To think that house buying is the norm in my world?

[Friendly1234]

NC’d for this, I was reading an article this morning about how ppl are finding it hard to get on the property ladder these days and I realized that literally every single one of my friends and family have been buying houses with relative ease for the past 10 years (I’m in my early 30’s!) so from what I can see it’s the norm to buy (and build houses) at around 24-26!! I wouldn’t say my friend have particularly high powered jobs either, most are nurses, teachers and have apprenticeships. A few even work in retail!!

I have lived in London and now live in an expensive commuter town outside London. My friends are all graduates in professional / office type roles. Friends all late 30s/early 40s.

My experience is that those who haven't bought yet are through life choices - they don't want to move out of the trendy parts of London they live in and aren't willing to compromise. They also have very nice lives with expensive gyms, brunches, long haul holidays etc (the trendy parts of London they live in eat money, I know as I spend a lot less now I don't live in one of those places).

I think most professionals in their 20s could get on the housing ladder somewhere commutable to London (even if they bought their first place jointly with a friend or sibling, which I know people who've done). But they don't because they don't want to live where its affordable.

Alot of the complaints about house prices are in London are really, I can't afford to live where I want in London, rather than not being able to afford it at all.

A lot of people have read the OP in the same fashion I have deciphered it. Maybe because we're the ones that haven't had the opportunity and the luck some of you others have

I think that’s very telling though.

Spending £1200 plus on a mortgage for 25-30 yrs

I’m sure you’re not saying that everyone’s experience

They also have very nice lives with expensive gyms, brunches, long haul holidays etc (the trendy parts of London they live in eat money

Do you think maybe the people in your social circles are earning a bit more than the average Londoner?

It is generally a bad thing for the economy that the population as a whole are paying an increased proportion of their incomes for housing. Not everyone is of course, but even in cheaper areas housing is usually more expensive in real terms than it was 20 or 30 years ago. My house certainly is. Its only worth maybe 130k, 140 absolute tops, but if prices were the same as they were in the 80s and 90s in real terms it would be about 90k. That isn't good.

On rightmove there are over 1500 properties under £100k in Ayrshire- a huge area that is commutable to plenty of decent paid, if mostly public sector, jobs.

It’s a different world from SE England.

I actually agree with you OP, bit different but I'm 21 and I think my generation are so scared of not being able to buy that we are cracking on and trying to do it now. Obviously a lot of people in their 20's are living with their parents more, but there's a huge majority of my friends saving to buy. So they will go from their parents house straight into a house they bought rather than the renting in between.
One friend took out a mortgage with her mum, with a plan to sell and split the equity to put down deposits on their own home, and another friend lived with his parents and just bought a beautiful 3 bed flat, and has the two other rooms are rented by his friends although they're technically lodgers (his mortgage says this is okay). Lots of my other friends are living with their parents for a couple of years not paying rent and will have their own mortgages by 25. They might not have deposits given to them but actually not paying rent to their parents is basically the same thing. My parents own their own homes as do all my mum's friends.

My friend in major city in Midlands saved for house by staying in sharehouse even with a baby and DH for few years. It's not most comfortable but now they have a lovely 3bed in not bad area.
Rent on 1 bed flat would be 500+bills, 1 big room with ensuite was 400 which included bills.

OP I'm not sure where you're living but I live in the south east with my husband, two incomes (okay not the highest earners but we work hard) and no way at this point can we buy a house. We have actually looked more north and possibly Scotland where family is because there is no chance here (we are both 24). We even have savings and are very careful with money. The cheapest we could get around here is a tiny house/ flat for at minimum £250,000.

You are just very lucky to live where you are! Unfortunately it depends on the area. I would love for us to be able to buy our own house but we live in an outbuilding that husband and father in law built because otherwise we wouldn't be able to live here 😊 I'm not saying that's the worst thing, I think we are very lucky to have this - but I wish we lived somewhere with affordable houses.

They're never from people who live in tiny rural villages in the North West where the job opportunities are few.

This statement makes no sense. If job opportunities are few they’ve probably already had to move away by the time they’re having kids. But I know plenty of people who’ve stayed in this sort of area because family support is on hand.

And it’s not dramatic at all @CockleburIck - just because you found it easy doesn’t mean that others do. I know they haven’t found it easy and we’ve had problems too.

We moved back to my hometown years ago. DH works from home so doesn’t get out to meet people through work. I was self employed so didn’t have that opportunity either. It was fine though because we had my mum and quite a few friends still living here - except that my mum died, and gradually our friends have all moved away for better work opportunities.

We have twin toddlers with disabilities - I’ve made a few nice mum friends but they’re not longterm friends that I can be really open with or rely on in an emergency. In fact there’s no one nearby we can call on in an emergency. Even if I could take the boys to groups now, building really close relationships with people takes a very long time for most people.

That’s especially difficult for couples like the friends I mentioned earlier who were both extremely close to their families and had large friendship groups here, and would have had huge amounts of support if they’d stayed. They’ve both made friends from work but it’s not the same as a longterm support network.

Great for you that you enjoyed it. Maybe appreciate the fact that this isn’t true for other people and that working people with good incomes shouldn’t have to choose between being close to family and friends or owning a property.

@CuriousaboutSamphire because the OP comes across as being completely misunderstanding of the reasons why not everyone is as fortunate as her and rather smug about the whole thing.

I'm in my mid 30s, live in the north and private rent. Most of my friends either private rent or live in social housing. I was pregnant a year after graduating from university so we moved out of my parents house, and renting swallowed up our income. I was on an average salary, he was (still is) on minimum wage. We have no financial help from family and don't earn enough between us after paying rent and bills to save up a deposit, and unlikely to get a mortgage, even though I imagine we pay more in rent (£600) than we would on a mortgage.

I bought my home at 21 with my then partner 13yrs ago.

To do this I worked very hard, had NO luxuries (by this I mean no new clothing, no car, no eating out, no cinema trips etc - we basically didn't have a life). I had no handouts from parents as my family have always struggled for money.

I do think that a lot of people these days aren't a poor as they say they are. If you can afford to drink/smoke/eat out/have little treats/spend £5 a day at Starbucks, then you could be saving that money towards a deposit which is far more important in my opinion. It's about budgeting and scraping every last penny into a savings pot. We managed to sort out a 20% deposit within 4yrs despite being on low incomes.

I understand that London prices are higher, but generally, so are the wages. Also, once on the ladder your prices rise higher. I've managed to put only £10k on my house in 13yrs - which leaves me struggling to buy a larger/better property.

It's interesting you hear A LOT of people on these threads say they were able to buy because 'we saved every last penny, no takeaways, no holidays etc etc'. But i don't see a lot of people who say they can't buy who say they 'when I say can't I mean really can't, we haven't had a holiday in three years, we have cheap phones, no Starbucks, no new clothes unless really needed'. So I wonder if there is some truth in the fact that people aren't being honest with themselves about what they can save, at least based on the usual anecdotes you read on MN.

I'm not trying to be glib but until recently I was earning £120k but driving a 14 year old Peugeot that I bought for £650 5 years ago.

I am not tarnishing everyone with the same brush, but I wonder if there are some people on this thread who say they can't buy but who have a nice car on the driveway on credit and are typing away with an iPhone X in their hand.

ducks and runs

I think if you’re earning £120k, your experience of how much disposable income the average person has to spare might be a bit off the mark.

Although, if it helps:

When I was 25 I could not have bought a house. I really really couldn’t. I did not have a car. I did not have holidays. I did not eat out. If I needed new clothes they came from Primark or charity shops. I had an ancient Nokia flip phone. I really did not have much money at all. And whenever I did save more than a pittance, I ended up spending it again on renting-related expenses, because renting is really expensive.

Then once I got a decent job and started being able to save, I did save. But sometimes I got a coffee from Starbucks, and sometimes I bought a top from M&S, and I had a secondhand iPhone. I still didn’t have a car or fancy holidays and so on. But if saving for a house was going to take 5 years by living like I used to, I was perfectly happy to extend that to 6 years by not cutting every single corner available to me any more. I’d done that for years and years at that point. I was sick of it.

Most people can put up with scrimping and saving every penny if they’re doing it for a year or three. But most people aren’t prepared to do it for a decade plus, or however long it is to save a house deposit out of Starbucks coffees.

It sounds very much like you couldn't afford to save - i believe you! Although tbf I'm not suggesting it's as simple as cutting down on the avocado toast alone - I was talking about cars and £1200 phone contracts.

But it is still all relative. I know couples who bring in about £200k between them who say they can't afford to buy! They are kidding themselves, as are the people with nice new cars and who might consider £120 at the hairdressers every 6 weeks as essential maintenance.

One will eventually buy a million pound house as a starter home and the other will eventually buy a £200k house as a starter home (after many years of kidding themselves they couldn't possibly have done it any sooner)

@NinjaInFluffyPJs no not in Cheshire. Not too far away from Cheshire though.

@VampirateQueen I honestly can't believe no houses under 1mil😮 I am shocked

Dexy plenty of people live in poverty, don’t have cars at all, parents go hungry to feed their kids - they really are using every last penny to live. Of course they can’t buy a house. That’s the whole problem, accessing secure housing shouldn’t have to mean living in sackcloth and gruel for years. It’s fundamentally wrong we’re even at this point.

Yes it's normal here BUT always with parental help. No-one can afford to save a deposit with low wages and high rent.

We were on a combined wage of £14k and got a mortgage 5 years ago. Only because of being given deposit. So many people don't stand a chance even with decent wage if they don't have a parent/inheritance to help.

No-one can afford to save a deposit with low wages and high rent.

*Many not no one

Also no one has mentioned single people here. Not everyone is married in their 20s and 30s, I’d say about 70% of my friends are single. Some of us might remain that way! It shouldn’t be assumed everyone has 2 incomes to buy a house with

DH and I have reasonably paid jobs, excellent credit scores but no bank of mum and dad to help us so we don't have the kind of deposit we need to buy a house in our area.
I guess it depends where you live and what circles you have. A circle of my friends are all on the housing ladder but they have quite a bit of expendable income. Another circle, none of them are on the housing ladder, either living at home or stuck in rental.

Dodgeballchamp I know that and I agree with you. There are people who are very fortunate and can easily buy a home, there are people who will never be able to buy a home no matter how hard they work and how long they save and there are people who are all the shades of grey in between.

People are kidding themselves if they think everyone can afford a home and they're kidding themselves if they think no-one can.

This statement makes no sense. If job opportunities are few they’ve probably already had to move away by the time they’re having kids.

How doesn't it make sense? They're still moving away from their support networks