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 got quite lucky looking back on it. We both finished uni and decided to blow all our savings on a year out travelling. When we returned to England we had no money to our names (a scary time but worth it!). So we scrimped and saved working full time jobs and living out of a converted shed at the bottom of my now MIL's garden. We payed a tiny amount of rent so that really helped.

After about 2 years of this we were able to get a deposit together for a teeny tiny rabbit hutch of a flat in SE London. We continued to work long hours and save, and in the process both got promoted. Then my incredible auntie sadly passed away and I found out she had put my name down to inherit her flat. We sold this and started to look at houses and decided to buy a fixer upper Victorian terraced house which was in an awful condition. With the leftover money from my aunties flat we converted it into our dream home and 10 years later we're still here.

Our situation was different to most and we were incredibly fortunate. However I can still sympathise as when we were saving for our first little flat It seemed absolutely impossible that we would ever be able to get enough money together. Hang in there OP. It may seem impossible now but your situation will eventually improve

Living in the south, I managed to buy a cheap 3 bedroom terraced house that needed a lot of work doing, on a wage of about £24k with no help from anyone else.

We lived in a housing association flat so the rent was a bit cheaper, but I was supporting 2 kids and a SAHM on that wage.

Took about 5 years of living very frugally, no foreign holidays, no iPhones, not having meals out or takeaways regularly.

House still needs a lot of work doing to it but after a few years the mortgage is now cheaper than the rent on anywhere I've lived before, so I'm better off all round.

Answer to OP 's question. I rented until I was 32. I lived in tiny shared flats in seriously grotty areas. I did have holidays - cheap ones backpacking in Greece or Turkey. I didn't have a car, (or kids). I saved and saved and saved and then bought a flat in a cheap area miles , (1hr30mins on a good day), from my office.

I took a lodger for four years. (We got on great). He helped. Finally moved when I got pregnant.

@PaintedHorizons you got pregnant with your lodger?

8-10 years ago we were in financial dire straits, living in bottom of overdraft, incurring bank charges etc. We had slightly chaotic lives, both self employed with low incomes and dealing with some MH issues.

DH and I both prioritised getting better paid (permanent/employed) jobs, started saving as much as possible by budgeting, meal planning, staying in, downgrading phones etc.

Lump sums from a PPI claim and a TV gameshow gave us our deposit.

We bought through Shared Ownership and now very happy in our home.

We used the help to buy scheme which meant the deposit required was quite low paid the loan off when we sold the house

Following

I worked my full time job and did lots of freelance work (worked 60+ hour weeks), that was over ten years ago though. I lived at home and saved like mad.

It seems like most people had at least some parental help, even if that was living at home.

I have a terrible relationship with my parents so that is not an option for me (they’d let me but they’d hound me every day for not being perfect so not possible for my mental health).

I think if we really wanted to, we could live with my PIL but they’re Korean and there would be so many culture clashes (they don’t understand that I need alone time; also if one person is awake, everyone must be awake, even if it’s 5AM on a Sunday.)

We are trying to save for a deposit but quite difficult with rent and so on.

If deposit size is the problem (and it is for most people, plus needing a massive unaffordable mortgage) the Help to Buy on a new build is really worth a good look at. It can work really well if you're in an area where house prices generally rise but will still get you somewhere even if the house value stays the same.

I know new builds aren't for everyone and the rooms often aren't huge but it will get you started.

We bought a new three bed house in the SE for £250k four years ago. We put 12.5k down (5%) government put in £50k (20%) we took out a mortgage for the remainder. The help to buy meant we had a 25% deposit as far as the banks were concerned so we got better rates. Our payments are about £900 a month (about £200-£300 a month cheaper than renting something comparable in this area).

House has gone up in value by about £75k, we have paid about £20k off our mortgage so now have lots more equity. We will sell soon and pay off the help to buy and use the money we've made as a deposit for the next place.

Yes, you lose some of the value of the price rise to the government due to the way the scheme works but we're still loads better off that we would have been.

Sunshinegirl82 My brother is looking at this scheme but the trouble is having is the entry prices are very high & he’s worried that what he buys now won’t go up much in value. I said if he could manage to get somewhere fairly future proof it could be worth it.

I think the thing is, even if it doesn't go up much you're still paying down your mortgage so adding to your equity overall. If you can afford to overpay your mortgage then even better.

If our house had stayed at £250k we'd still have £30-£35k of equity now which would still put us in a much better position than we started and if we'd overpaid we could have increased that quite a bit.

It will obviously help if you buy in an area where prices are rising. Where I am there isn't much difference between new build and secondhand houses price wise if you look in the right areas.

I like that terminology: first rung homes and second rung homes. It sums it up nicely and is very true of our experience. We are now in our forever home (I hope) after living in a mouldy pit.