Both my dc bought their own houses at 23 AMA

[joezoealfiecasperoli]

I hear a lot about this generation not getting on the property ladder and it is a big problem. I was amazed when both dc finished uni, got jobs and bought houses within 2 years of graduating.
To avoid drip feed
Yes they are mortgaged
They both bought with partners

Im amazed that they can afford houses on £50k combined salary

just shows the divide between north and south

When was this though? I assume not recently and house prices have gone crazy

I had my own house at this age too and we saved £30,000 deposit ourselves. Why wouldn’t this be do-able?

I did the same but I was 24. Bought a flat in London with my DP for £300k. We both had LISAs and put down a £50k deposit.

It’s definitely more difficult but it’s possible. We’re lucky to earn well and be able to save.

I did grow up in Yorkshire and a lot of my school friends purchased properties in their early 20s. They are much cheaper up there.

Good for them. Mine was 45 :-). Could have done it before but travels a lot for work and never seemed to be home long enough to organise; was also quite happy renting a house which provided a great base with no responsibility for building maintenance.

When I was young it was quite common for people in their early twenties to buy their first house, we did aged 24 and 25. Now the deposit takes forever to get together so takes longer.

I'm impressed that your children were able to do it, op.

I knew it’d be up North in cheap areas. Try doing that in London where a decent house in a good area is at least half a million!

Urgh some of the comments on this thread are grim. I don’t know what the word is for someone who can’t stand to see someone else achieve or be happy. Bitter, perhaps?

Regardless of the prices of homes in South Yorkshire, the home ownership rate is generally in line with the national average (actually, just below). The South East has one of the highest home ownership rates in the country.

OP you are right to feel proud of your children, they have done something that most of their peers (in the area or elsewhere) cannot do or don’t have the sensibility to do.

Dc got on because we live in a lower cost area and they were diligent in saving.

And because they loved at home for a couple of years paying only £200 for rent/bills. And they have partners also living at home paying minimal rent. Of COURSE they could save £6k pretty quickly.

This is why I bloody love living in Yorkshire! Good on your kids, they seem to have their heads screwed on. I was 23 when I bought my first home with my now husband. Been together since we were 19, I’m 33 now, our first house cost £122k, 10% deposit. I luckily was gifted my half by my grandad. We sold that house for £190k in 2024 and bought our second home for £255k using the equity for a deposit. We have our 2nd child on the way and we wouldn’t do anything different! We’re in West Yorkshire.

Edited to add, there are some really bitter people on this thread!!

This. I bought my first home at the age of 38, because I was single and lived in London. My friends who were in couples bought in the Home Counties in their early 20s.

Sounds like a lot of people are just trying to justify their blinkered view that they 'have' to live in London/SE because elsewhere there's no jobs/culture/diversity/whatever else they couldn't possibly live without.

But the reality is that Yorkshire is a pretty great place to live with big cities, countryside, jobs, culture, diversity and affordable housing in nice areas.

Yorkshire is nice. Barnsley and Rotherham aren’t nice areas though.

So for each mortgage there were 2 individuals. It wasn't your children on their own. And not in the south east either.

It's all also fortunate that they got jobs where they wanted to.

Your DC buying a home each is inaccurate, they both share a mortgage with a partner, would they have been able to buy alone? huge difference.

Oh please quit this ongoing thing of lumping all “the north” in as being so cheap!! It’s Rotherham and Barnsley ffs, hardly representative of everywhere north of the Watford gap!

You do know this comment makes you no better than those you accuse of sneering.

The people that live in these expensive areas will have grown up and have ties to these places too 🙄

True both worked throughout uni part time then eldest did his uni job full time until he got a job (took around 6 months) younger got a job straight out of uni

Some areas of Barnsley are lovely

I think you are mistaking people feeling "bitter" with people feeling exasperated that OP seems to find it surprising that it has been relatively easy for her children to buy a house - seemingly forgetting that they happen to live in a much cheaper area than many others, which is an obvious explanation for why they are able to do that and other young adults aren't.

The answer obviously isn't for everyone to move to a cheap area.

😂 but no areas of Rotherham?

They had to save more than that to afford fees, searches and furniture

It is such a strange thread to start. They partnered up, saved and then bought in some of the cheapest parts of the UK. They didn't find the cure for cancer!

Have you found a cure for cancer? You've kept that bloody quiet! Like the rest of us they've probably got the perfectly normal jobs that keep the country turning.

It isn't the limiting life I would want for my young adult dc

Life limiting?! They've not got terminal illnesses. Although the way some of the Southerners on this thread are talking, you'd think living in Barnsley was akin to having the plague. But much worse.

but you must be that kind of family

Yes, they sound really close. Good for them.

@Glowingup your snooty comment just shows how little you know. Yorkshire is not one big homogeneous place, its made up of various places & regions including the posher parts such as Harrogate & York. Rotherham & Barnsley are both in the traditionally more industrialised region but you don't need to travel far to access beautiful countryside & there are many pretty villages surrounding both towns including Wentworth at Rotherham which is home to one of the largest stately homes in the country

Well done them.
I think you can buy a house in them areas still with the deposit needed in some places so get your stealth brag in perspective.

If they bought with a partner, not that unusual. That’s quite affordable outside thw SE