To ask how long it took you to raise a mortgage deposit?

[IamScarfaceClaw]

Just musing really, DP and I would love to own our own home one day, we live in a relatively low living cost area and a 2 bed or small 3 bed is about £140K. We earn about 25k combined and (obviously) currently rent so have all associated costs.
So AIBU in asking, without windfalls/inheritance etc how long did it take you to scrimp and save for your mortgage deposit?
disclaimer- I'm a list maker and a forward planner and I love having timelines to work with, so not just beingnosey.

8k It took 10 years but I started long, long before I was seriously thinking of buying. I have always been a bit of a saver.

A year and a half living at mums. Saved 12k between me and DP.
And for the record, our wages are 'low' too with a combined of around £27k?
It's possible

I worked while I was a student, then used my student loans. I think, on reflection, I'd rather have had a nicer time as a student and then saved up.

We saved 10k over about 2 years, we were renting but had a cheap 1 bed flat so that we could save. This was in 2009 when 20% deposits were needed so we had nowhere near enough. Then DH took voluntary redundancy and got a 30k payout so suddenly we could get on the housing ladder! He got a new job quickly and we bought a house soon afterwards. I really don't know how people manage it if they don't have any kind of windfall or help from parents.

Bank of Mum and Dad here. I have been very lucky regarding financing my home.

10 months to save £7k. Flat was £115k with a £25k salary.

£25k for two full timers isn't a lot. Can you look at changing jobs to up your salaries?

I think a target of 1 year is doable. You just need to cut back/be focused.

Money makes money. We have about £550k of equity now. Not really sure how that happened but you are much better off on the property ladder than not.

Evergreen17 actually it was quite a helpful comment. The realities are htat that income is far too low to get a mortgage for the typ of property they want and 19lottie asked if there were opportunities to increase that. There are often opportunities to take on additional work e.g. retail at weekends, bar work, cleaning, babysitting. Even if both parties took a bloody paper round at £10 a week each and chucked that in a saving account it would be £1k a year.

12k, 2.5 years - whilst I was at university. We both lived with our parents, I worked all weekend every weekend, and he worked ridiculous shifts every week. We bought a good sized 3 bed terrace for £120,000 at the beginning of Spring this year. The majority of the deposit was his as he paid less rent at home than me and earned a lot more than my wages and student loans combined! However I saved the best part of £5000 in that time and I didn't have to live really frugally either. Had two VERY expensive holidays in that time.

It took us a year to save the 4k or so for moving costs, furniture etc and the 5% 6k for the 123k house came from my parents. This is in 2008, just before 95% mortgages disappeared. It took us about another 2 years to save the 6k to pay back.

Evergreen, there are help-to-buy ISAs which give you a 25% bonus (if you save up to £12,000 per person)

Here they are

We're currently saving for a desposit. We've been putting cash aside each month for 2 and a quarter years, and we have the princely sum of £3,630 saved. Considering we live in an area where a small 2 bed costs around £230,000, we'd be pretty screwed if we hadn't had incredibly generous family members. As it is, we're going to struggle to find somewhere affordable.

Still renting but saving a deposit. My budget software tells me it will take just short of 5 years to save 50k but that will be a 20% deposit so we can take a smaller mortgage. If the budget goes as planned well have an extra 250 per month to save and the software tells me we can cut the saving time down by a year and a half if we save the extra each month. If we only opted for 10% then it would take us a couple of years. We're trying our hardest to stick with the plan.

One good piece of advice I received was.... You cannot save faster than house prices rise. In other words, put down the minimum deposit you need as the £140k house will be £175k in a year or so.

We saved 20k in 5 years. Brought our house nearly 7 years ago,

Took me about 4 years earning 24k whilst supporting a sahm and 2 kids, living in a HA flat. For a 12k deposit

6 years - but I earned slightly more than 25K and paid rent put same amount away and lived off the rest.

DH earned slightly less - though had fewer moves - but similar rent saved nothing in same time - we were together but living apart.

DH added very slightly to the sum over next few years as I got him saving a bit - then it was not spending it when we got married and had we had kids and got to a place we could settle down and buy. - had 40 K for deposit and 5K for fees.

Got first house for 145K. Only had one wage by then and DH wage had dropped back to around 25K as he moved into a new sector which long term helped his career.

Nothing as doing shared ownership. We plan to save for 2-3 years to staircase to 100% (initially buying 70%)

We bought our first house at the beginning of last year. It took about a year and a half to save £12,000, which was enough for a 5% deposit plus fees/stamp duty/movers. We rented a tiny flat with a low rent whilst saving, with a combined income of £42,000 pa.

And yes I agree with flopsy. We worried about only having a 5% deposit, but in less than 2 years since we bought our house, the same type of houses in our area are now on the market for £20,000 more than ours was on for. It is absolute madness!

Op, how much is a one bed property in your area? That may be a lot easier to save up for!

Rent free at parents for 14 months - saved up £20k for deposit, fees and furniture.

18 months bringing in £2800pm between us whilst renting and a big commute. We saved about £1000 a month (but paid off debts of £4000 first). Only pushed that hard as we lived in a damp horrible place with a terrible entitled LL, giving notice was the sweetest feeling and now we're slowly doing up our own home now.
We had £200 fun/clothes/non essential money between us but we were encouraged by our savings and chance to get out if the awful and expensive rented place.

About 2-3 years to save 25k of which we will put 21k down, rest for solicitor fees, stamp duty etc. My dh is on about £57,000 and I work part time for £10,000. We live in SE, so this will only purchase a 2 bed flat but in a nice, upcoming, central to town area.

We were also renting, but quite a cheap rental for what we could afford.

Can you apply for any of the HA schemes? Or even social housing?