Be happier or prioritise getting on the ladder?

I would stay and save. When me and my husband were teenagers/ early twenties I was desperate to move out of home and wanted to rent but he encouraged me to stay until we had a deposit to buy and I’m glad we did. You will get something even better for your money when you buy, we are now in our early 40s and our mortgage on a 5 bed detached house is less than your rent. Can you cut back anywhere to save quicker?

So you need £11k plus likely another £5-6k to cover fees. If you can afford a bigger place to rent for £495 more a month plus larger bills then you must be able to save £600/month if you choose to. With that in a year you’d have £13k & in 2 years £20k. At that point you could start looking and continue to save to cover rest of the costs of moving. If you want to buy long term it’s definitely worth dealing with a small place for a couple of years.

Take the hit now , stay in the flat until your deposit is saved . You’ll thank yourselves in years to come and especially when you don’t have to pay rent into retirement. Besides you can’t beat your own front door .

Listen to your Mother. It's bloody irritating, but they're usually right. 😊

That's good!

Mum's don't always know best but, in this case, she was talking sense.

It would also give us space to think about starting a family… but we may not afford it! 😂

If you're thinking about a family, sorry but you are doing things the wrong way round. Have the baby and THEN worry about getting the extra space.

If you want a child, stay where you are for now, and save as much money as you can. Save save save. You're only 29. Save for 3 or 4 years, then have a child and move house once you can actually afford it.

£6k in savings is peanuts OP, I'm sorry, but if you want a family then I would really recommend making the sacrifices now rather than throwing your money away on a bigger house before your child(ren) even come along.

You can move once your baby is here - a tiny one will be absolutely fine in a small flat. (I know because I'm doing it myself!)

after years of renting we finally bought last year. Mortgage is quite high as we had a low deposit and had to use credit card to do it up. So I would absolutely stay where you are and save like mad. A few years before we had moved area and to a bigger house which was a lot more rent and whilst it was fine for us at the time and we needed the move we could’ve saved loads more in the smaller house

Also I wouldn’t worry about the wrong way round. We had child, got married, bought a house 😆

I know you have already made (the right) decision but being happier for me means not paying someone else's mortgage and buying myself a house.

Stay in the flat and save. You’ll be pleased in the long run

team mum.

You have asked what I would do, and what I would advise my young adults children to do - and that would be to stay in the flat and keep saving to buy.

I was actually living in my 1 bedroom flat when I got pregnant with dc1. We sold and move to a house when I was around 6m. In hindsight, we would actually have remained in the flat with the baby and taken our time with the move from flat to house.

I would stay put, save and look to buy before having children. Having children can impact how much you can borrow and how much money you have more generally.
I’d plan to get married before buying together and having children too- small registry office do is fine!

Honestly it’s the best decision, or you will be approaching pension and still in rented having suffered years of increasing rents and landlords selling up

save, stay put. Get your own house, have kids.

What about a buying scheme with part ownership? Any option of lower deposits then? That way bigger house and on the ladder so not wasting as much on rent

You need a lower deposit, yes, but you then have to pay the mortgage, rent and service charge so it can be expensive. Worth carefully doing the sums.

You’ve made the right decision: I bought as a single woman (in London). Sharing a flat with friends until I was 34 to make it happen

Now 50 and have 2/3 equity of a 3 bed house I own myself … sometimes you have to make compromises today to have a better tomorrow