Are we doomed with yrs of renting?

[HMCheung]

Is it time that I leave London?
Both myself and partner are professionally qualified and have decent jobs in the city.
We both came out of uni with sizable debts and are currently paying them off.

Over the last few yrs, rents have increased significantly and we are saving very little.
London houses have always been expensive and small (unless you are earning a big salary or lucky enough to inherit or started in an area before the boom).
Our parents do not have spare cash to lend to us and what we have saved is actually quite little.
Even if we can get a mortgage, what we can afford would only get us a tiny flat.
So are we doomed with yrs of renting and London becoming unbuyable for us?
Or do we have to settle with commuting long distances to work?

Makes you think whether coming to join the rat race in London is worth it!

OK, the salaries in London is higher than other areas but so are house prices.
I have frds from back home who live in much bigger houses that cost a fraction of those in London, but I have to admit there are not many jobs in my profession there.

[ethelb]

we are considerign the same thing. we have a great time living and workign in london, but there is no long term future. we will never earn enough to rent a two or three bed and pay for childcare so we are wondering what to do.

[crazyhead]

Would it matter if your flat was small or you had to live in a less fashionable area to begin with? How much could you actually afford?

If you work in the City, are you in a profession where your wages are likely to shoot up at some stage?

I know it's tough, but interest rates are quite low, and if you could overpay on a mortgage, you could at least get started.

[ethelb]

op doesn't seem to think she can get a mortgage for a London home. Fair enough we cant either.

[HMCheung]

We both earn a decent wage and we are not looking at fancy places like South Ken but at areas with decent transport, good schools and with greenery and not million of miles from our places of work.
We have been working for a while and I don?t really see our salaries sky rocketing in the future.
I just feel that most of the money we earn is going down the drain helping the landlord to pay for his mortgage.
And we feel kind of trapped as we are not saving much, salaries kind of plateau, and our kind of jobs are London centred.

[ethelb]

@HMCheung I completely understand. We are the same. Joint income over £50k, but the rent on our one bed flat is 40% of take home. Plus, I see no chance of our salaries going up any time soon.

Our jobs are v london centric but we are starting to look around. Could you consider self employment that could be done anywhere in the country?

[pinkdelight]

It will be probably be possible to buy somewhere but as every there'll be compromises. Everybody wants "decent transport, good schools and with greenery and not million of miles from our places of work", but to get on the ladder, most of us have to start off somewhere less than ideal and go from there. Decide which is the most important thing and which you can compromise on and then have another look at what you can afford. I thought we'd have to leave London and go back up north, and then I discovered... Croydon! Good luck...

[PeppermintPanda]

Could you buy something outside of London and rent it out? Then at some point in the future, you'd be able to sell it and use the equity to get you onto the ladder in London.

[ClareMarriott]

This may be a good time to think about where you see yourselves in 5/10 years time. Do you still want to be the hamster on the treadmill or living and working somewhere that provides you with the life balance you want ?

[LilMissSunshine9]

I moved to Birmingham for a while and yes my salary went alot further and I was living in a flat in the city centre however I came back to London because of higher salaries and increased job opportunities. If you are happy to commute a bit you could find somewhere nice in zones 4,5 or 6. For example you can find houses for sale in Welling from £190k upwards (depending on no. of rooms) and there are good schools there - trains frequently go into london bridge.

Depends on what your budget is and what part of london you need to commute to why don't you use this site to help you: www.commutefrom.com/

Select where you need to commute to and how long you want your commute to be it will provide you will all the areas in London that are applicable - from there you can then research house prices.

[MmeLindor]

We just managed to get on the housing ladder and it was only possible because we moved to Scotland (we were abroad before, but moving to London was simply not affordable, even with the higher wages there).

The kind of house that would be your 'starter' house in London costs about £100k here, and rents are cheaper too.

Moving out of London is certainly going to increase your chances of being able to buy a house, but that all depends on if you can find work elsewhere.

We bought a house that needed a bit of work, and bought well under asking price. Because we weren't in a chain, we were able to move fast - we bought from the heirs of the previous owner so they were looking for a fast sale. The lower price meant that we could afford the downpayment.