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

We bought a small terrace in 2004 with a 5% deposit paid for my our teaching Golden Hellos. Sold it 3 years later and made £25000 profit - used £15k as the deposit on our next house and took £10k to do it up (ha! ha! It's cost at least three times that but never mind). Our then-neighbours put theirs on the market after we sold and still live there now .

The week we moved was the week the credit crunch headline started appearing. To some people it would seem like bad timing but for us it was great: our house is probably only worth what we paid for it but at least we're making no profit while sat in a nice big house rather than stuck in a poky one.

Rented for a bit then we both got jobs in London in 2000, DP was on 15K, me 21K (both graduates). Bought a new build flat where they paid your deposit. Couldn't sell it by 2005 eventually did for a 30k profit (lost about 30K during the whole thing), moved to the other end of the country into a 3 bed house which cost 125K. We're now extending so it will be a 5 bed and well spend the next 20 years paying for it.

Worked 2 full time jobs from the age of 16-18! Lived at home with my parents during ths time and saved 30k! Bought my first house at 18... I am know nearly 30 and just paid my last mortgage payment and love being mortgage free!!

We are early 30s. We could only buy (in 2009) because of inherited money and a very high income. This is not in any sense a stealth boast (christ, what a "boast" it would be!) I am pleased for us, of course, but in the large I am depressed about it. People our age without those things simply will not be able to buy. Tenants still having the second class citizen status that they do, I'm not sure I like the kind of world that points to. All the politicians totally ignore this problem. We don't need more fucking "New Buy" cons schemes, we need better protection and better cultural attitudes to private renting.

If you bought before c.2004 however, you are made. We are finding with house-hunting now that we're bidding against other people who are capital-rich (in a magic money sense, because their 2-bed flat in Stoke Newington is "worth" a certain amount) but very cash-poor/income-poor compared to us. It is really underlining to me how shafted you are if you're not already on the ladder.

Our house was £52k. That kind of helped!

My husband bought house before met me. He bought at 26, and had been working since he was 18 and living at parents rent free. He had 100k deposit, and paid off the 70k mortgage in five years. It's a country cottage that cost 170k in 2003, and DH has done it up over last 9 years. He has his own business and worked terrifically hard. I met him one year into mortgage. We didn't have children till mortgage free. Were not bothered about upgrading. Its three bedrooms, big enough for us. We're not planning on third child.

I would love to see the answers for just the people who are under 35

Op we're in a similar boat. We have enough saved now for stamp duty and all moving costs plus a little deposit but nowhere near enough these days. 15 years ago it would have been no problem. 15 years ago I was at school

totally agree with mad bus lady. I just managed to buy a flat in 2004 with a deposit from my grandfather and a key worker interest free loan. I see young colleagues who don't have a realistic hope of buying in London, being mucked around by landlords and even moving back in with parents to save for that deposit. What kind of a nation is this? You bought pre 1997 you're made, post then, well- you'd better be working in the city. Yes attitudes and especially legal frameworks to protect tenants need to change.
We are a nation of landlords, not shopkeepers.

I'm 27 and we moved into our first house last year. Previous to that me and DP both had flats- we moved into his and rented mine out.

When DD arrived we sold mine, then bought a house from a building company that had gone bust. It was unfinished and had water damage but was in a great area- also had HUGELY discounted price.

And so here we are! Took more than a year to get the place finished but it's been a lovely year so far in our new home

We bought our first house literally just before the market rocketed so very lucky-we also bought it off a couple who were moving into a brand new property so the builders of that paid our 10% deposit-again lucky.

Btw I'm 34 & DH is 33-we bought early.

I did it in 1982. I bought a flat in zone 2 SW London for 32k. I had 9k deposit (lucky - had 3k savings and my dad gave me 6k - divorced parents with new partners and no real home to go back to). My mortgage was 23k and I lied about my income. It was 8k and I said it was 9200. I had to have a lodger. My net pay was 447, my mortgage was £245, my service charge was £50 (flat). The bills were at least another £100. It was tight couple of years. Sold it jusst under 5 years later for £95,000 and bought my first house for £122,500. It was tiny but still zone 2 SW. Sold it 9 years later for about 165,00. We paid (I think) £310,000 for our current house in 1992. We got it cheap because the builders were going bust and the area was under re-development for next three years. You can shove another 0 on the end now but at the time it was high high risk and many thought we had gone stark raving bonkers.

I think the OP wants advice - not smug stories

We saved like crazy people while renting a cockroach infested house. I have a million recipes for mince and potatoes or rice or noodles. Never went out on date nights, never got takeaway, bought used everything if we needed to replace anything and in one year saved the 20% deposit on a very small needed lots of work home that was cockroach free.
Moving in was amazing, mortgage was cheaper than the rent we'd paid and we bought Chinese takeaway Took us 5 years to finish doing it up, then we sold it for double the money and bought a bigger house before Ds2 was born.

OK let's put a different spin on it then. To save £3k between 1979 and 1981 meant evening jobs and being very careful. The first two years of having about £60 quid left after bills were paid and jogging along with a lodger took some grit and determination, a limited wardrobe and a quiet social life - it was bloody hard. Having a £60k mortgage in 1987 just before black Monday and huge job insecurity was terrifying - it got more terrifying as a single person in 1990 ish as interest rates rose to 15% at one point. At that stage I had two lodgers just in case and fortunately worked for a bank.

In 1994 with a six figure mortgage, dh, pulled down 45k in fee income. I gave up work because ds was very ill as a baby. Every penny was counted for the next two years. We survived because we managed it down to brass tacks for two to three years. Many at various stages would have given up. I and we didn't; I and we saved hard, managed carefully and went without for periods. It wasn't easy and it wasn't on a plate ever all things considered. it was hard hard work and very careful management.

House one - £54K, 1996, joint income £40k, 95% mortgage, sold 2002 £77k
House two - £162k, 2002, joint income £85k, 95% mortgage, sold 2003 £227k
Got divorced and moved in with DH who bought house we are still in in 1994 for £94k with single income of £25k, still in same house but have added to mortgage over the years extending it and have about 18 months to go. Joint income now pretty high but as soon as mortgage is paid we will start saving for DC deposit, and they are still at primary school, rather than upsize. We appreciate just how fortunate we were to buy our first homes in our early/mid twenties on good but unspectacular salaries.

Don't see any smug stories tbh, OP asked a question & has got answers, buying your 1st home is hard work unless someone gives you the cash so sorry zero smugness there, we had weeks where mil bought us a couple of bags of shopping cos we literally had fuck all to eat in the house-again zero smugness

I think those of us who bought prehousing boom realise we are lucky and many of us will be helping our children get on the housing ladder, so we will end up paying more for housing, just later when our children are older, as well as paying for them to get through university etc. Having your house worth more doesn't benefit you if you have to pay more if you move or if your kids have to pay more. Banks and landlords are the only people who profit from current expensive housing.
Some people are unrealistic about their first house though and want to go straight into 3 bedrooms in a nice area, rather than the more usual small flat somewhere less posh.

We saw an Ad for Shared ownership in the paper with a local Housing Authority. They required a small deposit and we went 50/50 in 1994. It had old windows and no central heating. Absolutely freezing! Made some improvements, new door, some new windows etc Had our first child and sold it quite quickly.
Bought my mum and dad's house with 95 percent mortgage and they kindly knocked about 8k off the asking price. Moved in whilst pregnant with second child and now ten years into it.

Bought my first house when I was straight out of Uni. Prices were low and house sales were slow. Once on the ladder I was lucky to benefit from the market rising steeply. I can appreciate that buying now for the first time and at the height of the market is a harsh position to be in.

Bought our first house in 2005 when we were 20 years ol using £3k deposit. Struggled for a while on low wages but house prices rose and we moved and now have a house we love and cheap mortgage

Just to add: we weren't able to have the fun that all our fiends were having at that age.
It was hard, but worth it.
We are now able to have the fun we missed out on back them and the holidays too.

Unfortunately we are the only ones out of all our friends who have moved out.

A lot of th are only just out of university and just starting to save

Bought a 1 bed flat in 2003 for #210k. My parents gave me #10k for a deposit (I've subsequently tried to give it back, but it was refused) and I mortgaged the rest on a "professional persons loan" (not sure if these still exist but back in the day, lenders would increase loan to value ratios for professional persons like lawyers, doctors and chartered accountants). Even so, the mortgage payments were pretty brutal for the first year until I changed jobs and got a decent pay rise. I actually sold in 2007, but invested the equity in the stock market in early 2009, so i can always go back into the market if I so choose.

I STILL tease my dad about the fact he refused to guarantee a mortgage for me in 1996 (I was working but fresh out of Uni and needed a guarantor) as he thought that house prices would go down

My parents lent me the deposit for my first flat. When I sold it it had gone up in value enough to pay them back and still have 10% deposit for the flat I bought with now dh. Then moved out of London so could afford a 4 bed house for the same price. Our mortgage is scary enormous though, and we are trying to overpay.