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.

Both worked two jobs to save a decent size deposit to get good loan to value, properly budgeted, no sky, no new cars, limited eating out etc etc, while saving, cheap hols only. rent in our area is more than a mortgage, ours is £1000 a month mortgage for a 3 bed house with three reception rooms and a large garden, rent would be the same on a two bed flat. We also bought a fixer upper.

Ooh and we bought before getting married , we've paid for renovations and a pricy wedding in the last eighteen months, no debt other than mortgage and some student loans left, we haven't had kids yet and planned things in this order. Our deposit was £30k plus fees, solicitors etc

Our house was 300k 2 years ago

OP I think the problem here is you've got kids before a mortgage. That does cost a lot, as well as impacting on any earnings you can make in addition to your main job. I worked 4 jobs from leaving school to get my deposit money together. Easy with no kids. Not easy with kids.

Likewise my nephew & fiance bought a flat a few years ago, 2 bed in perhaps not the best area but there are buses and trains not too far, having both taken any extra work they could, not eating out, not buying coffee & lunch but taking flasks and sandwiches in for 2 years to get a decent deposit (more than 10%). They've carried on being frugal, totally upgraded the flat and made it look very contemporary (was an old persons flat with corresponding dismal 1980s decor) sold the flat for a nice profit and upgraded to a lovely sized semi with potential to improve, in a nicer area with a garage. This will be their forever home. They're not wasting money on a flash wedding (happy to carry on being engaged, when they do it'll be small with very close family and friends, not aunts!) don't do big holidays abroad and are carrying on the frugal life, the aim being to pay down their mortgage to reduce outgoings ready for the time they start a family (probably when they hit their 30s, still 6 or 7 years to go). His sister just bought a flat a bit further out (45 miles from London) following the same saving philosophy but bought on her own, she is only 21 this year, working all shifts possible in her job and taking promotion and then moving out to a slightly cheaper area and transferring to a higher paid job in a different branch. So it is do-able, nephew is within 35 miles of London.

We've bought a house in a nice area of North West England for £180,000. We're in our early thirties, don't have children yet, and both have been saving since late teens / early twenties. £9,000 each was manageable. Geography obviously plays a huge part in this. We couldn't afford a house in the South East or even in the nice parts of Yorkshire / Cheshire.

Saved like crazy, compromised on size and didn't have children until we had bought a home.

Most people I know who rent won't compromise on size or have children / hectic social lives etc so spent their money elsewhere.

We were lucky to both be in full time jobs which also offered paid overtime, and we did loads and loads of it.

We lived very cheaply for a couple of years and apart from rent and bills tried to spend as little as we possibly could. No new clothes, holidays etc. Every item in our food shop was value . I didn't have a smart phone. Plus we worked all the time so no opportunity to spend much!

Those things combined allowed us to buy a flat and we got very lucky with the area we bought in and when, which meant we made enough profit to upgrade to a house not long after.

By moving. We left london, moved north to somewhere where we could afford to leave the rent trap. Best decision ever!

We also had dd after we got the house.

Lollipop have you looked at the edges/fringes of your area, or the next town over from you? You may find it a bit cheaper, but you will still have access to the town and everything you use now.

When I first bought we moved 3 towns further away, coz it's all we could afford. We had to compromise massively, but we sat tight and the property prices increased where we were and we sold two years later for 50% more. We also went through a broker for our mortgage, we didn't get a great rate, (that first mortgage crippled us) but two years later we renegotiated our mortgage when we moved back to the area we were from. So although the first two years were hard, when we moved back to the more expensive area we had a bigger mortgage but we had a bigger deposit, which meant we were offered better mortgage rates, and our monthly mortgage payments weren't actually any higher and we were used to paying the mortgage by that point.

I'd suggest looking at slightly bigger search area, and definitely see a mortgage advisor and broker.

Good luck, it's tough, but it does get better.

We did help to buy on a new build. We might not "make" money on it as OP points out but for us it was about having a home not making money. I don't think you can count on property being an investment anymore unless you're able to buy somewhere expensive or afford to do somewhere up, and this was the only practical way for us to get out of renting.

OP I think the problem here is you've got kids before a mortgage. That does cost a lot

It also affects how much you can borrow. After my mate had her first, they quickly realised that their matchbox of a house was far too small and would be woefully awkward when their DD was a toddler (think steps everywhere, including the garden).

They wanted to move and contacted the bank to see how much they would be able to borrow, thinking it would be more as now their deposit would be quite a bit more. They were shocked to find they wouldn't even be able to borrow as much as they already owed, because of the costs of having a child!

She ended up reducing her hours to 3 days pw, and a year later they were able to borrow a lot more. They were left with more disposable income because she didn't have to pay back her student loan on her lower earnings and her childcare costs were a lot less.

It's a funny old world when you can borrow more by earning less, but there you go.

Get yourself a broker. An independent one separate from estate agents and they'll help you out.

Ours got us borrowing more than what we thought we would be able to. And we have a kid too.

You just have to tighten your belt. Like I said previously, we were paying rent (£800pcm) and still managed to save for a 5% deposit and moving fees (£16k) in 2 years

We scrimped and saved, on only one wage, but we did it. We were paying £700 a month rent, mortgage is now £400 a month on 124,000 over 35 years (we plan to start over paying to bring that term down once I am back at work) our mortgage is much cheaper but the difference is eaten up in other ways, like higher ct, life insurance, home insurance etc. Not to mention all the work on the house that needs doing, but we bought cheap and will scrimp by for a few more years till the house is what we want!!

Depends where you live. House prices are cheap round here. You can get flats and some houses for under 100k.

Did OP say where they are btw? Just intrigued as where we are rent is the same, if not, higher than mortgage payments for similar properties! Where for them its cheaper to rent.

Just keep saving OP, you will get there! Only way to do it though is literally by cutting everything back. It is tough but its how people do it.

It's the size of your deposit. Renting is cheaper where I stay unless you have at least a 20% deposit. Then the interest rates become much better.

I feel the same OP. Me and DP are saving but it's not happening any time soon. We both work full time and I have a child so extra work isn't an option and buying somewhere to do up then move around again isn't feasible. Absolutely no parental/family help. We live north but locally a basic 3 bed semi/terrace is around 150k. I feel like a failure and embarrassed when I speak to people younger than myself who have had/are getting mortgages (also pressure off DP to buy as all his friends are buying but have much higher wages). Part of me feels I might as well stay renting as the mortgage payments would be the same/more than what I already pay and I'm struggling financially and mentally with the pressure of saving for any reasonable deposit

@Neverseen

You sound like you’re in the same spot. We’re north too.

Our rent was £500, house was £130k (3bed terrace) Living in the North East.
Saved hard, went from being a student and one on minimum wage to earning circa £40k between us (gross) with as little change on outgoings as we could without completely missing out on life. Worked on making sure we both had great credit scores. Got a 95% mortgage, bought a house in a less desirable location but that ticked our boxes. We're also willing to do plenty of work on it to turn it into our home.
Neither of us ever thought parental support was an option, it was only when we started chatting to people that we realised how common it is.

Saved every month from getting our first real jobs, started with £250 each a month ended up around £400 with promotions and pay rises. Took about 5 year and we had £40k for a 15% deposit and fees. Used H2B ISA for as long as we could too and benefited from stamp duty being axed.

Never took on car finance, £50 gym membership or phone contracts, meal planned, shared a car when we could, always shopped around for deals but still lived life. It was a good balance

Oh and our rent and mortgage repayments are similar, but obviously our monthly outgoings are higher because we have to pay for insurance, etc.

We saved 15k over 7 years and bought a house for 150,000. We're in Yorkshire though so a decent house in nice area for that amount.

We bought a house in need of work with an interest only mortgage, we worked hard on it and doubled our money. We did the same with a better house and made another nice profit. We then bought a house that we wanted with a goos deposit and with a repayment mortgage.

Move from a lovely, leafy, trendy area to an ex council house a mile away. Best thing we ever did. That combined with me saving rent for a year when on work placement and Dh living with his parents for a few years before we met. There's no way we could have bought even a shoe box in a nice area though so that was the compromise.