People who've climbed up the property ladder after their first purchase, how did you do it?

[HowdyBubble]

If you were in a situation where you were sole "owner" (i.e. paying a mortgage - not paid off) of a small 3-bed terrace in a town which you bought when you were aged mid/late-20s and you've now climbed up to affording a larger house (semi-detached/detached) and/or in larger cities, how did you manage it and how old were you when you managed to climb up from your starter home?

Ideally looking for stories where someone didn't win the lottery or get a hefty inheritance to facilitate the step up lol.

Thanks

Continuing to save and making improvements on the current house. This does mean you have to cleverly buy houses that need a bit of love.

Bought 3 bed terrace terrace with 25% deposit (from savings - I had a £35k job but DH was on £12k so we lived as if we both earned £12k).

Kept that house but kept outgoings low and overpaid mortgage and saved as combined salaries grew to low 6 figures and then able to put a 30% deposit down on next house 7 years later (4 bed semi).

Continued to save and overpay even though earnings dropped due to kids and then after 5 years sold that for a £50k profit and then moved into large detached in same area. Needs work but we have savings still to do that.

So basically each living on lower earning partner’s wage, saving and luck with the housing market.

Same as PP, we bought a run down Victorian. Did it up bit by bit over 5 years, but had no love left for it at the end of that- made a really decent profit as it was so nice, then moved into a new build with the profit- couldn’t face anymore home repairs😫

Came out of marital home with 5k equity then bought jointly with a friend, came out with 12k equity 3 years later.

Bought on my own, for 20k so 8k mortgage.

Sold for 64k six years later as I'd done lots of work on house and market was booming.

Downsized to cheaper area [now a very sought after area] and smaller house so bought next house for cash outright for 59k ...mortgage owed was then 5k so paid that off out of the 64k.

Been a cash buyer ever since for years and years now buying up properties which need refurbishing/redoing gardens etc so making a profit each time then buying another doer upper...and making a profit.

So bought the cheapest/shabbiest houses in increasingly better areas and have done a lot of very hard work. Moved up each time either in terms of desirability/size of property or more popular area...terrace to semi, to detached, to better detached/better area etc. etc.

Bought first home in our early 20's. Stayed 5 years, over which time we both got better paid jobs / promotions. We were then able to buy a detached family home, which rose in value very quickly so we ended up selling that too (moved abroad).
I think waiting to have children until we already had the bigger home was key for us as we probably wouldn't have been able to afford the move on top of nursery fees or losing one wage.

Bought a house for 160,000, stayed for 4 years and then sold for 190,000. Bought a detached 3 bed that needed complete renovation for 240,000 but should be worth 350/370,000 when done.
Has been hard work but the only way of moving upwards.

OP, in short, you need at leat one of the below:

Pool resources with a partner who also has their own house
Add value to your current property to profit at sale
Earn more money to extend your borrowings
Downgrade your area to increase property size
Move to a cheaper part of the country to increase property size

We lost £1k on our first flat. Bought a 3 bed semi at a good price and about doubled our money on it over 10 years. Gave us deposit for our current house, 4 bed detached. Will be here until kids leave, then we'll downsize and be mortgage free

We rented then after about two years bought our first house. Nine years later we're still here. It's a three bed semi with drive, garage etc do no need to move but our plan is to downsize to a two bed in a more expensive town

If we later come into inheritance we'll move to a bigger house or even Spain

We overpaid the mortgage and sold for 50% more than we bought for, 6 years later. It was important to me not to overstretch on our first property.

1991 bought a house for 52250.

1994 it was worth 49500 and we wanted to move upmarket. We had to save to pay off the negative equity and find another 5% deposit. We made a very very tight budget and often ate chopped tomato pasta and tomato based vegetable curries. We didnt have children and did both work. We saved like mad for a year.

Then we bought a detached 3 bed with garden and sea view for 75000. With 5 percent deposit.

It had been on the market dor 120000 so it was worth the saving on negative equity as we saved more on this one than we lost on ours. Plus we have been here 30 years and had a family here. Saved a lot in fees not having to move many times over the years.

Bought 2 bed London flat for 346k in 2014. Spent 12k renovating. Sold for 450k in 2018 and bought 3 bed semi for 570k. This also needs renovating but plan to spend about 40k. Similar houses sell (or were selling before covid...) for around 650k.

Thanks a lot so far everyone. What kind of renovations weren’t too pricey to do compared to the increase in value it gave you?

Do you think places 60 miles northwest from London are likely to fetch good grains in property value over time or is it mainly only places in London? Assuming covid changes are not considered.

Dumb luck. Bought a flat in 98 in the wrong part of town, against everyone’s advice. Property market went stratospheric overnight, and the wrong part of town suddenly because cool and fashionable. Value of flat quadrupled in the space of about two or three years.

I renovated the flat myself, but any value I put on it was a drop in the ocean compared to the other factors.

Don't assume prices will rise in London. A friend recently was selling his 1bed flat he brought for £500k a couple years ago and has lost money on it.

We're in the SE. Bought a new build 2bed terraced 3yrs ago and are losing £7k in our current sale. Buying a 4bed detached house.

Overpaid on mortgage payments. Decent pay rises. Cashing in investment accounts. And small investment from my parents (not really making a difference in actually buying the house, but will help with decorating).

Good timing and pure luck. Me and my DP got our first place For £158k, just before the country was coming out of recession. We found Lloyd’s had a mortgage where you only had to have a 5% deposit (the only 5% deal we could find at the time) and the LA would act as a guarantor which is why the bank allowed it. Our LA was apart of that scheme.The home was in a town just outside of London, with loads of routes to commute, so at the very least it holds its prices but tends to shoot up quickly. It was a one bedroom maisonette.

A month after we moved in, we were coming out of recession and the estimated value of our house went up by £30k. When we came to sell it 3 years later we sold for over £100k more than we brought it for. This gave us a large deposit for our new place and even paid for our wedding. We also were both earning more as we both had promotions during that time so could get a bigger mortgage.

We moved further away from london as we couldn’t afford a larger place in the same area and brought a 3 bedroom detached house with a large driveway, dining room and garden. I still work in my old town so it’s still within commuting distance.

Initially, it was chance and timing. My husband bought a small house in the SE aged 18, I separately bought a flat in London with a 100% mortgage (back when those were a thing) in my 20s. By the time we met and then married in our early 30s, we had both benefitted hugely from our respective homes going massively up in value. We sold both to buy a house together, literally "the worst house in the best area" we could afford - untouched since the 60s. We spent seven years doing it up, and eventually building a big extension, before selling it for a large profit. That funded the purchase of our dream house, along with a larger mortgage which was now affordable as our salaries had gone up in the 25 years since we'd first got on the property ladder. We would only downsize from this house.

Always stretch yourself - always always always

My nephew and his girlfriend bought a flat, oldish one but in a nice area, however it was still 1970s decor - old lady.
They modernised it themselves (he's an electrician so quite handy withthings, and she's a dab hand at interior decor), new kitchen, redecorated, recarpeted throughout all very nice and modern and neutral, 18m later sold and bought a nicer 3bed semi with garage, better area but also a do-er upper (was early 1990s interior).
They don't drink, smoke, or eat out much and holiday in the UK, no kids yet , were saving for a wedding in August but have postponed so I imagine this house will be on the market soon to swap for another do-er up-er

Just down to property value increases

First 1 bed flat for £140k, sold 5 years later for £185k
2nd property 2 bed detached £200k, sold 5 years later for £300k
3rd property 2 bed cottage in tourist spot £355k, sold 1 year later for £395k (due to divorce and so the proceeds were split 50/50)
4th property was then a victorian terrace in a more expensive area but needed full renovation for £300k
Was looking for 5th property move just before lock down, 3 years after buying 4th house and my budget was £420k

To add - the last/current house took £30k of renovations and was valued at £380k after renovations

Luck.

Bought a flat at the very bottom of the market, sold 3-4 years later for a 3 bed house. Stayed there 20 years, extended, redecorated and did a lot of tarting up before putting it on the market. Now in a bigger place that we do not plan on selling ever.

Key is not expecting to trade up quickly, and putting a lot of effort into getting the best price when you seek. Take advice, spend money, put things into storage etc.

‘Seek’ should say ‘sell’.

Bought a wreck of a house and learned as I went though I knew the basics from my dad who was pretty handy. Apart from rewiring and a new central heating system which were done by professionals, I did a lot of painting and tiling undoing the previous owners decorating taste (raspberry pink ceilings with gold paint on the cornice anyone?). It did not cost a fortune to do but I spent hours of labour on it. Steaming off the artex on the ceilings and scraping off the cornicing were particularly rubbish tasks.