How do people in their late 30s afford £600k+ homes in the South East?

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So many people I know with jobs worse than mine have houses worth £600k+

We are in the South East so £600k+ isn’t actually a super fancy house. Of course no one talks about their finances and it would be crude to ask.

I am almost certain if you have a house worth this much then you must have had at least £300k in cash for a deposit otherwise the mortgage would be too much.

My group of friends is only late 30s/early 40s so haven’t had decades to build up equity.

Is my hunch right that they all must have been gifted 100s of grand from their parents? This seems absolutely wild but I can’t imagine another route.

If you have a house that is 600k+ tell me honestly how you managed it?

It absolutely can be done if you buy early and manage to take advantage of dips in the market. DP and I earn just over £100k between us (both not exceptional jobs - DP earns loads of overtime to push his wage up). He bought in his early twenties in the 2008 slump, that increased in value hugely and then when we bought together in 2017 we were able to buy a house worth twice as much with a good chunk of equity from his first house. Ours is worth £450k so not as much as £600k - but we could have borrowed much more than we did and afforded one for that much. It would have made our mortgage twice as much, but still affordable (we prioritise lifestyle over debt payments right now though).
No help from parents or inheritance. Just hard work by DP in overtime, clever timing in buying and moving and prioritising getting on the housing ladder very young in DPs case.

Current house is c£950k and in SE, early 40s. We had no help at all, and are unlikely to get any kind if inheritance.

In our case, this is our third property- first was a 500k flat in central z2 (bought at 33), then a house in z3, then this house outside of London in a nice town where we have family. Had a 14% deposit on first flat. Own c 45% of current house (55% mortgaged). We haven't made huge amounts on each property we have sold, but have continued to save, overpay and budget carefully.

We have a high household income (both in professional roles- DH is the main income earner by some way), saved hard and lived below our means to do this. We also waited until mid 30s to have kids, and only had one.

Earned on average £40000 per year since children were born in 2016 until now (including unpaid time on mat leave)
Husband now on £65000 and I have just dropped to £63000 from £85000- £100000

Saved £130000 deposit on our own
Overpaid mortgage and went on holiday in UK to stay in the grandparents house when they were away to save money, drive a 2nd hand car with 170,000 miles on the clock. Buy almost everything second hand. Spend £8/month on SIM only contract and bought phone for less than £100.

Paid off mortgage on our house bought for £390000 in 2016, now £505000 (price risen by same amount as wages have risen in uK during that time).

As paid off mortgage last year age 38, now saving £36000 annually at least and will probably move next few years with £600000 deposit on £850000 house. May increase my wage after a little break to only work 3 days per week, which would speed things along.

We always overpaid mortgage as returns are certain.

Most people who have an expensive house have instead chosen to be slaves to their mortgages. You're seeing debt, not wealth when you look at these people.

My son and DIL, aged 33, bought a house for £610k 2 years ago, South Wales.

They had saved from when they got jobs after graduating, prioritised savings, bought a flat aged 25, funded deposit with savings and £10k from parents. They both have done very well in their careers and are well paid. They bought their house with some equity from the flat, small £5k from parents, savings and a huge mortgage. They have had no other gifts or inheritance.

We are mid-40s but didn’t buy until our mid-30s (for nearly that in the SE). We inherited (my DM told DGP that £80k to her was not life changing but would be for me) and had lived for five years in a house owned by DH’s employer at grace and favour rates. DH is a teacher, I’m an accountant in financial services (and some people assume I earn less than DH when I earn twice what he does…I know this because a number of his colleagues have suggested I should retrain as a teacher ‘to earn more money’).

Easier to buy with a partner than as a single. Family money. Or work in the city, law or finance.

No inheritance here but we could have purchased a house of £600000 at 38/39. Chose to stay in our £400000 home and enjoy the money not going on bills.

Dh and I earn above average salaries but nothing amazing, however we made £120k on our last house after owning it for 11 years, put with savings, we bought this house for £290k and it’s now worth £400k. I guess savvy house moves have put us here. We could now get a mortgage that would allow us to purchase a £700k house and I’m 44. I wouldn’t want that as the stress of potential job loss would be scary whereas we are very comfortable here and can afford holidays etc.

My house is just under £600k also south east and we saved / had equity from buying a flat in our 20s/ have a high mortgage . No inheritance or family help.

It seems, nothing has changed. If you want to buy a house, you need to economise and save up.

DH and I both bought flats in London using family gifts and savings as deposits. We made about £150k profit from the two flats then bought our house in London (standard 3 bed terrace) with a deposit of about £250k (house cost c.£700k including renovations). We still have a huge mortgage on it.

When I was mid- late 30’s I owned a house with dh in the SE that we sold on 2021 for 550k, so could be worth 600k now. Dh was a few years older than me and bought his first house at 21 for 75k so would’ve can around 1998. He saved for a deposit himself then when he was 24, his tech company was bought out and he got 50k shares but he was unemployed. Got a new job in a new area with higher salary and bought house for 145k. I met him and moved in in 2006 and we then moved to a bigger but v expensive city in SE and paid £250 for our house that we bought together. We did do some work to it (approx 80k worth) then sold for 550k. We were lucky that dh mortgage rate early on was a tracker and interest rates were v.low. When we sold we relocated to a cheaper area of uk to be near family and I was mortgage free in a large 3 bed semi at 38. Both of us aren’t huge earners. So a mixture of good early buy by dh and then smart moves over the years.

We bought our house for that price aged 29 and 34 on a Liz Truss interest rate. No gifts or inheritance. I already owned a small 1 bed and we took equity from that to put down a 5% deposit and pay 2nd home stamp duty. Rented out the 1 bed. Mortgage is £2.2k a month, our take home is £8k a month- both high earners in banking!

Every single home owner I know in SE England (myself included) had help from family/trusts.

We are early 40s. For us - family money/ gift from FIL. We also earn above average salaries. House in London purchase price 680k as FTBs in 2019. And as of March of this yr, no more mortgage.

Mid 40’s here, £700k house in SE. I was gifted some
money (30k) to buy a flat when I lived further north in my mid 20’s. Since then have moved, bought and sold 5 properties to get to this point. Most recently buying current house with DH and renovating it as we couldn’t afford to buy what we wanted in the area we wanted any other way. Despite being on the property ladder for a long time, I haven’t actually seen huge increases in the values of the properties I’ve bought and sold, I think I’ve missed a lot of the big increases (there was a point where I was renting in between and didn’t own) and most of the money from price increases has been used on stamp duty, fees etc. But over the years my salary has increased and I’ve borrowed more.

I will be forever grateful for the gift that got me going, and I’m in awe of anyone who can do it without family help. That said, to get to this point I’ve had years of no holidays, 15 year old car, living through renovations etc. So it’s not always just been a breeze, but I wouldn’t have been able to do it without that initial help. Perhaps some of the people you describe are in similar situations, I don’t think they’ve necessarily been gifted hundreds of thousands, but maybe have had more years to build some equity?

Also remember that just because someone has a bigger house doesn’t mean they are better off or happier. Part of me wishes we’d bought a smaller property, smaller mortgage, smaller garden and house to maintain, more savings, holidays etc. and hope that doesn’t make me sound ungrateful, I’ve made the choices I’ve made and that ok. Everyone has different priorities, different levels of debt, savings etc.

We recently moved from a 300k house to a 675k house we got 115k equity but only used 67k for the deposit the rest for fees then we took 30ish in a bulk payment to sit in savings. We are 40mind train away from London our mortgages payments aren’t to bad but my husband does earn a good wage.

I’m 35 DH is 38. We just bought a £625k home and spent a further £180k on renovations, now worth £975k.

Both gifted £10k when we bought our first house 10 years ago, made £130k equity on that. Apart from that, no family help or inheritance. Both have decent jobs, roughly £160k combined, But from normal working class backgrounds.

We’ve done it with a mixture of savings, high mortgage and loans (but affordable and comfortable that house is now worth enough that should it all go tits up we can sell and clear everything/have enough to start again).

So it is doable, lots of our friends are in the same boat.

Not in the south. But I am mid 40s with a house worth £400k and small mortgage. I saved up like mad. Bought a flat in 2005 and sold it for a profit. Got a small inheritance. Took my mortgage on this house out over 20 years. I only had 8 years left on my flat.

DP is selling his house and his equity will pay off my mortgage. I just used my money wisely and lucky I meet DP 6 years ago and now combining finances.

No inheritance here. Grew up in a council flat as a kid. I just worked multiple jobs throughout my 20s. On top of my full time job, I also had an online retail business, and was doing multiple online side gigs (online tutoring, consulting) on top of all that. I also spent some time living and working abroad which kept costs down.

The worst thing is cost of living in the UK. So even renting in a cheaper area of the UK and commuting can make a huge difference vs. renting in SW.

I basically sacrificed my 20s to it... and it's only just starting to pay off now. I can't say I'd recommend the lifestyle I had quite honestly, unless you value a nice house + money more than anything else... Basically, if you are starting from nothing, you need to to be willing to sacrifice every other aspect of your life for it.

I still do the side-hustle thing, but I've managed to scale back now so it's not something I have to do, just something I enjoy doing in my downtime now as a hobby. You can check out my list of things I do here. I still like to keep money flowing.

I think being in a couple can also help, but I managed to do all of this single. I was recently dating someone who is rich because of his parents, and the difference in our lifestyles growing up was insane! He has basically lived the life of my dreams since his teens (traveling constantly, good social life, eating at restaurants every other day). I feel like I am only enjoying these things now.

Plenty of people in the SE earn enough for a mortgage that size. We could buy a house for that price if wanted to. But a lot of it is also family money, SIL inherited 6 figures for example. Very few in their 30s will have much equity or have profited from smaller properties.

The housing market is like a Ponzi scheme at the moment. Grandparents’ house sells for a high value (way above inflation vs when they bought it), some of that goes to grandchildren (either directly or parents gift it on), the grandchildren can then pay over-inflated house prices, the top of the chain is a probate sale, that money goes to grandchildren, rinse and repeat …

Climbing the ladder . No inheritance all on my own

Mid 40s so a bit older but only paid £250k for it and then an inheritance helped us extend it.

We are late 40s so a bit older, everyone will be different we've not had any inheritance.

We started young bought a house at 24 using a help to buy scheme during the recession paid off the scheme as the costs had dipped.

We have also benefited from house price increases our current house is now 600+ but we didn't pay that much for it.

Every house we have had has needed renovation so bought cheaper then sold for more than the renovations cost. Although that is harder to do now as building materials have massively increased.

There are clearly many routes to this kind of home ownership. We are mid 40s in a SE home worth more than the £600k threshold. My mother in law bought it for us, although we could have afforded to buy it ourselves if we’d taken a mortgage.