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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask how you managed to buy a house?

189 replies

Lollipop30 · 01/05/2018 14:22

If you’ve not had any parental help or outside input but have been able to buy a house recently..how?!
I’m feeling really down about it. We have a decent income and are able to save a modest amount per month but even with a 10% deposit the mortgage payments come out as double what we’re paying in rent for the same size.
Are interest rates really set to go up, and in which case should we just forget about even trying to buy.

OP posts:
Mirrorxx · 01/05/2018 14:24

We are lucky to live in the North West so managed to live on one salary until we bought our first house, due to very reasonable rent. We did live without a car during this time.

NeverSurrender · 01/05/2018 14:25

we live in a cheaper part of the county - large 3 bed semi was 120000 5 years ago. We both work - me 30 hours. Both earn between 20-30k. We saved up 10% and fees by drastically reducing our spending for 2 years. House prices have now risen quicker than our salarys so if we bought now we would have a smaller house (not ideal with 2dc)or a larger mortgage. It's still far cheaper than our rent on a smaller house though.

BossyPaws · 01/05/2018 14:27

We live in Yorkshire so managed to buy a 4 bed detached for £140k.

I never even realised how lucky we were until I looked in properties elsewhere in the U.K.

minderful · 01/05/2018 14:28

By earning more money.

It's surely the only possible answer.

We budgeted hard for a few years, living somewhere we'd have rather not. We then bought a doer-upper and invested in it.

5 years later we had enough to buy somewhere we wanted. 5 years after that we bought our current property; a large 6 bed.

I might be wrong but your sums sound incorrect. What length mortgage? Are you really comparing like-for-like with the rental and purchased property?

SoyDora · 01/05/2018 14:29

Our mortgage is the same as the rent we were paying, and the house we’ve bought is twice the size of the one we were renting.
We saved for 9 years, it would have taken longer but DH had an unexpectedly large bonus last year that took us over what we needed.

NapQueen · 01/05/2018 14:29

Do you need the same size property? Can you go smaller? Or move out a little?

Nobody gets their first foot on the mortgage ladder without compromise.

Againfaster · 01/05/2018 14:29

i bought an awful flat in in a pretty rubbish area of london so deposit was low. did it up, made just about enough to move to a slightly less awful situation and then did that another 3 times until i had built up a deposit amount enough to live buy in a nice area. It's been very hard work and taken about 5 years but glad I've done it now.

19lottie82 · 01/05/2018 14:30

Worked a second job for three years.

SecretIsland · 01/05/2018 14:31

We had a 125% Northern Rock Mortgage...wouldn't have managed it otherwise.

In your shoes, if the mortgage payments are unaffordable then I'd look at a BTL instead and keep renting my own home. You'll still have bricks and mortar and an income in 20-30 years (and yes I know BTL isn't all plain sailing bla bla bla - still a viable and worthy option for many though).

borlottibeans · 01/05/2018 14:32

I'm really surprised by that - are you being offered a really high interest rate or is your rent a bargain? I've just started looking into buying with a 10% deposit and mortgage payments on a comparable place to where we are now are looking like not much more than half our rent. Even if we stretched ourselves and had a smaller deposit it still comes in just under our current rent.

LaurieMarlow · 01/05/2018 14:33

Shared ownership (in London). Meaning that deposit was low.

We'd been saving for our wedding anyway, so we had some set aside. Then we threw everything we could at it - sold the car, cashed in ISAs, literally emptied all bank accounts, lived off CCs for a while.

Six years later, we sold at a profit and had enough for a substantial deposit on a regular home.

SecretIsland · 01/05/2018 14:35

I might be wrong but your sums sound incorrect. What length mortgage? Are you really comparing like-for-like with the rental and purchased property?

It's similar in my area. A 4 bed semi, nice garden, in an excellent area is around £850pcm to rent. To buy that house is around £300k, mortgage payments of around £1500.

Renting is by far cheaper like for like here.

SoyDora · 01/05/2018 14:37

To buy that house is around £300k, mortgage payments of around £1500

That must be a fairly short term or not a great interest rate. We have just bought a house for 300k (10% deposit) and our mortgage payments are less than £1000.

Criceta · 01/05/2018 14:37

12 years ago I was earning between 25-30k and bought a cheapish flat with the help of minimal savings and a credit card for the deposit. Sold it 10 years later for £30k profit. That, an inheritance from an aunt, plus my husband’s profit from selling his flat made up the deposit (altogether £200k) plus we have a mortgage on our 3 bed terrace. We are lucky, but I scrimped and saved to buy that flat!

pattimayonnaise · 01/05/2018 14:37

Where are you based? We got our first house on a government scheme that doesn't seem to exist anymore, we didn't need a deposit, the government owned 30% and we mortgaged 70%. Every time that we have moved since, we've made some money towards our next deposit. Mortgage rates are due to go up, you get a better deal if you can put in 15 - 20% rather than 10%, and with mortgages you really need to get the lowest rate you can, it's shocking how much 1% extra APR can raise your payments by! You can still get good deals under 2% at the moment, if they don't work for you payment wise then it really leaves you with no choice but to increase your deposit or attempt to increase your pay through moving jobs or being promoted (easier said than done I know!)

As far as actually applying, I've found brokers very useful, I wouldn't go through an application directly with a bank ever again.

TeeBee · 01/05/2018 14:39

I would try to buy somewhere that is a money maker, not a house that you plan to stay in. Find somewhere that you can easily add value to by adding space or improving what is there. Do either of you have building/decorating experience? Make a profit, move up the ladder, make a profit, move up the ladder. Soon you'll have a sizeable down payment for a house you want to stay in, and thus lower mortgage payments.

allthgoodusernamesaretaken · 01/05/2018 14:40

Have you looked at shared ownership, where you own part of the house and rent the rest? Over time, you can increase the proportion that you own. Some housing associations offer this

TeeBee · 01/05/2018 14:41

Also, are you a first time byer? Are you taking advantage of all the government help to buy/first time buyer schemes?

SecretIsland · 01/05/2018 14:42

That must be a fairly short term or not a great interest rate. We have just bought a house for 300k (10% deposit) and our mortgage payments are less than £1000

For a £270k mortgage over 25 years to be less than £1k a month you'd need an interest rate of less than 1%. That's exceptionally low and a rate that the majority of mortgage applicants won't be offered.

£270k over 25 years with a more average rate of 3.5% is about £1400pm.

theunsure · 01/05/2018 14:43

I bought when prices were still cheap - I was 22 (this was 2000/2001) and just out of Uni.
First house (2 bed semi in South East) cost £74k, I was earning £15,500 at the time so borrowed £62,000 and had saved the deposit (although to be fair there was some parental help with that).

Still have that house, worth at least £235k now, have been able to buy a second house and now rent out House 1.

I realise this was mainly luck - but also because I refused to go into rented when I graduated. I lived back with parents for 18 months to save. The first 2 years were really hard, I struggled to pay all the bills to start with and had food parcels from parents but toughed it out until I was earning more. Most of my peers wasted a fortune on rent and are miles behind property wise.

It is much harder now. I could only just afford my first house if I was buying it now on my current salary.

tinytoucan · 01/05/2018 14:44

We used the Help to Buy scheme as you need a smaller deposit. We probably wouldn’t have gone for a new build if we had more choice, but it’s got us on the property ladder and the house is nice and in a good area. We actually pay less in mortgage repayments than our rent, although the house is slightly smaller.

Madbengalmum · 01/05/2018 14:44

Saved every penny
Didn't go out much
Didn't spend anything on clothes/holidays /luxuries
Worked extra hours
Looked to buy in less expensive parts of the country

buddahbelly · 01/05/2018 14:46

We bought a 4 bed house, massive front and back gardens in a not so good area for £69,000 in north west, spent a year renovating it ourselves whilst living in 1 room, when completed we stayed there for a year until house prices picked up again and we sold it for 135,000.

You have to make compromises somewhere, it wasn't my idea thing to go through to be honest but its got me the house I have now and we've paid off a large chunk of it.

SoyDora · 01/05/2018 14:46

SecretIsland it’s over 30 years.

PurpleTraitor · 01/05/2018 14:47

Got a partner as no chance of buying alone. Worked three jobs for three years (day job, evening job, and cleaning work early morning). Walked to work/in between jobs/no car. Rented the cheapest flat there was in the town we wanted to buy in, and didn’t heat it. Saw a v.dodgy mortgage broker who decorated the figures and got us an awful rate but the only offer we could squeeze them for, paid a 10% deposit. Basically.