(Posting for traffic) has anyone managed to get a mortgage as a single person?

[mortgagemadness9]

Just as the title saids really. I’m sure there are, but how hard it is?

I’m 24 and single, no kids. Currently rent a flat at £450 a month. I earn 20k a year but salary is roughly around 17k after deductions so not high I know. I take home around £1425 a month plus mileage costs and expenses as I do a lot of driving for work.

I would say I’m good with money and budgeting and don’t spend a lot on luxuries but with rent and bills it’s hard to put money away. I have savings but not a lot (around 2k). I also have an isa account which currently has £100 in 😂 I try to put a bit in every month.

Normally once all my rent and bills are paid which includes the basics such as council tax, water rates (I get single persons discount on both of these), home insurance, car tax plus car finance (I needed a decent car for work and had to get rid of my older cheap one due to an oil leak that would have cost an arm and a leg to fix). My little luxuries are amazon prime and iTunes which come to around £18 a month. I paid my phone off last year so one less bill to worry about. After food (I shop in Aldi and Lidl), gas, electric and petrol I would say I probably have around £250-350 disposable income so again not a lot in the grand scheme of things.

I have rented for the last 4 years and as much as I love my flat I just can’t imagine renting forever. I feel like I’m just throwing money away by paying someone else’s mortgage off, although I appreciate this is the only option for many people. I was interested to see if my landlord would ever sell to me (another conversation to be had) as it’s a great flat and I’d gladly stay here, but even if I were to ask it would probably be many years down the line once I’d had a decent deposit saved up.

I would say house prices around here vary. (Not an expensive area to live in but not cheap either. It’s a lovely small village not far from the city centre). There’s a new build 2 bed apartment just down the road for 110k as where my landlord bought my flat off the council for only 69k so as I said prices vary massively.

I always think I might meet someone a few years down the line and things would obviously be a lot easier financially, especially with getting a mortgage but that could be years away and I’ve always been quite an independent person and I’m quite proud of all the things I’ve been able to achieve without a man in my life.

So, after rambling on (thank you if you’ve got this far) please could you share your experiences with me? If you did manage to do it how long did it take you? Did you have to move away to a cheaper area to be able to afford it etc? Thank you 😊

You can do a number of things to prioritise house-buying:

1. Flatshare now to minimise outgoings and save for a deposit;
2. Move to a cheaper area and also flatshare there;
3. Look into housing association and shared ownership schemes;
4. Look for ways to increase your income (an additional part-time job, or small business). These probably won't be counted towards mortgage calculations but can definitely help towards saving a better deposit.

All of it will mean having a less good quality of life right now, for the sake of something better in the future. Good luck.

Yes. Had 5% deposit. Moved to a cheaper postcode because they only lend 4-4,5x of your income.

After I finished education, I rented for about 8 years. My biggest outgoing was rent, so to save money, I rented a shoebox.

The people I know with similar earnings to me who can't afford to buy, rent places that are as big as the places they want to buy. I was only able to buy a place that size, by renting somewhere tiny, to build up savings. Not everyone wants to live like that, even temporarily, but for me, it was worth it. Short-term pain, long-term gain.

You will need at least a 10% deposit (some lenders may offer mortgages where a 5% deposit is required but the pay off is generally a higher rate) as a first time buyer, this needs to be your priority. Mortgage lenders don’t look at your rent and say that you can afford £450 rent so therefore £350 mortgage will be fine. They balance it against lots of other factors and as it is lending secured against a property they are very strict.

There’s no point looking at properties until you have a deposit available unless you have family that can help you out, Barclays and Lloyd’s offer family mortgages where they provide the deposit and it’s held in trust for them while you’re responsible for the mortgage. Google for more info as the details escape me!

As @bridgetreilly said.
Flatshare, low spending. And I didn't have a car too.

Most lenders offer 5% and yes, you may pay bit higher interest for a bit, but it may be worth it. In my case it was. I was on 3.5 and went down to 2 within 2 years. However, I added value because the flat needed modernising. It's a 5-6 year project.

The people I know with similar earnings to me who can't afford to buy, rent places that are as big as the places they want to buy.
Yes. This. How many times I've heard "I wish I could afford to buy like you did". You could have, but you chose to spend over twice as much as I did on rent and bills🤷

Yes of course. All my mortgages have been as a single person. I was lucky in that when I first bought a flat, no deposit was necessary (I got 110% mortgage) but sounds like there is some cheap property where you are so should be doable.

I would definitely buy ASAP if I were you. Then you are paying down a flat ready for a second step. If you could get a 2 bed you could rent a room and increase your income.

Also interest rates are very low just now - take the opportunity to buy now when cheap.

Have you done any rough sums? There are mortgage calculators that let you play about with numbers a bit.

My husband did, before we met. He lived with his parents to save money, which I know is not an option for everyone, but as his parents didn't charge rent he was able to save quite quickly and so built up a decent deposit.

You wouldn't have any problem getting a mortgage just because you're single. Is it just raising the deposit on your own that seems difficult? The higher price you mention would be attainable on a £20000 salary as long as you raised a minimum 5% deposit (saved/borrowed etc). The lower price you'd only need to raise a bit more to add to your savings and you'd be paying less for your mortgage than your rent.

Yes, but not til I was 42. SAVE and save and save and save and one day you'll realise, omg I can do it now. Hopefully it won't be so long as it was for me but I had a few very circuitous loops along the way. I should have concentrated on feathering my own nest (to be) instead of trusting that an arsehole would be fair to me he wasn't

So yes, keep saving even if it's not much. Have a fund you don't touch. You're only 24.

When I was 24 I was a PhD student living in a shared house. Get a flatmate. It will half your rent and your bills.

I did. Pre-credit crunch when 100% mortgages were available, not that I went down that road. I flatshared while I saved up a 5% deposit. Then bought a two bed place and let out the second room for a while to help with bills.

I bought at 21 but I had a better income. Can you look at changing your job or getting more hours?

The lower price you'd only need to raise a bit more to add to your savings and you'd be paying less for your mortgage than your rent
You will. My mortgage is less than a rent for room around here

Your problem is likely to be how much you can actually borrow.

At 4.5 times your salary - which is as high as any decent lender goes - you could get £90k.

You can get mortgage rates, even with less than 5% deposit, which would mean the mortgage would be no more than your rent is at the moment, but if the amount you have available isn't enough then you're stuck.

What sort of money would you need for a property in your area?

Sorry - just seen that you did mention the local prices.

You might be able to do it, OP. Talk to a mortgage broker or a building society.

DB die. He is also in his 20s, single with no kids. He lived at home for 4 years after uni, did loads of overtime and saved hard and then he went to a mortgage broker so he could be sure he was getting a good deal. He also moved to a less popular area and the house he got had been sitting empty for about a year so he managed to get some money off. It is doable, you just need to be quite strict with your finances. Other posters have offered some good advice.

Yes, single and with a child in tow at 27 with no parental or external help. Please don't let the thought of being single stop you from getting a mortgage, especially at your young age.

Focus on getting the best salary you can for yourself, continuing to upskill and save save save as a prior poster has said.

I did - my DH doesn’t work so mortgage application was on my salary alone. But two important caveats - we were extremely kindly gifted our deposit of 20% by relative (and were very very grateful for that) and I earned a lot. We bought our forever home - its a heck of a less than my colleagues and i have a commute, but it ticked all of our boxes and its wonderful.

At the time, we were considering massively downsizing in renting to prioritise saving. If you are already in the bottom bracket for rent in your area but were looking to get a similar property for £80k (based on what your landlord paid), then you’d need to save £8k. You have 2k already, so if you saved 50% of your disposable then you’d have a 10% deposit in 4 yrs, or just shy of a year and a half if you got a 5% deposit mortgage.

I bought when I was single. I was earning £21,000 at the time. I bought my little two bed house in a cheap area with a 10% deposit. The first year or so was tight on money but after 2 years I remortgaged to a better rate. My wage has gone up since so I'm able to overpay the mortgage.

There's lots of free mortgage calculators online which can give you an idea of what you can borrow and how it will cost you. It's also worth speaking to a mortgage adviser.

I also used a mortgage broker who secured me a loan with a provider that had actually previously declined me. Would definitely recommend.

Yes I did when I was 28. 10% down but i did move back in with my mum to save for 8 months. I would have really struggled to save paying out rent too.
My mortgage is definitely cheaper than rent and I have done quite abit to the house since.

A couple of bad points I bought a 2 bed as I thought it would only be a starter home. Then the little one came along. Now I slightly regret buying a 2 bed.

Next point is when things go wrong. My render fell down was 700 pound to fix and just today found a roof tile on the patio.

I think it is do-able OP.

DH did it age 22/23. (Although we were together we weren’t married/didn’t live together yet and I was a student.) Quite an inexpensive property (£90k), 10% deposit (lived in a horrible studio flat and worked overtime where possible to save ASAP.) his wage was about £19/20k plus overtime and the overtime added about £5k.

Then when we did our next move though we were married etc by then I was the only one earning as he was a SAHD so it was solely on my salary (albeit by then I was earning pretty well and we had a reasonable deposit).

Good luck!