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’m in London and my experience is very different. Only roughly half of my friends in their 30s and 40s are home owners. 20 something home owners are exceedingly rare indeed.

If you live up north and most of your circle are married (two incomes), I can see how it might be possible.

But a 2 bed flat on my area costs 400k + and a family home is pushing on a million. Not affordable for most, and I don’t live in a ‘posh’ area.

I would bet hardly any of the people you know put the deposit down themselves, or pay the solicitor fees. .
If their parents give them the deposit then anyone can "buy" a house because most of the time the mortgage payments are less than rent.
Most people I know rent long term, I'm mid thirties. The others who own their property including us, their parents helped them

Outside of the SE and property hotspots this is still normal. My DD's "friend" (who's not her boyfriend do she says) is looking at properties now at 24 - he's saved up £10k and can buy a 3 bed semi for around £100k here. He earns a very average salary but just scraps the salary affordability but plans to have a lodger to help.

@Loudlady34 no we weren’t helped with deposits, we worked abroad for a year (tax free) and formed the bulk of our deposit that way. As I said only one friend had help from GP’s. Some of my other friends lived at home for a year or two but not all of them.

Round here (East Mids) you can get a perfectly nice 3 bed semi in a good area for around £160,000. An ex council semi, still in a nice enough area, would be perhaps £130,000.

With supportive family locally enough to live with for a while, a partner and a permanent contract, it's easy enough to save £20,000 and get a mortgage for the rest. However, not everyone has all those things.

My mum and dad have given my brother a £50,000 deposit for a 50% flat share in London. He is (and has been for years) a higher rate taxpayer and has saved £80,000 himself. It's still a stretch in the areas he wants to be in. London is a different world.

I said only one friend had help from GP’s

How could you possibly know this? Unless everytime someone you know buys a house you outright ask "has a relative helped you to pay for it?" which would be extremely rude. People may have had financial help from parents to get a foot on the ladder and not necessarily felt the need to share it with you!

I agree. I don't know anyone who doesn't own a house but I can see it matters which part of the UK you live in. We are East Midlands. Dd (22) will be buying a house in 2 years. She would buy one now but won't know where she will be settling until then. She's saved her deposit already and she's just finished four years at uni.

It's all about having a deposit. Dd1 (28) still lives at home as hasnt enough for a deposit. Sadly for her, the bank of mummy and daddy isnt able to help out. Dd2 lives with her fiance in his flat. His parents put up the deposit. Most young people I know can't afford to buy. My niece and nephew rent, as does my sister. She lives in London and buying is out of the question
I dont know any of the dds' friends who have bought a house!

Houses up north are much cheaper. £160,000 for a 3 bedroom is mind blowing to me. I live in London.

@MinisterforCheekyFuckery because they told me she was a close friend and they were putting in an offer on a certain house but changed their mind last minute as they saw a house she loved but was over budget her gp heard her dilemma and kindly gifted her the difference and she was so happy she told me l. It’s called sharing good news!!

This post makes me really sad. Me and DP have been saving for about 8 years for a house of our own, and just simply cant afford it yet.

Most of my closest friends from uni days (now early thirties) own properties. Most are in the SE, but every single one of us had help from family with the deposit. Wouldn't have been able to get on the ladder without it as rent is so high there would've been no chance of saving (and certainly not saving quickly enough to overcome rising house prices)

I used to live in a northern ish town and most colleagues my age who did the same badly paid admin work as me had bought their own place in their 20s. I used to beat myself up about it until I realised that in literally every single instance they had been living rent free with their parents for years first and had never actually had to stand on their own two feet. They used to smugly bang on about how you just needed to work hard and save your money and never once acknowledged that not having to spend a huge chunk of their income on private rent made a pretty fucking big difference.

we worked abroad for a year (tax free) and formed the bulk of our deposit that way.

ITT a person with set of options A can't understand not everyone has set of options A.

All my friends own property. Everyone is mid 30s to early 40s. Some like me got help from parents, others did it on their own with high paid jobs.

I live in London and don't have any friends who rent.

I know plenty of my work colleagues, 35 and under who rent

17 years ago I bought my house for 135k. Now it’s 550k. In 17years!!!!! What kind of wage can compete with that increase

South east 20 miles from London.

@MonkeyToesOfDoom we weren’t the only ones out of my family and circle of friends to do that. It was a leap, a risk and a way of travelling at the same time. And EVERY qualified teacher, nurse, electrician and several other professions have that other opportunity. Lots of ppl do it!! The UAE is full of ppl over there on yearly tax free contracts. Some stay for longer and some don’t. 🤷‍♀️

Your biggest problem now, OP, is that you have started a thread that is about life in NotLondon (and SE).

You have publicly stated that actually, out here in the boonies, there are many places where all sorts of financial issues don't exist, or do so to a far lesser extent.

That is, it seems, unacceptable here. Many others have tried and got some really weird, oddly angry and personal responses, myself included.

For a more leavened set of responses you need to find a forum that is less London/SE centric. MN can often be a very skewed arena because of the apparent geography of its members.

I agree OP it is going to take us nearly 15 yrs to pay off our mortgage in South London and that was with a significant deposit from inheritance. It is a terraced house that has three ok sized bedrooms. Hardly glamorous.

We probably could have bought a house up north / midlands with a much smaller mortgage, or even outright.

Our life is here, both our families and jobs so somehow I don't think we will be leaving in a hurry.

I'm in South Liverpool OP and I'm the same. All but one of my friends have bought their own home.

It is entirely based on your social circle as to what your experience of this is. It depends what their life priorities are too.

Me and my husband had a saved up deposit by the time we were 24/25 respectively (tooks us maybe 18months to save it). We live in Yorkshire and both earn pretty average salaries. Then I got pregnant lol So we ended up not putting any deposit down. I didnt work for 2 years while at home with the baby and the money just kind of got spent on baby stuff, extra food, the extra car etc etc. So now Im 27, still renting. My boy is in full time nursery which now takes up around 40% of my salary. Hence for at least another year I wont be able to save anything (maybe a couple of hundreds a month but not more). So I hope once my boy is 3 and get free nursery hours, we can start properly saving from our two salaries and maybe by the time I am 29/30 we will buy our first home! (fingers crossed - no more babies in this time haha) I.e. a house where we live now (lovely building, 2 double bedrooms, massive living area and huge garden + parking spaces for 2 cars; nice and clean area) we pay 490pounds of rent a month. The very same house was for sale a couple of years ago for 70k lol - this would mean 130pounds of mortgage a month. So really we are overpaying so much it physically hurts my stomach everytime I think about it. I am happy for people who can buy houses at their early 20s but this surely cannot be majority...

I actually have two friends in London and they own properties too! Albeit one of them works for an eye watering pay and they bought a 3 bed terrace for 900k a few years ago 😮

Not everyone can afford to save a deposit after leaving school etc.

I come from a poor family, after leaving school I couldn't go to college I had to get a full time job to help my single mother afford to pay for our house, buy us food etc all my earnt money was pretty much gone on bills etc I had nothing left to save for a mortgage. It's very expensive to buy a house in my area too, you do need alot for a deposit. It's all private rent at stupid prices and no social housing. Alot us will never get the chance to own a house due to circumstances we were born into.

I'm sort of saying a similar thing to @CuriousaboutSamphire but maybe not as "on side" - you've started a nonsense thread; ability to buy depends mostly on where you are buying, obviously your job(s) and how can get your deposit together. Its not just London that is expensive.

I agree OP i bought my first flat 4 years ago on my own on a salary on £18k. Flat cost £100k.

Me and my partner have bought a house since (i still have my flat) and we only needed a 5% deposit so easily saved.

All my friends own houses and are married and have kids like us.

We live in an expensive city as well