To ask how you managed to buy a house?

[ditziness]

We pay close to a grand rent a month. It's of our friend's mortgages are cheaper. As a consequence it's very difficult to save. But save we must to tryand get a deposit. So we have to continue to rent

Stuck in a vicious circle.

How the hell did you manage to buy a house?

Any financial, deposit raising, mortgage getting advice welcome

I expect most people who bought after just having saved from salary for a deposit did it a while ago or live somewhere other than London?

Given the sky high rents people pay and just how much you need for a deposit, it must be so hard for people trying to save now.

Downsized my living expectations and rented a studio flat for a year (living on my own). Ghastly upstairs neighbours who would fight to the point of the police being called one week and the squeeky bedsprings and lots of faking it other noises the next.

Worked a part time restaurant job one evening and one weekend day per week (mind you ex-bf worked there too) after finishing the office job.

Charity shop clothes. Bought a complicated cross stitch pattern which cost a bit but took all year and more to do. Walked to job1 instead of jumping on a bus.

Saved up the deposit for a modest 2 bedroom terraced house that took years to redecorate, but was cheaper because of the decorative naffness (had been student accom before).

Bought our house 2.5 years ago, it was a repossession so we got it for 10k under the low asking price.

Was £17k deposit
Mortgage is now £200

I lived with my parents till I was in my mid 20s so never gave away money to renting. I have a crappy minimum wage job and work 3 days a week, life is good!

Take the other posters advice on how to save money for as much of the deposit as you can.

In terms of how we afforded a deposit for a house: we delayed having a family and rented a 1-bedroom flat for 5 years, much to the chagrin of our family and friends who thought we were crazy not to buy on a 100% interest-only Northern Rock deal. DH also set up a consultancy to earn more money so effectively had 2 jobs for a while. In the end, it was a waste of time because we moved abroad anyway and the rent doesn't even cover the mortgage!

I hate property - it has been the bane of my life, either renting or owning or letting it out. If renting wasn't so dire and didn't expose you to the whims of a private individual's decision on extending or terminating a lease, I'd rent long-term and just have savings and shares and then buy a place for cash in my old age.

It's such a shit situation.

We bought our flat in 2002 when i was 18 and DH was 20. 2 years ago we moved in with my parents to save a deposit for the house we're in now (thankfully bought very cheap because sellers were desperate for the cash)
We kept the flat so the DC's don't have to struggle.

I wasn't able to buy my first flat until I was 30, and bought it as a single person. 10% deposit then was only £5k though and I had a "cashback" mortgage giving me £1k back after purchase from the mortgage company to buy a bed etc...

It is so very much harder to do now. My first flat cost twice my annual salary and the same one bed flat now would be more than 4 times my salary.

My flat needed work, and I was actually never able to afford to do the work! So I guess I was prepared to live in a place that was far from perfect. My house now is far from perfect too and also has needed work since I moved in that I have not been able to afford to do! I think it helps if you are not a perfectionist. After 17 years we are only now in a situation to start saving for the work that badly needs doing, and this despite having 2 salaries coming in and only one child. It's tough out there, particularly if you live in a place with high cost property.

Saved and put down a 5% deposit. We rented for 5 years while saving though.

After university I only looked for work in fairly affordable areas, and simply accepted that I would never be able to afford to live where I was raised (south east)
Rented cheaply for several years, saved like mad. Met dh who had followed a similar route. Managed to buy after several more years. Continued working while having 2 kids, even when childcare costs were crippling because we were in it for the long game. We went through a really rocky time financially while paying full childcare, but now the kids are at school we feel a lot better off.
Hasn't been easy.

Bought our first flat as sitting tenants for £2400, sold it 7 years later for £7500. Next house was £16400 and sold it for £45000. We then bought our forever house for £67750 and now it is worth around £500000. At the end of the day it's only a number. I also saved really hard for years and bought another for £14400 and it's worth around about £100000.

Lived with DH-to be in cheap and crappy rented digs and economised like mad. Then when we realised the housing market was rising faster than we would ever be able to save, we wrote ourselves one of those credit card cheques they used to issue for the £7k we needed to get a crappy one bed flat but with bags of potential. This was in 2003.

Did the work and sold it at a ridiculous profit a year later, which gave us the cash to buy a bigger place. Made a couple of not so smart moves since (we tend to buy with heart, not head) to inch ourselves rung by rung up the ladder. Now just bought our house for the next 10 years, but have gone back to a 25 year mortgage to make the repayments affordable, and intend to overpay (which is my top tip for saving money as a home owner in the long run)

I could cry when I think about how much people have to save to get on the property ladder now. We have benefitted from it ourselves, but the current set up is just so wrong. Sadly, too many voters people have too much invested in the current property market for the wholesale change we surely need

100% mortgage in 1990 sold that property at a whole £7000 profit in 2000
In 1998 I was made redundant and we had enough to put down a deposit ona bungalow, kept the negative equity flat in my name and rented it til sold in 2000

Made £120 000 profit on bungalow ( paid £62 000 in 1999 and sold for £182 000 in 2004 )

Now got comfortable equity of about that amount on forever home (til dd leaves anyway)

Mortgage on 4 bed detached in village in se Kent is £460 rent would be @ £1200

Bought a flat late 90s with a 5% deposit just before prices rocketed on my own Sold in 2003 for over double the price I paid but by then I had DH as well so 2 salaries.

No Rosebud05, I bought in London and lived in London (admittedly with parents) while I saved. However the money I saved in rent I paid debts with.

I fail to see how 2 people earning reasonable salaries with no children think that they 'can't' save a deposit even living in London. You CAN. You just don't want to give up some of the nice things.

With children it's different.

However I'd just like to point out that while saving up for my flat I also bought a (lovely) car, a laptop, and within reason, I went out and did nice things. I didn't sit at home having a rubbish life. If I had, I'd have saved more :P

Um, I'm a home owner with 2 children fortunate enough to have bought before the property market got completely out of hand.

Living at home is obviously a financial advantage in terms of saving.

We have never been given money BUT I lived rent free with my parents for 6 months and saved every penny for a deposit. Finally bought in 2000 and put down a 5% deposit.

I never rented. Parents loaned me four grand at end of nineties to buy a £40,000 flat. Sold two years later at £58,000 and bought at £82,000 semi. Sold three years later at £158,000 and bought at £240,000 detached house. So we moved fast - flat to detached in five years. But we were also lucky with market and mum loan. I don't plan to move again EVER!

Rosebud we were living in London and bought in Zone 1 London. It was a mission, admittedly, but it did pay off.

First flat £38,000, sold year later for £95,000
Bought 2 places to let out £80,000, sold on 18months later for £170,000
& £40,000, sold 6yrs later for £100,000
Bought 3rd place £90,000 to live in, sold 2 yrs on for £240,000
Built new home for £180,000

So that first year of saving one income, (while renting in zone 4 london) did pay off.

Half this thread are saying that they can't buy and are feel exasperated with the ridiculous housing market...

The other half are explaining exactly why the others can't buy, with their stories of huge profit for doing, essentially, bugger all.

Fatfaced - yes that struck me too.

The housing system is fucked up.

"I expect most people who bought after just having saved from salary for a deposit did it a while ago or live somewhere other than London?
Given the sky high rents people pay and just how much you need for a deposit, it must be so hard for people trying to save now."

We lived in London whilst saving - we earned vastly more working there than we do here (NW). We rented at the same time, our rent was £1300pcm. This was during 2007/09. We could have afforded to buy in London, but we wanted to return home to be closer to family before we had DD so we bought here. Our income took a massive nosedive as soon as we left the capital, we were much richer in London than we are now!

FatFaced that's what people were saying when I first bought, and 20yrs before that. And no doubt they'll be saying it about the current crop of buyers in another 20yrs.

DH & I bought our first flat in 1996 for 37k. My parents gifted us the 5% deposit & we got a mortgage with the princely repayment of £141 per month.

Sorry but we also bought straight from Uni in 97. Both made redundant soon after so moved to a smaller rented place, Rented ours out. Saved and scrimped so we could buy again cos we wanted to keep the original house (great tennant who wanted to stay!). We managed to buy a small place again before the Market went mental - Luck and timing is all I can say x Keep your chin up X

Dysfunctionalme -

That's kind of the point though. What were they saying about the people priced out of the market twenty years ago and today?

It's like when the media say "it's good news from the housing market" meaning the prices have gone up, whereas they don't say "good news from the oil market" when petrol prices go up.