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

Shelter is a human right.
Should property ownership also be made one?

The person in the article just wants publicity. Poor little me not able to afford to buy on £50K p.a.

My difficulty with the person in the article is them saying they can't buy on a salary of £50,000 in Birmingham. They absolutely could, it would be a flat not a house. I don't see the problem with that as a FTB?

When I was in my late 20s I wanted to buy in London. My salary was £12,000 pa. I joined forces with a single girlfriend who earned a little more than me and we bought a 2 bed flat in a cheap area (two tiny single bedrooms) jointly. I couldn't have done it any other way.

You seem to be missing that a mortgage up north is cheaper than renting. But our earning ability can be lower. So the deposit is the issue. It's ironic that you are in ex social housing. There's a shortage of affordable housing, not housing in general. I think that the solution is to not try to prop up our highstreets and convert the shops to apartments.

What? No of course not.

The whole population of the UK isn’t a homogenous mass that all want the same thing. Not all people want the same or have the same lifestyle. Some people live alone, some as couples, some in family groups or community groups.

I’m confused by your post.

This with bells on.

What a horrible race to the bottom this country is becoming.

IF, I meant to say IF you divorce 🤦🏻‍♀️

And how did I do it? By working my absolute backside off so I could afford the deposit. And then working a little bit more so I could continue to pay the bills. I’m not just sat in my house all day, crying into my cats, you know…

So when you and your husband divorce will you be moving into rented? If (heaven forbid) you became a widow, should you move into rented?

I don't think it's unreasonable for people to expect to be able to buy a house, regardless of marital status.

Single, home-owning woman here. So now not only am I a risk to the smug married’s husbands (being the harlot I am, I am obviously out to steal them all), but now I’m also taking a potential property away from the market that could be inhabited by a Happy Couple?

U ok OP? Where would you like me to live? Under a bypass?

I expect us single people are expected to join up.

Looking back through the history of the UK, what period was the best time to be a single person purchasing a house?
1990s?

So what were the factors that created that ideal/peak environment, and how can we get them back?

It's much more difficult now- that's why almost half of single parent families are below the poverty line in the UK

For the most part, that is pretty much down to a failure at many different levels to have one parent make a half decent financial contribution towards the upbringing of their children.

I’m single and on a salary higher than your combined salaries - respectfully, why on earth shouldn’t I expect to have bought my house by myself?

And I did it without parental help either. What an odd post!

I'm single and according to you shouldn't be allowed to own my own home?! How selfish and what a way to make single people lower than those in a couple.

I'm separated, I've owned property since I was 30 and when I sold the house I owned with my ex of course I wanted to get back on the property ladder as soon as possible.

My DH already owned a house on his own when we met 10 years ago. It just took a lot of hardwork and inheriting 100k from his grandfather.

Single teacher here. What should I have done waited to see if I.met someone before buying myself?

When I met DH I was single and looking for a property. I was in the civil service and got paid a decent income to get a mortgage. At the time you got a max offer of 3,x income if you were single or 3,x main income plus 1x second income.

Obviously this no longer happens and it's a pity.

surely the expectation can't be that everyone wants to buy a property themselves? And surely that's never been the expectation previously?

Actually the expectation has always been that a home should be affordable (rented or bought) on a single salary. Until we got reliable contraception as soon as a couple got married there was a risk that they'd have a child and normally that meant that the wife left the workforce and the husband's wage was meant to provide for the whole family. Its why my in my parent's generation a mortgage offer was calculated on a multiple of DFs salary alone. Longer ago than that women were usually expected (and sometimes legally required) to give up work on marriage - a friend of mine has kept her letter from the Foreign Office telling her that she would no longer have to resign if she got married and that was dated 1973....

It makes sense for homes to be affordable on a single wage - divorce, prohibitive childcare costs, bereavement, end of "job for life" security in the workforce. What happens if someone never meets a significant other - are they supposed to never have a home of their own?

The actual outlier is the recent change in the housing market - not enough affordable rental accomodation and a relatively recent change in lending criteria allowing people to borrow a multiple of 2 salaries fuelling a massive increase in house prices. Created a perfect storm.

So..if you’re single you can’t expect to have anywhere to live? Have I missed something? Honestly confused.

You would like someone to give an example... but you started the thread, so perhaps you could look for any examples needed?

Anyway, this puts the UK home ownership stats at nowhere near the top and indeed below the EU on average.

https://tradingeconomics.com/country-list/home-ownership-rate

I bought my two bed terrace myself 5 years ago. I was only on about 25k.

Of course the BBC found a transactivist to be the focus of the story. She probably doesn't even want to buy a house, just wants to be on TV.

Oh dear 😱. I’ll be sure to let her know 😬

YABVU
Who do you think should be allowed to buy tiny studio flats? Just couples and families?
A single salary should be enough to buy property. And in some areas that will be a tiny studio, in others it could be a 3 bed house.
The thing is that now, a single average salary is not enough to live on, let alone buy property.