To ask how you managed to buy a house?

[Lollipop30]

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.

We took on debt and moved from Surrey to Midlands. Now the mortgage repayments are less than our old rent was 11yrs ago. We were given notice on our below market rent house and couldn't afford to rent where we lived, otherwise we would have scraped more savings together. We'd never get the deposit for a house around there so the move further north was always on the cards

Interest only, but larger deposit

We did have an inheritance that helped. However we also lived in a house which was 'interesting' (read: in poor condition) which saved us £400/month in rent (its condition reduced the rent that much over similar sized houses in the area). On a combined income of about £50k we managed to save over £10k/year - we were still going on holiday and having the odd treat, but living pretty frugally. Can you live somewhere cheaper now? Your rent is likely to be your biggest bill.

When you look at your monthly mortgage payment, remember only part of that is interest. If you can afford the monthly payment, some of it is going to buy off your house, which is equivalent to saving. So as long as the interest portion of the monthly payment is less than your rent, it may still make financial sense to buy. Depending on how old you are, also consider taking out a very long mortgage. Ours was 40 years, when we first took it out. Over time as circumstances change you might start to overpay and can use this to keep the monthly payments the same but reduce the term. Nationwide now offer very long terms.

We knew our income would increase because of the types of jobs we have, but we also lived very frugally, didn't have holidays or many nights out, and saved as much as we possibly could, chose to rent a less desirable flat in a less desirable area to reduce monthly costs. We bought our house 5 years ago in Greater London when we were 24 with a 5 per cent deposit (interest rate of 5.5 per cent, our monthly payments were around 1300 a month, but the interest portion was less than our rent had been).

I moved to an area of the country where houses were cheap.

Most people who have bought in recent years either have a good income or get help from parents and they are realistic in what they can afford and live in a part of the country where prices aren't crazy. Younger people in London don't have much chance of affording a house even if on quite reasonable incomes. But years ago people lived with parents saved up and then bought a house. Now they are living together and paying high rent so can't save as much and throw in a couple of DC''s and suddenly it all becomes impossible.

We live in Yorkshire so houses cheap to start with
My first flat cost £30000 25 years ago ( 1 years salary) and I got 100% mortgage so no deposit.
Sold it for double that and bought a house for £75000 with only a small mortgage
Part exed that with the builder for this house that cost £155000 16 years ago so mortgage for less than £10000
It’s worth about £400k now I reckon but no plans to move
So basically got in early and had dc late, plus both quite high earners
Plus a bit of luck

We had a 97.5% mortgage, fixed at 10.25% for 5 years, and were in negative equity for all but the first 3 months of that. We had a joint income of £26k, no local friends or family as we’d had to move south for jobs, and an air mattress on the floor for 6 months. It took us about 5 years to get ourselves proper furniture. Times were hard.
It makes me really appreciate what we have now, and how hard we worked for it (second jobs for both of us for years)

Bought a house sold as seen that needed a huge amount of work. Lived with the mess and did it up as we went along. Its worth double now and our mortgage is tiny. Im in Scotland though op so it is cheaper here.

Could you consider buying a small flat in a cheaper area to rent out? That way you are on the property ladder.

Bought shared ownership in London, property prices rose dramatically and we have just sold, the profit is enough for a 15% deposit on a much larger home.

We bought a crap house - it was 90k in quite a rough area but all we could afford.

We both have jobs that pay well. Live in London.

Realistically at the moment if your a FTB, with no savings/no bank of Mum&Dad and are living independently there is very little opportunity to get on the property ladder.

You can’t live in rented accommodation, paying all usual bills on an average wage and save for a deposit at the same time. (You could try but realistically it would take many years to get a healthy deposit together this way)

Try looking at rent to buy schemes, that may be an option.

Bought a small, ugly flat in an average part of London where there were things like oversubscribed good schools, big hospitals, near good transport links. We bought with a friend and so it was a sort of house share. We all did it up and moved to a house by ourselves in similar location. Again did it up. Neither place was our dream but very practical and bought with the idea of moving on. It made us enough (plus earning and saving hard) to buy where we wanted. We bought our currrent home in quite a poor state. We have renovated and extended and now it is a lovely house in a lovely location. We couldn’t have afforded it without getting on the property ladder at quite a low level and sharing the mortgage with a friend. This all took us the best part of 10 years.

Worked 80 hours a week for 3 years.

we moved in with mother in law (worst mistake ever) just saved absolutley every penny each month! gave back our car as it was on finance and just lived on nothing! we were both working so could put over a grand a month away. its hard but so worth living like that for a whie.

OP mortgages are most expensive in proportion to rent at the beginning of a mortgage. As time goes on, rents rise and mortgage payments generally reduce (barring rises in interest rates). When I took out my mortgage I was paying more than friends were paying to rent in better areas. 10 years later the position had very much reversed.

If you are in London though I must say prices are so high for what you get that you might be better off renting and buying elsewhere, with the intention of moving there later.

I don't know anyone in london who has bought a property without some kind of outside help e.g. bank of mum and dad, or an inheritance.

I feel the property market in much of this country has detached itself from reality, it really worries me. I’m 50 and rented till I was 36 which was silly, then only managed to buy a flat in London as a key worker with an interest free loan from government, and help from grandparents. I look at people in my profession who are in their 20 s and 30s and have no hope of owning their own place, they can’t even rent a flat in London with a partner, they are flat sharing with people who get on their nerves. They have degrees and state registrations. It’s wrong.

Oh, and had to get out of London and move somewhere cheaper.

Saved about 1/3 of my wage in 20's for years – initially paying back student debt. Same as rent which left things tight - and a few rental moves dented the savings. I was earning a decent amount though.

Married DH had very small wedding to keep costs down introduced DH to the concept of saving and he started adding to pot we had - had DC and lived in crap but cheap house – which badly affected mine and one of the children’s health with both of us developing asthma.

We had bad news in that DH job went and we had to move for work and take massive pay cut but it was a much cheaper area – and even with DH pay cut and me being SAHM we manged to buy a house.

It was a house needing work and despite full structural survey it was a money pit and actually quite depressing – nearly lost it when DH was made redundant – but then got stuck trying to sell it when his job was other end of the country.

Despite nearly 7 years of repayment mortgage and using a big insurance pay out when one of us was badly hurt by someone negligence to pay mortgage down during our time there – house sold for less than we paid for it despite small fortune spent on it and we got out deposit that we put in.

DH wage had doubled but we couldn’t afford to live near where he works so we had to look much further away leaving him with a long commute and compromise on the schools to get a commutable distance within price range.

We have a lovely house now but still have over 20 years of mortgage left before it ours just before we retire – unless we have to move again for work.

I’ve been planning it since I was 21 – took early 30s to get in position to buy, 40s before we were somewhere we liked and we will be near 65 before it’s paid off. Still lucky we have got on and found work near two cheap housing areas but dread to think how much harder our kids will have it.

Worked 48 hours a week shift work then did a second job where I did about 100 days a year including using holiday from 1st job. Didn't have a car and either ran or cycled to work. In short worked v hard and spent nothing. I bought a 2 bed house in the East End of London that was hideously decorated. When I sold it 4 years later, in 2007, I'd earnt more from the house than I had working.

Furano lots of us have bought without help, but admittedly many of us did so more than 10 years ago, and in crappier less prestigious areas.