First time buyers

[Pickledonion24]

Have managed to save 200k between me and my partner. just feeling annoyed it won’t go anywhere really down south where I live

www.rightmove.co.uk/s6p/64234936

Out of idle curiosity, I have just looked in the town I live in, on the Surrey/Berks/Hants border. There are blooming loads of houses for £350k, with garage and garden etc. Mostly 3 bed, some 4. So plenty of space to have a home office too.

I grew up in a huge house, 7 bedrooms, 4 acre garden, plus woodland. I'd love to have the same, yet my somewhat more modest (but still pretty large) semi cost 6x what my parents paid for theirs 30 years ago, and we are both high earning professionals. My first house was a 2 up 2 down mid terrace with no off street parking, no access to amenities etc.

No one in their right mind expects their first house to be ideal or forever, unless spectacularly naive or stupid.

Apart from anything else if you can put down a deposit of >50% of the house value, you will get a much better interest than someone with only a 10% deposit, which makes it much more affordable.

That won't do, NQ, nowhere to park the vintage car.

This thread makes zero sense to me.

OP’s partner has a good job but combined they can only get a mortgage of £150k, even with a £200k deposit?

The house needs to be in London, but you can stay where as it’s a tiny, outing location?

You want office space, a garage, and off street parking IN LONDON? You won’t get that for the £450k you wish you had, much less the £350k you do have (and I say this as someone who has just sold a house in a not-very-desirable part of London that had none of those ‘essential’ features and sold for a fair bit more than your budget)

You want to be in London, but it has to be a specific area as you need good bus links? I’ve lived all over London as have yet to find anywhere that doesn’t have reasonable transport links!

*but you can’t say where

So odd. Dh and I are low earners and could get 140k with a 10k deposit.

jesus, what are you after? OH has a terribly overpriced apartment on st Katherine’s docks and his deposit was just a bit more than that. Each has parking spots around the back. If you venture out of zone 1 then you’re looking at some seriously lovely properties for that price. If you’re wanting to be in zone 1 then there’s still stuff within your price range depending what you’re after.

Or is this just a windup? Becuse it sounds like it’s written by somebody who hasn’t even looked

Well, to everyone saying you can get a nice flat for £360k in London ... that’s just not the truth.

It cost us £615k to get a small 2 bed in an undesirable Zone 2 area ....

@LemonysSnicket agreed. Just doesn’t happen. 615 is a great price for zone 2

"Ive had a huge house as a child and so has he we don’t want to compromise that easily."

I know everyone else has said this but you are SO fortunate to be able to even make a compromise! I also grew up in a huge house, but have had to cut my cloth and buy a small house to suit my finances. Didn't occur to me to wring my hands over that. Just life, innit - make the best of what you have.

Under £400,000 for a 2 bed flat in z2 in South East London, @LemonysSnicket. Look around Brockley.

Move to the East Midlands. You could buy a street for that

I looked at 2 bed houses in London for 325 k and look at the results

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find.html?searchType=SALE&locationIdentifier=REGION%5E87490&insId=1&radius=0.0&minPrice=&maxPrice=325000&minBedrooms=2&maxBedrooms=&displayPropertyType=houses&maxDaysSinceAdded=&_includeSSTC=on&sortByPriceDescending=&primaryDisplayPropertyType=&secondaryDisplayPropertyType=&oldDisplayPropertyType=&oldPrimaryDisplayPropertyType=&newHome=&auction=false

Does your bf actually drive the vintage car around? If not then put it into storage.
Move further away from London (assuming of course that is where you are looking)

Some of the responses here are not just rude but really nasty, it's always the same on mn someone mentions a sum of money and the claws come out.

QueenOfIce
I think op has come out has very entitled and immature describing what she should be able to have. What happened to the philosophy of cutting your cloth of us, which we, the older generation followed? Her attitude is hardly going to bring out the best in people.

Your boyfriend sounds like the biggest dickhead here. He's not willing to compromise much on the house your inheritance will buy? Fuck that.

Well, to everyone saying you can get a nice flat for £360k in London ... that’s just not the truth.

Well that's bollocks, I live in one. We bought it last year. Zone 3. SE London.

agreed with pigeon. I'd be very careful and making sure I had every possible protection in place for MY money

Big houses come with big energy costs and large council tax bills. Even with the inheritance, can you afford to run a big house if you did manage to buy? I'd suggest possibly not if the bank are only willing to lend 150k on your combined salaries.

OP have you looked into help to Buy? In London I think you get 40% deposit. You might get your dream house.

Your combined jsalary must be between £30 and £37k if you can only borrow £150k with that nice big deposit. Each of you earning less than £20k is pretty shit in londom. Ar that salary you’re looking at a room in a shared house generally! Why bother living in London when you earn so little?

Quite frankly, you don’t earn anywhere near enough to own a big house with a drive and a garage in London. You would struggle anywhere if you didn’t have that inheritance.

Oh poor you with your 200k and your vintage car. My heart bleeds.

Oh FFS. Really what you need is to grow up.

Sell the vintage car and put the money towards your house. Tell your Mum she’ll have to start paying a dog walker.

And mostly - realise that you are in an exceptionally lucky position to have inherited (some people lose their parents and inherit nothing.) No-one gets everything they want as soon as they want it.