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

You're right. The single youth of today are so spoiled with the housing options. Do you really even need a hole? Shovel is just an extra unnecessary asset.

In 2008 I managed to buy a house on my own. I was single and wanted to buy a house. Why is that unreasonable?
It's ridiculous to suggest it is.

Wonder if @Fivebedexecutivehome will return or too busy polishing their multiple taps. I’m a single person, like others not by choice, I work bloody hard and am in a fortunate position to put a roof over my children’s head. I hope that’s ok and my married neighbours who live in an identical home don’t catch my single status

I am single and own my own home also like @CleanShirt post divorce.

I think it is hard but if it is your goal you make a way. You have to be very self disciplined with what you spend and save to get there.

By your logic, OP, if you or your spouse were to lose one of your incomes or were to separate, you wouldn’t consider it right for you to be able to own your own home.

Housing security should be a right, not a privilege. Married person who can’t afford to buy and whose income will never exceed 30k.

I think everyone should expect to earn enough of a salary to be able to buy a property.

It’s not related to buying alone or in a couple - it depends on your circumstances and income. My DD owns and is single! I myself bought my first house before I became part of a couple (although I will admit it was easier then)

Why shouldn’t a single person have the same ambitions as someone with a partner? They’re not second-class citizens. They should have every right to want the same security and invest in their future as a couple. If the only people who can expect to own a home of their own are couples, there’s something badly fucking wrong with the property market. In the 90s my DP bought a little starter house in a city as a single man on an average salary. People should be able to do the same now.

I’m sorry - why shouldn’t people expect to be able to buy a property themselves? Is that yet another aspect of life that is the privilege of being in a couple?

house prices in this country are ridiculous and it should not be that you have to be paired up in order to have your own home. I’m really shocked that people genuinely think this.

Im a single person - not necessarily by choice, it’s just how it’s worked out. I don’t know if I’ll find my happy ever after. But I’m also “lucky” that I e inherited - that, to be blunt, is how I had a deposit big enough to be accepted to buy.

So what would I have done without that inheritance? And what do so many people who don’t get inheritance do? What are we supposed to do OP? Stay at home with our parents all our lives until Happily Ever After appears? Single people don’t deserve housing?

Houses used to be 3/4 times income in cost. My little house is more than ten times my salary as a teacher. I and many many other single people are working our backsides off for a living and to keep the roof over our heads (of we’ve got one) - why should t we expect to be able to afford our own home?

It is in some parts of the country where prices are so high eg London and the South East.
The cheapest I can see is a studio 20sqm with share of freehold but no details crucially, of the length of the lease, for £199k. It's absolutely minute. You would need a £20k deposit and an income of £45-50k. London zone 5.

I bought last year on a single salary of 43k. I am married but I have the mortgage in my sole name. I would have bought regardless of whether I was in a couple.

Don't spoil these people. They can dig a hole and live in it surely?

I think that this post sort of misses the consequence of the radical social changes in the last 40-50 years.

when my parents bought a house, they were both working. But my parents were a rarity- most of my school friends had a parent (always the mum) at home full time. This trend towards ever increasing workforce participation (economist speak for women working while having children) has had the very fortunate implication of massively increasing GDP, but at the same time massively increasing demand by increasing the amount of money people had to buy houses. This pushed house prices up, which in turn forced more people to enter the workplace, to increase incomes, to further push house prices up, etc etc. virtuous (or vicious) cycle.

There was a point when yes, you could expect a single income to provide for a family. Now you cannot- the trend of ever increasing house prices (thus increasing inflation, without wages tracking) means that a single wage cannot sustain what houses cost these days (except at the very top end of the market).

Now, ideally you don’t actually have two parents working. The workload on the parents dramatically increases. My own experience is that I work double shifts in order to cover the days my wife works and we pay a child minder the other days. Thats how we manage to afford a house, but the reality is it is no longer (for the majority) to afford a house on a single wage.

Should people expect to? Well, yes, I don’t think they’re wrong for thinking that is how it SHOULD be. But how something ought to be and how it is, are two different things. The horse, as they say, has already bolted. Without a massive house price crash, it’s not going away.

But where was this..it’s all very well you saying “I did this” but it depends entirely on the area and your wage.

most people I know, including myself, don’t choose to live in expensive areas, we went where jobs were. I now live in north and see those youngsters who are even moderately waged being able to save and buy.

The OPs question is poorly worded. Is it unreasonable in the south- yes. Elsewhere where pricecto average wage is lower, then no it’s entirely reasonable to be able aftercsome years of careful saving to buy,

stupid question wording by OP frankly.

I bought my first home in 2017 aged 32, after living in house shares and saving hard I did this alone with zero help from parents, Salary at the time was around £32k and I had to compromise on what I wanted versus what I could afford. I had to live in it and do it up bit by bit, I think it can be doable being single but there are sacrifices to be made. Location, property type, size etc, I think if anyone wants to own they need to understand you have to start from the bottom and work your way up unless you have help or inheritance etc. This article is not representative…

I’m in A couple. Get married later this year. But our household income is basically that of a single person bc I can’t work full time (disabled). So we are saving a deposit but it’s taking a while (late 20s - been saving since early 20s) as we pay so much in rent etc and have to do things like have extra room in a house (for my mobility aids). I get minimum pip but it all goes on my car (needed in order for me to work at all).

it’s not as simple as people all wanting their own house and you are fortunate not to have to worry about it tbh.

You have a horrible attitude, smug doesn’t cover it.

Why can't the person in the article buy a 2 bedroom flat for £150,000 and let a room?

I live in London where living on your own when young (when renting) or owning as a single younger person has never really been the norm unless you're extremely highly paid.

Find someone to buy with as tenants in common? Separate mortgage, good legal argreements.

in 1980s-early 1990s this was very common in south . I knew loads of people doing this. Buying with mates that weren’t in relationships with, usually folks they known through uni or work. Worked well in London as so many of them ended up in London for first stage of their grad career.

the agreements all worked well and they came out of it with a foot on property ladder, when they sold up to go onto their next stage.

I bought a tiny flat by myself 15 yeas ago. I waited and saved to move into it lovely 3 bedroom house. Based on my salary and alone.

both times alone. I probably would have gotten my dream house sooner if we had 2 salaries. But deposit was the issue.

Nonsense. The cheapest property for sale in my town is a one bedroom flat for £70,000 in a lovely old chapel. The next cheapest is a two bedroom semi for £80,000.

News article becomes all about transwoman's status, even though the news story has nothing to do with sex or gender.

But MN isn't transphobic. Mmm hmm.

Maybe there will be a cool classified ad website where single people post a link to rightmove on the house they like. If someone else likes the same house, they get married and sign the mortgage papers.

I’m single. Who is it you’re expecting me to buy a home with?