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

So people should just settle and continue in a relationship they don’t really want so they can buy a house. Then they should work full time for 40 years to pay off the mortgage on that house and stay in a relationship they aren’t happy in because at least they have a house? That’s a really depressing way to live.

Of course a single person should be able to afford a home. It isn’t just allowing single people to build a life for themselves, it allows one person in a couple to step out of work if needed (caring or health related reasons). It allows people to not stay in a relationship that is unhappy or potentially abusive. It gives a couple breathing space if redundancy were to happen.

We’ve bought three times on a single income. I was a SAHM and no benefits were involved.

That, of course, was in the dim and distant past, and I’m sad that my children are unable to do the same.

Do you mean correct sexing?

Thinking about this, my mum was married when a woman couldn't have her own bank account. I think it was 1975 when women had the right to her own. No idea how they actually went about getting one. So all mortgages had to be on the one wage.

Some neighbours are friends. Imagine!

I bought my property 5 years ago as a single person. Mortgage of £400 per month. Am I just supposed to pay £800+ rent per month for the rest of my life, never owning my own property, because I didn't have a boyfriend at the time?

Also who's paying for that extra £400 a month because my wage doesn't cover £800 on rent.

How come you don't? I live in a small town and know loads about all my neighbours, I'm even friends with lots of them! Imagine!

Can certain posters bog off with the performative misgendering? It's irrelevant to the issue and is just plain bad mannered and arrogant.
And yes, I've reported. More in hope than expectation.

I'm in my early 60s, and I've been single for decades. I bought my current 2-bedroom home when I was a single parent of two primary-school-aged DDs who've now moved out. It was a struggle for the first few years, but I've now finished paying off the mortgage, and I live comfortably. I realise that younger people in the same circumstances as I was in my 30s won't have the same options, and I think it's building up trouble for the future. I can now look forward to retiring in a few years without having to continue to pay (increasingly exorbitant) rent, and if I end up needing full-time care, I'll be able to sell my home to pay for it so that I won't be a burden to my adult children. The idea that as a single person I should have rented indefinitely, which would have meant saving far less over the period, and would have left me without significant capital, isn't a good one. I realise it's the position a lot of younger people are in, especially in some parts of the country, and I don't think it's going to end well for those people or for society/younger relatives that will end up having to foot the bill for essential care.

How do you know so much about your neighbours' circumstances?

Damm better tell dd to give up her house. Her boyfriend obviously needs to give his up too. They can rent until they decide to buy together despite them both being easily able to afford to buy and run their own properties in their 20s

Edited to add: actually I need to give up mine too till I can find some man to support me

Over the years
I have bought property as a single person
I have bought property jointly with another person

It depends on your location & finances

The person in the news article could probably buy if she expanded her location area

What a peculiar thread. Of course working adults in a healthy and balanced economy ought to be able to afford to buy a home. It should not be dependent on whether they are a couple.

The current situation is storing up problems. With the state of pensions, taxpayers will probably end up supporting all of these people who continue to need to pay rent in retirement. Home owners are usually mortgage free by retirement and are therefore more likely to be self supporting.

It’s in almost everyone’s interests for housing to be more affordable. Except bankers perhaps.

You absolutely should be able to buy a house as a single person.

I bought my first house aged 21, it was a 3 bed ex council house. I got a mortgage for it on my own, this was back in the early 90s.

Those houses are now 6 times the amount they were then which makes it impossible for my adult children to do what I did, despite them being on decent salaries. It's totally wrong that property has increased that much.

exactly, unless OP, you think only married people
should be allowed to own a home??

I think it makes people feel good about themselves to believe they were terribly frugal, everyone else is entitled and wasteful, that their property has increased in value because of their brilliant property investment genius etc.

Rather than acknowledge they’ve ridden a wave and gotten very lucky as a result.

Most adults that have owned property for 10+ years probably couldn’t afford the same property today. That’s a calculation most haven’t made

that article also said:

For potential first-time buyer households in the bottom 25% of earners (those earning less than £22,850 a year), less than 1% could get on to the property ladder in their area, the report said.
Among renters in the top 25% of earners, with an income of more than £71,250 a year, only 44% could afford to buy a first home.

I think when threshold is 75k to afford to buy a first home, large swathes of people wouldn't be able to afford it whether single or coupled. I am just pondering the fact we earned 75k combined in 2019 and bought in London. Small 1930s 2 bed flat but it was still something and it was in zone 3! How times have changed.

So single people shouldn't be able to live in their own home?

Wasn't it normal to buy a house on just a man's wage not so long ago?

Why is it no longer acceptable to be able to purchase a home on a single income?

Single people are not an underclass, just in case you didn't realise.

I’d have loved to buy a one bed flat in my twenties.

I never had enough deposit + a high enough salary - and every year the prices went up, so I couldn’t catch up!

Like many of my age group, I bought my first home in my thirties. At that age, a one bed flat isn’t suitable if you are planning on a family. And so people look for something they can spend longer in.

Nonsense?

what the op or the article?

Anyone should be able to afford a place to live. Why should you need to have a partner to afford to live?

That's a bit silly. My husband and I can't buy as we are stuck in the renting trap so can't save for a deposit despite being high earners.

Income/finances and circumstances are all different. Why shouldn't single people buy a home?