To think I don’t have a hope in hell of buying a property

[Terrified1]

I’m 27, still renting, on a 22k salary. I got myself into quite a bit of credit card debt in my early 20s which I thankfully have now paid off without help from anyone. A lot of my friends seem to now be buying lovely houses, small but cosy with pretty little gardens. I just feel so low about how far away I am from being there. I’m single, in a flatshare, and will not have any money given to me like most of my friends have had from parents. I think others saved deposit money due to living at home with parents and therefore paying little/no rent but I don’t have this option. A 2 bed house where I live is about 190k. Is it nuts for me to hope I could do this on my own? I Currently saving £600 a month. I swing between feeling optimistic and just utterly defeatist

Which area do you live in op? 190k for a 2 bed house seems a hell of a lot for an area where you’re only earning 22k

There are plenty of areas where wages are low and house prices are high. Big employers tend to have national pay scales, regardless of whether the job is in Brighton or Bradford.

East Sussex has an average salary a fair bit below the national average, but the average house price is in excess of £350k compared with the national average of around £230k.

The wage:housing cost ratio is used in social policy as an indicator of deprivation. Two people with the same salary can have very different amounts of disposable income if one of them is in a high housing cost area.

You sound like you are doing great saving up so much every month. Don't give it up.

I did it on my own. Worked two jobs and flat shared, no help from anyone else. Best time to get a house deposit as no commitments and can work whenever I found. Home ownership was a huge deal to me though so I really made an effort to save and not spend.

Posted too soon!

A salary of £22k isn't that low for my area, many of my colleagues are on less, but the average price for a house here is £500k, +/- 10%.

My previous boss lived like a pauper and saved like a miser for nearly 10 years. Eventually, she got two promotions in fairly quick succession, and was able to buy a doer-upper flat for £140k on a salary of £29k.

@YinMnBlue Help to Buy is still very much available. It is what props up the housing market by inflating the value of new builds. You are thinking of the Help to Buy ISA

Yes, sorry, you are right.

I am glad HTB is available.

Your doing really well. I would save for longer and put a bigger deposit down as you wouldn’t want huge payments on a lower salary.
£190k seems a lot for a first house but I don’t know where you live.

@fredted8 thanks! I’ve had a think and think I will now try and aim to buy a 1 bedroom flat for 110-20k which I can then sell on a few years later. It’ll be in a not very nice area but at least I won’t be wasting money on rent and it will hopefully help me in my goal of getting an actual house with a little outside space