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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask if you are under 35

239 replies

Marmaladedandelions · 27/04/2015 16:09

How you could afford to buy a house?

This is a genuine question: I have noticed a lot of people talking about how they can't afford to buy. I must admit that most people around my age (33) own.

We originally had a mortgage with money my dad gave us. Things have changed now due to inheritances but that was how we bought our first place, in 2005.

How about you? :)

OP posts:
StackladysMorphicResonator · 28/04/2015 12:04

It's much easier if you are DINKies (Double Income No Kids) to live super-frugally, but I accept that a lot of people want to spend their money on other things like holidays and stuff while they're still young.

DH and I borrowed from parents and saved up a lot, we bought a flat in London aged 26 and 27. However, we do earn pretty well.

OneFlewOverTheDodosNest · 28/04/2015 12:24

Bought a house in Yorkshire last year after we had saved £10k each thanks to living in a cheap rent area. We were looking at flats around the £100k mark as we knew we had to have way more than the deposit for fees, stamp duty, furniture etc. We then got an extra £10k from family which really changed what we were looking for and we managed to find a fantastic 3 bed house in a nicer area for £170k including all furniture.

It was a stroke of luck and we wouldn't have been able to buy an actual house without significant family support.

Charityworker34 · 28/04/2015 12:30

Husband and I bought when I was 29. Frankly? We used my inheritance from grandmother as deposit. Despite both earning it would have taken us many many years to save up that kind of money!

5446 · 28/04/2015 12:40

I'm 25, DP is 30. He has worked in a high-paying job for the past 7 years essentially as an expat where his company have paid for his rent, bills, food and allowances. This has allowed him to save approx £300k.

I worked abroad in a low tax country and earning a decent salary (approx. £35k). Part of this was living with DP, so also rent free. I've managed to save approx. £50k.

We have been extremely lucky to not have to pay rent or expenses for the past few years as well as earning decent salaries. However it has also meant we have lived very unsettled lives and aren't in a position to be able to settle and buy a house for a good few years.

BeansInBoots · 28/04/2015 13:08

I'm 23, live in SE.

We have saved for 2 years and have £10,000. We will need at least that again for a deposit on a 2 bed flat. No idea if it will ever happen tbh

IsabellaofFrance · 28/04/2015 13:32

I got my first house at 19. Paid £35k for it with a £5000 deposit which I had saved.

Once I met DH and we got married we pooled my house and his flat to buy a big house, moved out of that recently to another house with £100k of equity.

So glad that we were able to buy when we did. Now it would have been much harder and I sympathise with anyone struggling.

Nabootique · 28/04/2015 13:40

I'm 32, single and on 27k a year. I can't imagine it ever happening for me! I don't get too worried about it. I think as long as DD does okay for herself and isn't financially dependent on me as an adult, then it will be okay?

Jackiebrambles · 28/04/2015 13:43

I bought my first flat at 29 in 2006. It was a one bed flat in London.

My mum and dad lent me £20k for a deposit. It was before the crash so I potentially could have bought without a deposit/100% mortgage (or a much smaller one) but the monthly payments would have been much higher of course.

There's no way I could have saved very much for a deposit because of high rents in London. I was spending all what I was earning!

I will always be SO grateful to my parents for giving me that opportunity and DH and I are saving so we will be able to do the same for our own kids.

VacantExpression · 28/04/2015 13:44

Both worked seven day weeks, and bought first house on 95% mortgage at age 19 and 21. Didn't live in SE. Luck, I guess.

InQuiteAPickle · 28/04/2015 13:47

I'm 31 and we got our first house when we were 20. Property was a lot cheaper 11 years ago and we live in the NW so it's cheaper than down south.

Loulou2kent · 28/04/2015 13:48

27 & still stuck renting at a cost of £1350 a month so more than a mortgage for the property we would want is looking to be. Won't be getting any family help here so will just need to keep saving Hmm but we will get there eventually. Both very hard working Smile

museumum · 28/04/2015 13:51

I bought a small flat for £80k with £8k deposit i'd saved. I was 29.

BertieBotts · 28/04/2015 13:56

I'm 26, as is DH, it feels pretty impossible for us. Probably the main factor is 6yo DS, though, as having him has impacted both my earning potential and our saving potential. We have a few hundred € in savings and that is it.

bookworm14 · 28/04/2015 14:13

I'm 33 and husband is 34. We bought a flat in London in 2006 when we were 24 and 25 respectively, but were only able to do it because my MIL had previously bought my husband a flat in the town where he went to university. He sold that and we used the proceeds plus a smallish mortgage to buy our first London flat. That property increased in value quite a bit due to insane London housing market, so we were able to sell it at a profit and buy a bigger place, also in London (although a bit further out).

I'm aware of how obscenely lucky we are.

RosieBooBoo · 28/04/2015 14:27

I'm 28, been renting since 18 and bought a 4 bed end terraced ex council house (repo) last year with 10% deposit from 2 years worth of hard saving and a small redundancy payment- we were very lucky as dp found another job within 2 weeks of being made redundant so we were able to use most of that for fees ect. No parental help/inheritance.

kiwicocktail · 28/04/2015 15:08

Purchased our first house for £35k. Sold it for £120k.
Purchased 2nd house for £129k, sold it for £167k.
Inheritance of £20k.
Purchased our 3rd house for £198k.
We're not moving again and quitting while we're ahead!

We're not property people at all, it was all pure luck and we had no idea what we were doing Blush

nottheOP · 28/04/2015 15:13

Lived with the ILs for 14 months to save a 5% deposit on a new build, used Help to Buy too which makes the mortgage affordable just about but has drawbacks.

We had DS before we bought, if we'd have waited and carried on working FT and without a childcare bill we could have rented and saved but we're too impatient for that.

BlueKarou · 28/04/2015 15:32

A mixture of inheritance and borrowing from my parents got me my first non-rental home when I was 25. At £132k it was cheap (for the area) and crappy.

I was lucky enough that the market was on my side and I sold it last year for a profit. However all of that went as the deposit on my current house which I am just about managing to pay the mortgage for now I'm 30.

It's been bloody tight at times (still is tbh) because it's just me, but I'm managing.

judydoes · 28/04/2015 16:04

Just luck.

DH owned a house already, he's a fair time older than I am. He put me on the mortgage when I'd lived with him a while.

It takes a long time to save a deposit but I managed it by living in very cheap places, bought another that way but yes it meant living very frugally.

Casimir · 28/04/2015 16:12

First property bought at 20, was rented out, I lived in cheaper flatshare s*thole

Mrsmumb · 28/04/2015 16:16

I Won £22000 on a game show when I was 21, used that as a deposit 5 years ago. Count my blessings every single day.

thisisnow · 28/04/2015 16:41

Mrsmumb that's great!

AcademicOwl · 28/04/2015 17:47

The current property market makes me really angry and quite depressed. We are stuck not being able to buy, as we can't organise a big enough deposit... And don't even get me started on the cost of childcare and how that works in mortgage applications. I have more or less accepted that we'll never own, but it makes me sad I'll never have a proper garden of my own or be able to stay in the house my children were small in. :( not that it makes any difference, but I'm 40... Just 'missed' the property market boom. We're in the SW, which in this corner is nearly as bad as the SE.
Very fed up.

Jellie75 · 28/04/2015 18:57

My husband and I are both 40 and have a 6mnth old daughter. We'd love to buy our own home but even with a £75k deposit, we cannot get a mortgage big enough to buy a 2 bed flat in London where we are currently renting as we only have 1 income. We will need to move significantly far out which will mean a much longer commute for DH and thus no time to see/spend time with DD on any week day. I envy all you home owners!

thisisnow · 28/04/2015 20:24

Wow Jellie that's mad that 75k saved and you still can't get anywhere. Buy a holiday home instead and invite me!