To spend half of my wages on rent? Silly idea?

[singlesoda]

I graduated uni last year and finally secured myself a full time salary. My mum is driving me insane and I can't imagine living here any longer than I need to.

I've been looking at getting a room in a shared house of other young professionals but that's easily £600pcm with bills.

But i've just seen a flat that i've fallen in love and it's not much more than renting a room. But it's half my monthly wages without bills. Am I insane to even consider this?

I could stay at home but i'm gay and I have Christian parents. I'm bored playing the straight girl and being lectured on the daily about my life decisions.

p.s I'm extremely privileged that I won't have to save for deposit (to buy a house) as I inherited a small percentage of a house but unable to access it for a couple of years. Right now I want somewhere to live that isn't a dive, be able to eat food and still have some form of a social life.

Where I live, you have to earn 2.5-3 times the annual rent, or have a guarantor, for it to be deemed affordable.

I'm not sure what rules my EA used, but when I took on a tenancy at £925 (cheap in my area) they just wanted someone who earns over £32k per year.

I was on £39k and they let me rent it. My take home on that was £2200 so the rent was 42% of my income

I did not come across any EA who said my income wasn't high enough.

BecomingAdultly - don't forget water bill and insurance (contents / car if that's not covered by your company's contribution). Also consider how much you'd plan to spend on food, toiletries, presents for birthdays, haircuts etc.

As to the original question - If having your own space is that important to your happiness, do it. However I still think it's a good idea to make hay while the sun shines and save as much money as you can now - you mentioned you have a deposit put aside but do you need to build an emergency fund for car breakdowns, boiler failure, etc etc?

It’d be worth checking if the letting agents would accept your godfather as a guarantor - some have salary restrictions, so savings wouldn’t count.

Personally I’d struggle on £450 a month. Would you need to buy furnishings too?

X post, I see you have water already. Budget £25-30 pm until you know whether or not you have a meter etc.

The affordability check I do for my tenants is that their salary (each if joint) must be at least 30 x the monthly rent. Do you earn that? e.g. if the rent is £500pcm the annual income of each tenant must be £15k.

If I found out any of my tenants was subletting on air BnB they'd be out on their ear as it is a breach of contract.

The current affordability rules are quite new (2015 I think?) so all the people posting how they did it "way back when" wouldn't be able to do it now.

I would house share.

In sure you'd be able to find house sharing for less than 600pcm. They may not be 'young professionals' but its better than living with parents. Some are just live in landlords renting out a spare room.
House sharing includes bills so nothing on top of that.

Sppapp it’s based on salary, not net earnings. As we don’t know OP’s background, we don’t know how much tax/student loan/pension she’s paying.

Just rent the room in the shared house.

You could rent out your bedroom and sleep on the sofa.

And don't move in with a landlord would be my advice

I think it would be doable if you are careful. Up until recently my mortgage has always cost half my wages, it depends how much it means to you. The best thing to do is visit 'money advice service budget planner,' it takes into account all your other possible outgoings, e.g. Birthdays, Christmas, bank fees, haircuts, nights out etc. If possible I would go for it and start living your life and being yourself x

theunsure
That’s a higher threshold than letting agents.

Personally I wouldn’t do it unless it wasn’t that much more than the multilet. You may need that money one day. Half your income is clearly a lot. Add it up over how many years before you have access to the cash you’re talking about?

Find a cheap shared house just to get you out of where you are and make a start. you will need a guarantor and it will get you back into the habit of budgeting for yourself again. it will also be a clear sign to your parents that you are standing on your own two feet and that you are who you are.

don't even think about subletting - that is what airbnb is, its subletting. you will not only get thrown out for it but it will invalidate your contents insurance so if someone steals from you or there is a fire you are up the creek.

best advice - don't run before you can walk. take a first easy and cheap step and then progress on.

Have you got friends nearby?

What do you spend your income on?

I'd suggest going for the flat if you love it and like your own space.

You made me think about what I pay, I guess it's nearly half of income (to include all bills and tel bill).

Do you go out much?

You will not be able to legally sub let any part of your flat including the sofa on air b&b or the bedroom while you sleep on the sofa. If you did that the house I rent out you would be breaking the tenancy agreement and invalidating my insurances. You are then unlikely to get a reference for your next rental as well as losing the one you have.
My BIL is renting a studio flat which I think is about half of his income but he has a guarantor .

if you don't need to worry about a future deposit obviously do it. well, do it anyway but even luckier re deposit.

I spend half my salary on rent, as do most of my friends. Depends where you are as to whether a landlord will take you. In London there wouldn't be many renters to choose from if you needed them to be spending under 50% of their salaries.

Rent the room in the shared house. Try and save money for a year to give yourself a financial cushion. If you find you have plenty of money after a year then look at getting your own place.

My rent is more than a third of my take home pay (affordability checks are based on gross salary) and money is always tight. I have very little leeway for unexpected expenses.

Oh and yes you can’t do Airbnb, it will breach your tenancy agreement

Yes. Your household bills need to fall under a third of your income if they are going to be sustainable.

If you definitely think you can afford it, do it. You can't put a price on your mental health, which it sounds like your Mum is wearing down. The flip side to consider is whether you swap being stressed and unhappy at your Mum's against whether financial worries would cause stress.

I refused to move back into my parents after a divorce. I needed to protect my own mental health.

There was a thread on here yesterday (turned out to be a previously banned poster and got pulled, but nevermind) where the poster was complaining about having a 2 bed council house for her, husband, and 2 children.

It did make me think a little bit as I had to take a very small flat as it would accept the cat. I decided I was being whiny about mine being small!

When you're younger you're more resilient, shared houses can be a nightmare, you sound quite focussed and sorted OP so if you like your own space hope the flat works out.

I'm currently on 20K a year, plus £2,500 towards my car (plus millage). I also get 2K a year from my inherited trust fund but this money is what I call 'me' money. I.e. if I fancy going to tour Africa for a couple of weeks this is what this money is for. I also have my eye on a sofa I like the look of which I wouldn't usually buying something new.

After my dad left/then died we essentially lived in poverty so still it feels unnatural to spurge money on heating or on food. I'm the type of girl who walks around with two pairs of socks and sleep in a hoody.

I just don't want to have to go back to having to make small talk in a shared house. It would be different if I was living with friends but they are either living with partners or still students. I'm also in a new area so most of my new friends are students living in halls.

The only real expense I have is the sport I play, but I've already paid membership and training costs for the year. Apart from that I'll be working 6 days a week, and will be on call most of the summer. I won't be able to go on a proper holiday this year apart from a long weekend if i'm lucky due to being busy at work.

really appreciate all the feedback. It's just deflating reaching the adult world, that essentially I maybe living back in similar housing as a student. I feel like I work hard, I don't want to come back at the end of the day to have to clean out someones pubes before I have a bath.

Not unreasonably - but you may find HMOs with ensuites.