If your house is worth £1m+....

[cumlaude]

Where I live, SW London, there are rows upon rows upon rows of streets of average looking terraced houses worth £1m+

I can't imagine everyone living in these houses earns the £200k single income, or two people earning £100k each, to secure such a large mortgage plus a very hefty deposit.

So if you live in a house worth £1m+ how did you afford it? Did you ride the London property wave, inherit some money, or just earn loads?

FWIF I'm a renter in a share house and I'll NEVER be able to afford to buy in the area I currently live.

(Also a prolific name changer on MN in case anyone starts yelling at me that it's my first post!)

Mine isn't quite at the £1m level but is similar. Small terraced house supposedly 'worth' an extortionate amount. We bought ten yrs ago and stretched ourselves then house prices rose very quickly , eg up 80% in a few years. I think most people I know around here have a bigger deposit through rising house prices plus massive mortgages.

I don't feel such high prices benefit anyone including us who supposedly have more equity now.

Yea @Zebrasinpyjamas my ex who was a bit older than me bought "at the right time" in 2009 when house prices were "accessible" and his house is worth just over a mil now, seems insane!

High earnings here.

I can't imagine wanting to live in a tiny wee terrace if I earned £200k per year. It's crazy.

@PetrichorRain Neither could we so were in a large detached in a cheaper part of London. However, many people aspire to be in areas that are traditionally seen a very very affluent middle class enclaves and will happily spend 1M on a two up two down...

I also curious to know this!

Ours is allegedly worth 1M - neighbours are on sale for that, but no takers after a few months. Bought about 15 years ago for under 300k, have refurbed and done a loft conversion and prices have more than doubled in the area.

I've wondered this for ages too. Not so much how people are currently living in these houses (price inflation explains that) but who is buying them when they come on the market, which they do all the time. There can't be THAT many people earning £200k a year and having £250k in cash for a deposit. Or can there?

If so what do they do and how can I change career.

If I may add to the question raised by Petrichor and JoJo we take home £350k (in Middle East have been for a while now, both work) but have a house (our home) in the UK worth a third less than our annual salary. We're terrified that should something happen to our earning ability, we'd never be able to afford the big house and everything else that comes with it. Credit crunch hit my DH profession hard and don't want to be vulnerable should everything go tits up again. We have nice holidays and savings instead.

I do still look at the big houses to see what's out there

This thread inspired me to check out just how batshit prices are in London. I searched rightmove for Chelsea which I know is probably one of THE prices areas but I'm from the north and don't know the names of many parts of London. Anyway I found these "gems"

Garage worth more than my house, also it's called a studio flat but SURELY that's a mistake as it doesn't have a bathroom?! And is, well, a garage.
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-66538291.html

Several 1 bed flats at around the quarter million mark which have less than 10 years on their leases (how much would renewal of that be?), this is the cheapest.
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-65571307.html

A 3 bedroom flat with a 16 year lease for almost a million
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-79557989.html

3 bedroom terrace for 1.75 million (I quite like the look of this, but not for the price!)
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-71361601.html

What surprises me is that people would spend £1m to live in a terrace house . If I had a million quid to spend on a house I’d want it to something a little bit special .

blimey! pringles you could get a terrace like that 1.75 million round here for about 90 grand!

threads like this remind me why I like living in Yorkshire

I cant answer your question OP as my house is worth about the same as that lovely garage posted by pringles

Climbing the property ladder:

First flat 1997- £125k
House 2002- £350k
Flat sold in 2006- £350k
House sold in 2012- £550k
Current house purchased in 2012- £780k
Current value after lots of work £1.3m

It’s taken 22 years of home ownership and a few sacrifices along the way.

Start small and things grow.

Ours is worth considerably more than £1m and cost less than £500K but that was 25 years ago! It is terraced but it's big. It's very near a tube station with a couple of other tube lines not far away and a good overground line. Lots of green spaces but 20 mins to Leicester Square. DH was born in this area and I grew up not far away. We bought it at a stretch when he sold the company he had started 5 years earlier at great risk and with lots of responsibility. Neither of us has inherited and we are not going to now. It's a lovely house and a fantastic area. The only downside is quite poor state education options or religious schools.

1.75 million for a pokey wee end of terrace ? It doesn’t even have a garden with a lawn !
It is pretty though but not 1.75 m pretty 😱

BIL has a house that he paid £1.2m for. New build in Herts (no inheritance etc, but a good bit of equity from his last house when they sold, and a very high earner). An identikit house, had loads of snagging issues that are still not resolved over a year later. Sod that. I don't care how close it is to the M25 or 'good schools'.

@BigtubofPringles you can buy 2 terraced houses on my street in the East Midlands for the price of that garage!

If I had £1m plus to spend on a house I absolutely would buy a nice terraced house with a small garden in a smart part of London. It would be fantastic to have all of the city on the doorstep. It would need 4 bedrooms though.

But I adore London (despite living in the North Pennines!)

Most of my family are dead and the inheritance added up, I was rich before I was 5 years old. That’s been invested very wisely, plus I have a business. DH also earns a huge amount of money

My home is worth just over 1 million, but it’s not a small terrace, it’s a 6 bedroom house with a massive garden just outside a lovely village in the south of England.

I am even more agog at Shmithecat2 saying that identikit new builds sell for a million, and not even in "proper" London! The south truly is another country

Ours is ballpark that figure but outside London so slightly larger than the ones you refer to probably. We both bought smaller houses before we met, pooled the profits from those plus some savings from bonuses etc for a reasonable deposit. No inheritance! Have a largish mortgage and are overpaying where possible. It’s also gone up in value. I earn a six figure salary, my DH far less.

Ours is worth about £1.2M and is a very ordinary suburban house which is in no way exciting. Paid less than £500k about 14 years ago from the profits of mine and DH previous properties which we had bought when property was still affordable. Spent a lot of money on the house but still have crazy equity in it. It was meant to be a stepping stone to something bigger but we need £1.6k+ to make it anything worth moving for and we aren’t prepared to take on that debt so we are here forever now.

There can't be THAT many people earning £200k a year and having £250k in cash for a deposit. Or can there?

Yes. In london there are many couples earning that.

All 3. Inheritance (unfortunately), got lucky with selling flat in East London ‘trendy’ area and my DH works for an investment bank.

Ours is worth around £1M. We bought 6 years ago for 600K and have done a huge amount of extension and improvement work (re-wiring, plumbing, 3 new bathrooms, enlarged 3 bedrooms, made layout more logical type works).

We are both high earners, had a smaller property to sell as part of the deposit, plus a lump sum from a former employer. So, a combination of circumstances. I anticipate there may be some inheritance on my side at some point, but clearly there are no guarantees.