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

Ditz, just want to say I really sympathise with your renting troubles. I moved to London a few months back after years of happy renting in the North. In three months here, I have encountered so many crooks, and had to move three times. The illegal sublets, the aggressive insistence on cash, the refusal to give tenancy agreements, rent books or receipts, the hanging on to deposits for the most arbitrary (read: made up) of reasons. I'm nearly 40, I'm highly qualified and I work full-time, but I'm stuck in the fixed-term contract trap so can't buy. It really gets you down sometimes.

Sorry, not very constructive! Just wanted to tell you that you're not alone in your frustration with the dodgy rental market.

This is a really interesting thread. it's all about timing, i.e. the state of the economy/ housing market when you buy and, of course, luck.

DH is 4 years older than me and graduated earlier (I did a compulsory post-grad), so was effectively 6 years ahead of me at a time when the economy is booming. That made a BIG difference. He went to university with a grant (I had £12k of student loans to repay). He graduated into a decent job at a time when a mortgage was 3x his graduate salary and that bought a two bedroom flat in an ok part of town in 1998. I graduated into a very good job with an excellent salary, but house price inflation meant I couldn't afford a 1 bed flat on 4x salary in a similar area. DH 's parents lent him the deposit. My parents were not in a position to help financially.

I remember the property bubble in the 80s as a nurse there was no way I could afford a house so I spent my money on travel and parties

Then the crash came many of my friends were in negative equity, a financial advisor told me to save half my salary for 6 months ( living with my Dad I was able ) and I'd have enough for a deposit. Best advice ever so at 28 I was still single but a home owner - might have been a cheap house but interest rates were high and I did struggle.

The minute I got on the ladder prices started to rise, I'm so grateful to that advisor and my Dad.

DH and I have been together for 11 years and we just saved like mad the last few years and managed to get together a deposit and bought a 2 bed flat. We moved in together pretty early on (6 months), and rented a not so nice flat with cheaper rent. I managed to get into office work from retail so my salary has increased, and DH has steadily been promoted up and got payrises along the way.

It would have been nice to buy a house, but even if the bank had lent us the amount of money we needed for a house, we wouldn't be able to afford the mortgage repayments whilst I'm on maternity leave.

We haven't had any help from our parents, I am a bit envious of those that have had help as I would love some help too :o I suppose it would have made things that bit quicker. Learning to save has been very useful preparation for having DS anyway, everything happens for a reason.

Lived with parents until we bought together, and set our sights lower than we would ideally have liked and bought in a less desirable (but still safe) area. Where I live, property prices were very low at that time, but on the other hand, so were salaries.

I didn't buy my house. I stole it whilst tbe family were sleeping, brick by brick :)

Hi
You asked for any financial tips for moving home. Might be worth finding out what it's going to cost you. This site has a tool that adds up all the different costs: solicitors, removals, surveyors, stamp duty, estate agents etc. www.reallymoving.com/moving-cost-calculator

Good luck.

150k present from in-laws. Sorry, not helpful.

All these massive gifts from parents interest me greatly, and I'm sure soon enough will be of massive interest to HMRC too. There are some pretty strict rules on gifts....

If the gifter survives 6 years all tax implications are gone.

I got run over :( by someone driving on the pavement (never caught!) the compensation became my deposit, so suppose it had some benefit though I'd rather have a whole leg personally.

Lucky with timing here, too.

Newly married, we bought a 2-bed new build flat in Hounslow in 1996. Cost was £68k, but the building company paid a £3000 deposit for us as they were desperate to sell in a flat market, so mortgage was £65k. Sold it for £145,000 in 2002 and moved north, where we bought a 3-bed house with big garden. Enough profit made on the flat to buy without a mortgage. Sorted.

Pure, dumb luck.

Fair point elfycat. I always thought gifts were limited to a 3000 limit per annum to be exempt from IHT, but you're right, you can give away any amount provided you like for 7 years more.

It's one of the options we're thinking of if DDs (nursery age at the moment) want to buy and the situation is like it is now. Make a large cash gift while we have at least 7 years best before date (hopefully). If they're going into a house with a DP there will be something written down that this money is theirs not the partnerships....

Timing seems to be the key.

I seem to be one of the last few folk that got grants to uni, graduated with some debt (not anything like today's yoof, I'm talking a bit of an overdraft and that's it), was able to scrimp whilst house sharin, and then buy a couple of years out of uni... it certainly wasn't easy but after the first couple of years on it, it's been fine. House price inflation and climbing the ladder in terms of salary helped.

I never had help from parents, sure, but if you compare that to my brother (almost 6 years younger than me), his generation is screwed. Really, utterly screwed.

he's made no worse decisions than me, but in terms of salary ratio to "crappy 1 bed flat price", he earns nowhere near enough to buy, his salary is being mostly eaten up by rental costs+bills, and he has student debt (not sure exactly how much) to boot.

So there you go.

Lucky timing on my part, graduating < 2005 / 2006 ish.

It does seem like a bit of a kick in the teeth the I seem to have fallen on my feet, whilst people that are graduating in my degree, and going onto similar jobs as me... well, there's such a huge divide about what you can and can't do.

You live and learn - thanks. This helps my inheritance tax planning no end. And let's hope the situation is not as now when your DD's are ready!

Bought it 22 years ago when I got my first job, with 105% mortgage (yes!) and 18% interest and a mis-sold endowment from a company that went bust Had no kids for 5 years, no holidays for 10 and no car for 15.
It's all paid off now tho' :)

Pretended that we only had 1 salary coming in. The other one went into a 'secret' account.... then set a standard of living that enabled us to live off that one salary (but mostly stuff we do anyway - fairly frugal cooks, don't do clothes, holidays are UK cottages, cars go on for ever).

Frankly, I never made the jump up from a PhD student income to a 'proper job' income and so saving the vast majority of my income happened pretty much by itself. I think it would be much harder 'cutting down' than it was never to ramp up spending in the first place.

I found the (free) mortgage brokers London and Country (google them) very helpful on a couple of occasions. I can't say conclusively if they cover the whole of the market and if you pay a broker you should get completely unbiased advice. So I would bypass the banks, try the brokers and let them do some work for you.

Secondly, is it possible to move to a cheaper city? I live 2 hours away from family which, now I have children, is a shame but buying in London would be absolutely impossible which is why I am the only one of 3 siblings on the property ladder. It was a consideration in moving away from London that I would be able to buy more cheaply. Although out of our reach at present, a large 3-4 bed house in a decent area is possible in a few years whereas this would be completely out of the question in London unless DH or I became bankers.

teacher
I agree that its easier not to let the spending ramp up rather than to economize. I tend to put the amount I want to save away on pay day and then live on whats left for the month rather than waiting to the end of the month and saving the miniscule amount left.

I saved for five years solidly, my partner worked two jobs for a year (I had 2 jobs for 6 months). Together we got enough for 10% deposit on a flat in London. It was well worth it, as 3 years later, for the same asking price you could not even get a one bedroom flat on the outskirts of London for the price we paid.

bought a house on my own with deposit consisting of money given to me by then bf who cheated on me and felt guilty about it-about ten grand. paid mortgage by living well within means, ie no newspapers, no pointless purchases, kept fit by running outside, charity shops etc, did take in lodger but hated it so decided would be happier skint than less privacy. did work in evenings after work and weekends, baby sitting, dog walking, house sitting (not bar work as unreliable as work demanding and had to work late a lot)
did not have credit card (still dont!) and dont buy anything if you cant afford it. and overpay the mortgage.

i find people plead poverty yet get takeaways, drink heavily, buy books and magazines, coffee from coffeeshops, don't mealplan, don't recycle... must say i always got my hair done properly- i ddn't actually look cheap and i did pay my way- but i didn't drink except water so never was asked to stand rounds. and yes, i did have a social life!

i remember in the 80's wanting to leave home or buy flats to rent out and my parents putting me off as a waste of money and i should stay at home til married. wish i had ignored them, i would probably be v rich by now:)

I agree its an awful situation and without parents who have cash or the odd bit of inheritance it is impossible. When my mum bangs on about how materialistic our generation is and what they did without, it drives me crazy. They bought their first house at 25, never had to pay university fees for themselves or their kids, enjoyed decent pensions and their generation inevitably capitalised on rising house prices. Single income was normal so none of the angst over needing two jobs to buy a house. My dad was on a graduate trainee scheme and my mum was a nurse, so hardly yuppie material. My husband and I earn very good money but can only afford a flat.

It´s a minor comfort that this bottleneck will widen dramatically in thirty years time when the babyboomers have all dropped off, so hopefully our children will not face the same problems, but it is no comfort right now for those who cant even afford to consider having kids - that to me is the tragedy. So much for flower power peace n love. They really lucked out.