To think you shouldn't expect to buy a home on a single salary?

Sorry but that's ridiculous. Some people are single and whether it's by choice or not, they should be able to afford homes too.

One of our single bosses has just bought a £2m home, all on her own with no family help. Not an average salary of course but I'm happy for her.

Eh? Our eldest is a teacher in her 30’s. She has a boyfriend now but bought her first flat in her 20’s on her own when she was single. She now has a bungalow that she bought on her own! I’m confused by your post to be honest!

You're being pretty singleist, OP. Shouldn't people without a partner be entitled to live without the hazards associated with renting - rogue landlords, leaky roofs, mould, no-fault evictions...? Do you see them as somehow less deserving?

Singapore is a city, a mega city. So is London, 50% of homes here are flats. DH and i live in London, hence we bought our flat as FTB as did DH's parents in the 1980s.

home ownership in different countries obviously looks very different but the one thing they do have in common is that at some point the mortgage payments stop . It is less important in some countries like Germany where historically many people had good pensions which enabled them to pay rent in old age. In the UK it is very important due to us having low state pensions. In Singapore too, government is ultimate freeholder for the government subsidized flats too but what gives them the edge over UK private renters is they can decorate their homes as they like, they don't need to move if they don't want to and they dont need to pay rent in their old age (in fact many higher income people in singapore who can afford private housing choose to invest their money in ETFs rather than pay mortgage interest for a freehold home that they would have to downsize from to release money).

When people talk about not owning a home in the UK, they are talking about potentially not being able to retire, being priced out of their area and having to move every year. All stuff we should really legislate on.

I have a feeling that if it wasnt single ppl with no kids we were talking about here you wouldnt be expecting them (families) to live in a flat.

Here is the reality.

Your Singapore comparison Artificialhouseplant · Yesterday 21:28
Singapore social housing is extremely well designed. I spent a week staying with a relative in their government flat. It was spacious, practical and very comfortable. Every block has a small supermarket and a car park. The lifts work and everything is clean. Plenty of facilities.
vs the reality in the UK.

<sigh>
certain organisations need to start using their common sense. Doing gas safety checks when its 30c so the bloody heating has to be switched on. When flats like mine are like a fucking sauna. Ours is due on Monday. Thank fuck we are capped. Our choice

There is only one entrance AND exit to this shithole and that leads out to the communal hallway which is concrete and a lot cooler and YES i have seriously considered sleeping out there. despite the ex offender downstairs The stairs then lead out to the main door which yet again is the only entrance and exit. Do you really need to be told about cavity wall insulation and how that has turned some homes into sweatboxes. My housing association has put loads of it into our walls. They get funding for it. ££££ Contractors get ££££ We have black cladding BLACK cladding Soaks up the heat. Other estates ive been to have white. The flats here are over insulated and over heated.
Im not staying a sweaty mess just to please others especially when im hated by many on here for being a social housing tenant.
My fridge freezer really struggles in the tiny galley kitchen in the summer. No problem with it in the winter. Because the kitchen is so small everything is so close together. oh and in 2020 they replaced the roof which is also black

That ^^
I couldn't afford rent

@GettingAroundTown so, you agree with the the points I made (which you previously tried to antagonise about) and instead of just saying that you're moving on to something else?

You'll be coming out with anti-immigration twaddle next so I won't engage further!

I don't think anyone is saying that EVERY adult should be able to afford to own their own home, the point of the article is that someone who's earning a decent salary (£50k, which is easily what 2 adults might also earn combined) which is in the top 15% of UK salaries should be able to afford to......because if they can't, then there's not much hope for the other 85%!! Your initial comment was that no one who's single should expect to, which also disregards the fact that many people earn more than some households with 2 salaries, and if they don't have kids their outgoings will be proportionally less.

I’ve always been single, by choice. Do you think I don’t deserve a nice little place of my own?

Not if the landlord is the state though as used to happen.
In fact one could argue that, the drive to have 'more homeowners' as a sole metric is a cause of the current crisis.
Gov sold off social housing , didn't build more but opened BTL. They decided to pay LLs to house people with housing benefit instead of bolstering social housing.

Even if prices dropped tomorrow it won't get around the issue that there's simply not enough suitable homes. Yes, some of the stock isn't being used fully but unless we build a massive amount it's not happening.

But nobody wants a big estate or large tower blocks near them.

So many threads in planning permission/traffic/blocks the light/blocks the view blah blah blahdy blah.

So unless somebody says 'everyone should be a homeowner AND I am happy for them to build loads in my area' it's all just empty words :)

I've always bought and owned my own home from age 21 as a single mother. I didn't get anything from his father or relatives.
I've never rented.
It depends how much you have in savings and how much you earn and what area you live in.
I couldn't have bought anything in London..I've always lived in cheaper rural areas.

A single person should absolutely be able to afford to purchase adequate housing OR be able to access social housing. One average full time income ought to afford something like a 2 bed terrace or flat. Currently an average house is like £100k over what an average earner can afford.
But that article is a really poor example, there's really no reason he hasn't bought, unless he has children or lots of debt.

it is very normal for people to live alone in scandinavian countries. sweden home ownership stats are similar to ours. 42.5% of Swedish households are single person households. I imagine many of them own, given the home ownership stats.

And not just the old, cos many young people move out too.

But they have rent controls and long term rent contracts which facilitates single people moving out early and saving money. in the uk we prioritize home ownership and rental is seen as something that is done by students, migrants, people on short term contracts and young people who do it for a short time before buying (though this is no longer true). So housing policy is tilted towards owning a home to the detriment of renters and mathematically this means that couples find it easier to get a home cos 2 incomes are better than 1.

Buying a home is usually on credit and those on higher incomes (or two lowish incomes) experience a multiplier effect which greatly affects prices.

I’m a single parent and was left to buy a house on my own. It has been tough and finances remain tight. My mortgage deal ends in October and I’m dreading the impact of increased repayments.

You only have to see the way SH tenants are spoken about on here and in society to see why people want to buy. I could link a thread about social housing tenants and a thread about prisoners which shows the prisoners are more well thought of

Well, that's your opinion. But if you look at threads on here, so many people in the UK won't even consider a house without a garden, let alone a flat. A garden is erm 'essential' apparently.

Countries with a very high rate of home ownership and a similar land profile to the UK like Singapore have a lot of densely packed flats.
Other places like China which while it has a seemingly high rate of ownership, 'ownership' = 'leases' with the government owning the land and being able to change their minds.

Places like Sweden have a 15% higher rate than the UK but have far less migration.

Also, speaking of migration, who is this 'everyone' who should be homeowners? UK citizens? Permanent residents? Students, long-term immigrants, people with X number of years working history?

There are plenty of countries where people on an average salary could buy if they wanted to, yes. Many countries have an over 80% home ownership rate. It used to be that way here too before house prices went a bit crazy. And as many people have pointed out, people would buy on one salary and support a whole family on that. Why shouldn't people be pissed off about that not being an option now? If you and your DH hadn't been able to buy would you have just shrugged and said oh well (or would it have been different because you're a couple?)? Also, the point is that many of the people unable to buy pay far more in rent than their mortgage payment would be. So they clearly can afford a mortgage but the lending criteria often mean they still don't qualify.

God MN cracks me up Single people shouldnt buy a house but yet shouldnt get social housing either. Im married but i was told on a thread on here i shouldnt be in SH unless i had kids. Like someone with kids could live in my one bedroom sweatbox .....................despite me being expected to.

@GettingAroundTown yes I do mean on any wage or salary. Everyone has the right to a stable home and it's a shame that the destruction of the social housing system in the UK has led to a situation whereby more people need to buy. And I say need to buy because mortgage is often cheaper than rent and landlord are often unscrupulous

I have bought flats & houses as a single working female person

However, I hear that this would have been impossible in the past due to the patriarchal society

Single salary is meaningless. It can be 10K or 300K.
Do you mean minimum wage?

Surlry it's about salary as opposed to single v couple. I think anyone who works should be rewarded with being able to build capital and buy a home if they wish.