks

1. 4 years is too short a time period to invest. Pick the highest interest rate monthly saver bank account available.
2. The cost of 80k over the lifetime of the mortgage would be lower than 80k over the next 4 years due to deflation over time. In any case if you're financially ready/capable to buy
now I'd be more concerned about getting the right house for you as opposed to timing the purchase.
3. If this is a concern you probably shouldn't be buying together.

These are my opinions. More knowledgeable folk on here might have better advice...

username123 said:

We will have spent almost 80k in rent by that time, which could have been paying mortgage.

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Let's just deal with this common error first.

If you buy a house for €300k today with a €220k mortgage, you will pay around €8k a year interest per year. You will also lose the income on the €80k deposit, let's say €1k. So buying a house will cost you €36k. So the true cost of waiting 4 years is not €80k but €44k. or around €1k a month. That is excluding any changes in the prices of houses in the meantime.

You should both use all your savings to buy the house
There is really no point in you waiting for your girlfriend to come up with €50k while you have the shortfall available.
Let's say that when you are ready to buy, you have €80k and she has €20k. You can lend her the €30k.
Alternatively, you could say that the mortgage was split as follows


In particular, if you buy a house when you have €50k each, but you have an extra €30k which would bring the LTV down a notch, it would be crazy not to use your extra €30k to get you both a lower interest rate.

Put your money on deposit even if you are not buying for 4 years
Plans can change quickly. You should be ready to buy if you see the right house.

PGF2016 said:

If this is a concern you probably shouldn't be buying together.

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You need to be very clear on what you are doing here. What will happen if the relationship breaks down in a couple of years time? may not be an issue if you are both committed to a long term relationship, but your query re the even split of funds does cast some doubt on this!! Ideally you may need to consider either making a formal loan to your GF as per BB's proposal above or alternatively buying the house as tenants in common which can proportion the ownership share of each TIC. You may also consider a formal agreement for sale of the property in the event of a breakdown of the relationship.
Not very romantic I agree but better to address these issues now than risk an acrimonious dispute further up the line

Yes this is my point. As we are not married, all the best intentions in the world can fall apart. Ive read enough threads on this board about this exact scenario. Therefore, me putting in 65K and her 10k would need to be very carefully managed, no matter how unromantic this may appear.