How old were you when you first got a mortgage?

[RolyPolyBatFace]

My DD is 22 and buying her first house. She was lucky to leave university and get a well paid job and really wants to get onto the property ladder. (We are assisting with a deposit however!)

Anyway it got me thinking - how old were you when you got your mortgage? I was 30 odd so 22 seems very young to me

I was 23, 95% mortgage on my own, had saved up deposit by being very frugal. Was years ago so property prices were a lot less.

Hmmm we were 19 .

That was in 2006 ish

I was 24 and DH was 27 (almost, we bought house the day before his birthday).

I think people need to say the year they did this as well as the age. Buying a house in early 20s would be very difficult for most people now without help, in fact the average age to buy a first house is now 34 years old.

21 (2002) and bought with my then boyfriend, now husband. Paid £86K for a 2 bed maisonette that needed complete refurbishment. Cost us £12k to do and we sold it 2 years later for £152K

24, took a lot of saving but was worth it!

I was a month shy of 21, it was a 3 bed terrace & cost £29,000. My parents gave me £5,000 & we used £4,000 as a deposit & the rest to buy a washing machine & other bits for the kitchen. This was in 1999.

We both took our bedroom furniture from home & family gave us their cast offs for the living room - including my great aunts immaculate sofa that I thought was terribly old fashioned at the time but now know it was a Chesterfield.

He bought me out 4 years later, when the house was worth £45,000 & he sold it 5 years after that for £95,000. More pissed off that I left him the sofa than anything else

We're in a relatively cheap part of Scotland for perspective on the house prices.

29

That was in 2012

We had saved hard for 3 years for the £14k deposit

I was 19.

34, in 2016, with help from my parents who were newly retired and had spare cash. They couldn't have helped me before. Our outgoings (ever increasing rent and the cost of commuting into London) meant it was very difficult to save enough to keep up with house prices.

I grew up in a very expensive part of the country, it's incredible to me that people were getting mortgages while I was getting a student loan!

20

Around 23/24. When the banks were giving 100% mortgages but I declined and got a repayment as my mum was able to lend me the deposit.

20, me and ex fiancé, 24. I think in 2001 or 2.
He'd inherited £10k from a grandparent, and we'd both worked from 18 and saved hard.
Split when I was 22, and didn't lose or gain any money.

DH already had a house when we got together.

36

23, in 2014
It was a 35 year term though, we are hoping to reduce it when we remortgage this winter.

I should add, although I bought on my own at 25 the bank gave me a 100% graduate mortgage so I just needed to save for moving expenses, solicitors fees etc

Life expectancy is longer now so the comparison has less meaning...but I was 36 in 2016.

^on a 25 year term

Oh actually I was 35 in 2015 on a 25 year term.

Eek! I was 36, DH 29. I'll be working until I'm about 103 and then I'll be mortgage free yippee!

27

@BlossomOnTrees

How is everyone affording it? Assuming most of you who did this at a you g age either got a mortgage years ago, are in a couple or very high wage if a single person?

I’ll expand on mine. 23, mortgage alone, no help with deposit, 2012. No children which helps with affordability. Bought in the midlands as could never afford to move back to where I grew up in the south. I started saving from my Saturday job at college and then went to full time work at 18 instead of uni and did Open University in the evenings as it was cheaper. I had parents who let me live rent free while I saved (although I did give them money by choice and paid for everything for myself including food as it felt wrong not to). I bought a tiny flat in bad condition. I did up what I could afford to and was sometimes embarrassed about where I lived but ultimately it got me on the ladder and I was lucky that prices increased so after sitting it out for a few years I could get on the next step.

25