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Original poster

I feel on a different planet to other mumsnetters in terms of budgets for purchasing homes

113 replies

Faith50 · 28/08/2019 11:39

Dh and I are discussing whether we can live comfortably if purchasing a house for £450k. We would have to seriously tighten the reins.

On the property forum I regularly read threads where MN are deciding where to live with a budget of anything from £800k to £1.3 million. What kills even more is when they receive advice that their budget will not stretch to particular roads in a given area. At this point I think "shoot me now!"

OP posts:
missbattenburg · 28/08/2019 13:00

Comparison is indeed the thief of joy...

C0untDucku1a · 28/08/2019 13:01

Im not sure ‘being a dick’ is a reason to remove a thread.

Op, seriously, you might be frustrated you can’t get what you want right now, but be less of a self-entitled baby and think about what you did wrong here and why.

  1. Post in property.
C0untDucku1a · 28/08/2019 13:01

I mean the ‘shoot me now’ comment alone was utterly disgusting.

Witchend · 28/08/2019 13:03

You remind me of a conversation I had when we were beginning to look at buying a first house.
They said:
"We nearly went to look round a house, but realised it was well out of our budget absolute mansion. Just imagine: it was £120k".
I replied:
"£120k won't get you a one bedroom flat round here."

Irony was that they earned about 3 times our amount.
It's prospective from where you are. They lived in an area where you could get houses for £30k, so £120k seemed ridiculously too much to them."

Drabarni · 28/08/2019 13:07

It's relative I'm in the NW and you'd get a huge mansion for your budget.
Swimming pool and all the luxuries normally associated with the budget that seems high to you.

CoolCarrie · 28/08/2019 13:09

Don’t believe everyone on here op, especially when it comes to môney and houses !

inwood · 28/08/2019 13:21

My teeny tiny house, victorian terrace, is valued at way over half a million. This isn't a good thing. We desperately need more space, twins and a dog. Can't move further away as childcare falls apart and looking at paying 6k on travel. It's consequence of living in the SE but my career is here, i cant just pull it up to the far north of Scotland for a cheaper house.

aintnothinbutagstring · 28/08/2019 13:25

Well I'm in the SE in a leafy commuter town (half hr train to London), 450k would get you a decent 4 bed semi or detached house Confused Not understanding OPs issue really. Surely you'd be quite thick to not realise those with a budget of 800k to a mil are the privileged few!

Rainbowhairdontcare · 28/08/2019 13:27

inwood I think you've hit the nail, in the end we're tied to our circumstances. Here I am, brought to a county with minimal opportunities for someone with my skills, warning MW because I have a 50/50 custody. For this I have to have a pay cut of about £35k. Houses over here aren't that cheap either, I have to buy whatever I can afford.

Justaboy · 28/08/2019 13:28

Bit of a silly post i mean location and that again and again!

Somewhere up North say Rotherham a three bedder what 30 to 60 £K maybe less in our back yard a million for a half decent one these days:(

AudacityOfHope · 28/08/2019 13:29

OP doesn't actually have an issue aint

She wanted to flaunt her good fortune while playing woe is me, got caught out, and now wants the thread deleted in case even more people notice her unpleasantness.

Bookworm4 · 28/08/2019 13:35

@inwood
WhereI live, within easy distance to Edinburgh Airport, there are a large number of people who work in London, fly down on Monday 6am flight, back Wed or Thurs evening and work from home the other days. Financially better off purely due to property prices.

BuzzShitbagBobbly · 28/08/2019 13:35

It's relative I'm in the NW and you'd get a huge mansion for your budget.

There was a thread recently where there were several incredibly indignant MNers saying the North wasn't cheap and just as expensive as South and how dare anyone say it cost less up there.

Make yer minds up Grin

TheViceOfReason · 28/08/2019 13:41

Hilarious OP feeling a bit hard done by that you'd have to tighten the reins and struggle a bit to spend £450k on a house when others spend £1M.

Do you have no awareness of the world around you and that if you choose to live in more expensive areas, property will cost more - and if you live in cheaper areas it will cost less?

There are people struggling to buy a £50k home.

Equally there are places where £450k would buy a stunning house.

I struggle to believe somebody can be so oblivious.

amusedbush · 28/08/2019 13:44

We've just bought a three bed ex council house for £70k in Glasgow Blush

HazelBite · 28/08/2019 13:44

If you drive North for a couple of hours from where I live in the South East you can buy a lovely 4 bedroomed detached house for what you would pay for a one bedroomed flat. This was the scenario with DS1 and DS2, one living in a flat the other in the 4 bed house.

Roomba · 28/08/2019 13:45

My house cost £88k (next door bought theirs a couple of years before for £42k, I should have bought in 2002 not 2005)!

Current budget is £0 as I'd never get a mortgage again now under the newer lending criteria, so I'm stuck here. Al though I feel pretty grateful that I own a house at all, as most people I know that are under 40 would never be able to afford one unless they inherited a large amount. I don't know who all these people are who can spend £800k on a terrace - but then I'm in the North where salaries tend to be much lower anyway.

RavenLG · 28/08/2019 13:46

Well, this didn't turn out how you hoped did it op?

ShirleyPhallus · 28/08/2019 13:48

But when £1m budget gets you a 3 bed terrace in zone 3 of London it really doesn’t feel much to brag about

Lolz at getting the thread deleted too

Biancadelrioisback · 28/08/2019 13:49

So our budget is and was £180k. That would have been pushing it but just about doable.
Some friends of ours were looking in the same area with a budget of £450k. We both bought houses which are streets apart, not a huge difference in size (ours is 3 bed, theirs is 4). There's had a much better layout and was a new build, ours is 1950s build with a few silly little spaces which we could really do without. Theirs was all clean and white and required nothing doing to it. Ours required a lot of decorating, literally the whole house from scratch. We've both lived in our houses for just over a year and we have only just finished our last room. Oh but now the chimney needs repointing and the garden is still a state but we're out of money for this year.

They recently started whinging about wanting a new bathroom as their luxury, free standing, claw footed bathtub just wasn't deep enough. I was about ready to box their pair of them!

Theworldsgonemad · 28/08/2019 13:50

This is for the privileged few;
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-63271434.html

midsomermurderess · 28/08/2019 13:51

That Winchburgh house is hideous.

LiveInAHidingPlace · 28/08/2019 13:53

Haha, for me, 250k is a wildly crazy budget.

Catch yourself on.

Bookworm4 · 28/08/2019 13:59

@midsommer
I’m not a fan of new builds but if you are it’s good value.

starsparkle08 · 28/08/2019 13:59

My home was £101,500
It’s a roof over my head , in a pleasant area ( mainly elderly people ) and I’m quite happy .
Yes if money were no object there are improvements I would make but overall I feel safe with my son here