How do people without family help buy houses ??

[01Username01]

As the title says, how do people who don’t have family help buy houses ?? I’ve been saving for the last 10 years to buy a house and every time I get close, prices seem to jump again and it’s still out of reach.

Me and my partner earn decent salaries and have what I thought was a decent deposit but it just never seems enough. Prices in my area seem to have got totally out of control and 2 bed bungalows are now going up for £650k.

Everyone we know has been given significant deposits (£200k+), whereas we have no family help and it’s starting to feel like it will never happen . Has anyone been able to buy in this situation ?

My son is 24 and in the process of buying his first home. He’s currently renting a single room in shared accommodation and has lived a very meagre life for the past two years to save his deposit. We have not been able to give any financial help as we have 3 younger kids. It’s doable.

I live in the SE and bought a 2 bed terraced house for £250k so for starters can you look at terraces or flats?
We didn’t get given any money by parents but I got some money from a lawsuit a few years before buying and lived very frugally for a few years to make up the rest

I bought a flat in a cheaper not so nice area of the city. Yes I would’ve loved something in the trendy bit but that was never going to happen as they were double the price so comprises had to be made.

The South East is a VERY large area with wildly different prices for similar properties. Assuming you need to commute to London there are areas of Kent, Essex, Herts which are more affordable than for example the more desirable parts of Surrey. You clearly need to widen your search area

Oh come on of course there is something cheaper available !
I just bought a 2 bed flat for 370 in zone 2 in London !!

Prices are wild but a quick Rightmove search of SE england reveals approximately a trillion properties cheaper than £650k, with more bedrooms. We’re on the property ladder (yes with family help; no not £200k!!) but we can’t afford more than £450k for our next move – lo, we’ve found £450k properties with four bedrooms. We’ve just let go of some other dream elements, because the bedrooms and “not a main road” is the important part to us – so no utility/garage/big south facing garden, etc. Can’t have it all!

You have to compromise – both in lifestyle terms to support saving, and in where/what you buy. No, you’re not going to get a dirt-cheap double-fronted Victorian beauty with park views as a FTB unless you have substantial family help, but you can get something. My first flat was a proper dive.

Not sure where you are, and it is difficult, but £650k for a two bed bungalow, seriously ? Our daughter is just completing on a four-bed Edwardian extended semi with parking in Winchester city centre and that’s £720k. A bit more, but better value than a bungalow at £650k.

Our sons in Southsea was under £500k for a four-bedroom large Victorian terrace.

Plenty in south east cheaper than you're suggesting. They sold their own places at £580k and £320k respectively.

How. He had forces help to buy and saved deployment money to accumulate a deposit. She and her husband both worked second jobs and saved that.

You save. You work two jobs. You defer children and big holidays. You compromise on your ideal home. You move to somewhere affordable or buy to let and rent whilst the letting accumulates sufficient in house price rise for a deposit.

We ended up moving to the US, DH's home country... obviously not an option for everyone!

Ultimately though, the answer was that we compromised. We were living in London and unable to save, and we basically did the equivalent of moving to a lower cost of living area.

My parents live in West Hampstead and you can still get a one bed flat in that area for less than 650k.

I think you need to start smaller OP and maybe look at commutable areas.

I agree with PP that you're exaggerating. Yes, most people I know buying for the first time now are given deposits by family, but we're talking £20k, not £200k

I had no help but appreciate lucky as bought some years ago and was able to buy a property on 3.5 times my salary (I bought on my own). Is there nothing within commuting distance of where you work for less than £650k?

I lived in a very small and house share with a friend and saved as much as I could, I have a good job that it fairly well paid. I have no idea how people in this area manage on a lower wage.

I’m in zone 1, so pricey, when I could afford to buy I bought a flat was barely mortgagable as it was in such a state inside, thankfully enough of the kitchen was intact to get a mortgage.

I don't know anyone who was given money from their family, and most people I know own, but then we live in the North.

My DS (late 20s) bought his first home a couple of years ago with his partner in the Midlands. They paid £190,000. To fund it they lived on his salary for almost 3 years and saved every penny of hers for a deposit. They went without holidays and meals out to afford it.

That's generally how people do it.

Buy as young as you can, with a friend or partner if you need to. Buy whatever you can afford and do it up DIY. While you're young you can live in a building site and still rock up to work in the morning! Keep saving, and save any pay rises automatically so you don't notice them! Trade up and start again when you're ready to.

I think the key think is to buy as young as you can. Once you have kids your housing needs suddenly change - you can no longer buy the small pokey flat that nobody else wants and do it up in the evenings after work. So you're trying to get on the housing ladder half way up, and that's harder than starting at the bottom.

I saved like mad over 5 years whilst living in London then moved out of London to buy. No wat could I have ever afforded London prices.

@HalfShrunkMoreToGo

Got one on the market only 10 mins on bike to station, £550k detached.

Well, you don't start with a two bed bungalow! You start with what you can afford, possibly a one bed flat and gradually move up the property ladder. This is what most people have to do and the sooner the better!

I saved for years and went without a lots of things.
Had no help from anyone.

Bought somewhere I could afford and there are plenty of places in the south east that do not cost anywhere near £650,000

Every penny that I was given by relatives when growing up went into a savings account that I couldn't touch. By the time I was 24, I had £7k which I was able to use as a deposit. I didn't come from a wealthy family, but didn't feel that I went without when I wasn't allowed to buy toys with birthday money. I just accepted it. Now I'm very grateful.

I moved to a cheaper area and bought a little terrace house with my partner.

I dream of a 4 bed detached with privacy but you gotta compromise somewhere if affordability is the issue

It might help to flip the way you're thinking about it on its head.

Try and start thinking about what you can afford first.

For example, if you think you could save 10,000 in the next few years. If your current salary is £30,000 you can times that by 4.5 to get approximate mortgage:

£30,000 x 4.5 = 135,000
Plus 10,000 deposit = 145,000

So using this example you'd be looking for homes of 145,000 or less.

Next step is to think about how you could move to an area where there are properties of this value. This would probably mean moving away from the south east further north, wales or Scotland. Where would be feasible with jobs and other commitments? How could you make the move in a few years once you have got the deposit together?

Then you have a decision to make: how badly do you want a property? If you'd rather stay where you are, that's your answer.

Good luck. It's not easy!

For some of us we simply just don't. Just line some greedy LL's pocket for their stupidly over priced properties. (Not all LL's of course!).

I bought when I split of from exh.

I live in Yorkshire, so that obviously makes it cheaper. But I had to move 40 mins away from my parents and bought a small 3 bed mid terrace for 90k, it needed work. Some of which I have done. Some is getting done next year. I had saved up the money over about 6 years.

The area is classed a bit 'rough' and it doesn't look very upmarket. But it's actually very quiet and the neighbours were really welcoming to me and my kids.

Quite seriously, if home ownership were that important to me, I'd start looking at other areas in the country to live. It's absolutely nuts that you would have to work and save so hard to afford something you can then barely afford, when it would buy you a literal mansion in plenty of decent places that could actually give you an enjoyable life. But if you wish to stay where you are, and the housing shituation as it is, you'll just have to accept you can't afford to buy, or buy a wreck that you have to spend every spare penny on.

You can move and you must. Simple as that really