To think most property owners don’t understand how hard it now is to buy a house

[Boredfromboredshire]

DP and me earn 40k between us and our rent is 1200 a month for a 3 bed house. We don’t have rich relatives, we are in our early 40’s and circumstances (ill health) meant that we didn’t buy a house before. We can’t save a deposit & houses are expensive by us. We have stable jobs & our kids are happy so moving in the current uncertain time’s isn’t an option. Life has happened to us & some of it has been out it control.

Cue well meaning friend (who bought their house for peanuts) asking me why we couldn’t afford a house when we could get a house in a cheaper area for ‘only’ 400k. I’m so fed up of it. We really want a home of our own & we would move but in the current recession, it’s not a good idea to give up a job. And we can’t afford to save. My friend (whose deposit was 12k can’t understand it and looks on pityingly while telling me the house they bought for 120k is now worth 700k.

For many of us, the housing market is closed for ever. I’m so tired of the pity and the complete cluelessness- I quite often feel utter despair about it. It makes me feel such a failure for no real fault of our own. Some people were lucky because they happened to buy at a particular month in time & then some of us couldn’t & it’s over.

I don’t think people who own really understand what it’s like. Low interest rates, cheap mortgages, everything weighted in favour of owners while renters are treated like the Victorian poor.

Aibu to be sick of it. We are a normal family in normal jobs.

There's a reason why commuter trains are absolutely packed in the 3 or 4 hour long rush hour every morning and evening. Do you genuinely believe it's because enjoy wasting hours of their day packed as sardines? Do you believe people wouldn't be delighted to buy a nice property AND be close from work?

Has it occur to you that people have chosen to buy a property, and the only way they could do it was to move. There's no right or wrong, but it's a choice.

Children are a choice, space is a choice, time is another. No one is winning because they have another lifestyle, but pretending everyone was just lucky because they have something you haven't is ridiculous.

The housing situation in the UK is crazy and needs sorting.
As an older person though I do get it and that's precisely why my dh and i have helped both our children with deposits.

We however did not get any help and were both on fairly low incomes when we bought our first home. We saved the 10% deposit and had a 12% interest rate mortgage for a tiny semi. We waited 8 years to have children and even then we couldn't really afford them. So no it wasn't easy but it was doable. Now, on a low wage it's not even doable with no help.

The injustice of it makes me see red, but that doesn't help you, OP. I hope things change for you soon, and for the others on here who are struggling to get properly set up in their own homes.

Some home owners do understand OP

Personally, as a home owner, I think house prices need to come down. Houses here are crazy expensive

It may happen, can you save anything at all, or do you break even every month/in debt

Either way, it’s a tough world and things may get tougher, house prices going down could be silver lining for some

I've told my son, who's desperate to own somewhere of his own. The only way his generation (20 somethings) will get in the current housing market would be to either get a well paid job that can be done online (programming or similar) and then move to an inexpensive area.

Or, look carefully for people selling their garden as a small starter building plot. Build a small starter home by saving like fury for each step of the build whilst doing as much as you can yourself. Getting trades in to do the tricky parts.
It might mean living at home for longer or living in a caravan.
Then once built, sell and start again. Slow to climb the ladder this way, but I can't see another way as the housing market is crazy.

Nottherealslimshady

my son is paying over £2000 a month for a mid-terrace 3 bedder.This is in the South West. Area chosen for his work..£550 a month might get him a house share.

Not all rents are as cheap as you think .

He has a very good job and still struggles to save..I reckon my kids might have their deposits sorted when their parents die , but only if we dont' have to go into care homes..Buy to let and selling off social housing are scandals.

I have 2 sets of couple friends who bought houses on their combined salary around the age of 25. They had help from family and one friend has 2 kids in her 5 bed house and rents the rooms out to lodgers to pay her mortgage! She loves to brag about her perfect her life is and would always preach to me about getting on the market.

I am now 32 and live with my ill mother paying the rent on this house. Last year I bought a studio for 225k on a 37k salary. In the end I had to change the mortgage to BTL as my dad passed away and had an international student who offered to pay over 1k rent a month on it. For the price I paid for the tiny apartment is ridiculous but it is all I could afford. Boils down to luck and timing I think, my friends who own houses are smug. I don't plan to have kids anytime either.

@Wheninrometoday how did you get a place on 22k? where did you buy?

I just get the rage when people go on about how much they hope prices crash so they can get a bargain when it’s at the expense of people like me who’ve also struggled to hop on the ladder at the very bottom rung.

Hold up there. In most cases prices coming down wouldn’t make the houses a “bargain” by any stretch of the imagination – they would just, with any luck, become priced at the level where they should’ve been.

What you and some others are suggesting is that prices stay high to save you from negative equity. Logically then, they must now stay high forevermore – or wait until salaries catch up. I think that would be a long wait, which is hardly fair. Frankly, entitled attitudes like yours give me the rage – or would, if that was something I ever got. Instead I just have to and think well, it’s not up to you or me, it’s up to the market.

I would suggest you try and do something about your situation op. Frankly I wouldn't bother with the 'get ten jobs and don't eat anything except rice' ideas. The system is so stacked against you it'll make minimal difference, plus it doesn't help others in your situation. The system needs change. Join a political party, lobby for change. There are also renters action groups you can join. Here's one - www.generationrent.org/
You shouldn't have to move, it's not right. People doing all sorts of jobs, even low paid jobs are needed everywhere in the country and they should have a secure home.
Campaigning might (likely) not make any difference but giving up avocado is going to make even less of a difference.

‘It’s not fair’
Well no-one said it was fair. Dwelling on that won’t get you a house. Being pragmatic and recognising economic reality can.

Choices people make, especially when young do make huge differences. So yes, everyone can have kids when they like, but the reality is that if you have them after you’ve bought a property and in a 2person relationship, your property future is more secure. Everyone has a right to be a single mum and help with housing will be given if needed, but it will always be harder for the average single mum with kids to buy a house in an expensive area than an older couple with kids of a similar age, esp if they previously owned property.

Some people without handouts manage to buy because of frugality and working crazy hours or buying to rent out in cheaper areas as a start. Some have no holidays or luxuries for years. Some move to a cheap area. Sacrifices over time can make a difference - usually very gradually. And lots of people do know this but start making those choices quite late. And other people can’t believe those things make a difference or refuse to consider them.

Some people will do whatever it takes even if it takes years. People on this thread were in Ops position 2 years ago. They recognised it was hopeless where they were and moved to hugely cheaper areas and now own property. It can be done, but not if you simply won’t consider moving and your income is simply too low. Basic economic realities.

We should not have to brake our backs for somewhere to live.

Why not? When we first owned our home together (2008) my husband had 3 jobs and worked 7 days a week. He worked his main job in the week, another job on Saturday and Sunday and a third job Friday and Saturday nights.

You do what you have to do.

It was always hard to buy a house.

Bollocks was it. I didn't have any inheritance etc, ordinary job. I bought in London, it was affordable.

You shouldn't have to move, it's not right.

cool, so does it mean you are also campaigning for MY right to live in my chosen area, instead of being stuck in the one I can afford? Sounds fantastic!

How will it work? Can I just chose a place and it's given to me? I call Kensington Palace! Great park, the kids love it.

People need to vote in a government that traditionally does not prop up the economy by keeping the housing market high. But will that ever happen?

The main reasons (other than Brexit in the last few years) that people say they vote Tory is the economy, housing and keeping taxes low.

Then we get the current situation and people wonder why. Really awful housing market for buyers and dire private rent. No council house building and very little housing association houses are built. Affordable homes are a joke and the government know this, even worse they often let the house builders off the legal commitment to build affordable homes. The criteria for affordable homes is wrong and should have been changed. Homes built with little or no infrastructure. Public services cut to the bone etc. The whole thing stinks.

@Osirus And that's a life style you would recommend, is it?

What Ken Dodd said. Maybe now is the time to stop putting up with it?

I feel sorry for people trying to get on the housing market these days, the cheapest 3 bedroomed new build near us is £200k what normally working class person can afford that without help from parents ?

We bought our 2 bedroomed house 20 years ago for 42k and have modified it rather than move due to the cost of houses in our area. At this rate my kids are never going to leave home due to the cost of rent or mortgages!

Agree, Flirtygirl! [Why isn't there a go for it icon?]

@somenerve

Staying ‘high’ is pretty subjective tbh. They are where they are because of what people have been willing to pay up until now.

I’m not entitled at all - I don’t want my house to make me any money. I struggled and made sacrifices to get on to the ladder. We aren’t high earners at all and only bought somewhere small a couple of years ago. I just would be devasted if we lost everything we worked for and it really grates on me that some people actually hope for it to happen. What will be will be, whatever my personal hopes are, but I just can’t abide the ‘haha smug greedy homeowners will get their comeuppance when prices crash’ attitude.

I worked my ass off and saved like crazy, ditched having a car for 4 years, walked or cycled and lived very frugally. I made it in the end and bought my flat. Sure it's very hard paying high rent and trying to save but you have to start somewhere, every saving helps, a few £ here and there. All those "small" £15-30 direct debit subscriptions, Netflix's, phone, etc mount up. Set your budget and stick to it...

I live in a flat I bought over 20 years ago. My earnings are the same now as they were then, but the flat would cost 4 to 5 times as much to buy now. If I were granted an extra 20 years but had to buy my home again, I couldn't afford to live where I live now.

Not only is property 4-5 times as expensive relative to my salary, but for all three properties I bought in the 1980's/1990's, I could get a 100% mortgage. Getting a deposit was never an obstacle.

I don't know what the answer is, other than to build a lot more property. Here in London, I advocate demolishing large parts of Tower Hamlets and building a load of nice tower blocks. Maybe throwing an extra half-million new flats onto the London property market will help.

The housing situation in the UK is crazy and needs sorting.

Cofeecak3 is exactly right and I feel for you and your DH, BoredfromBoredshire. I think Oxford is meant to be one of the least affordable cities, not helped by a huge market in people buying properties to rent to students and tourists. A colleague of mine lives in the Lake District where they have local occupancy clauses on some houses which mean they can only be sold to local people for whom it is their principal home.

Assuming people can move (and not everyone can), many affordable homes are in areas where there is high unemployment. At this time, the OP and her DH won't necessarily be able to walk into another job. For those who suggested moving to another university town, universities are facing severe financial challenges and I don't think that is as feasible as it once was.

I think the only solution is to reinvest in social housing. Local councils do have powers to offer mortgages but I assume that most have been too financially straitened to use them. However, that is what we need.

I just would be devasted if we lost everything we worked for and it really grates on me that some people actually hope for it to happen.

Assuming you intend to be a home-owner all your life, a crash probably wouldn't hurt you. In fact, since you say your place is small, it might make it easier for you to trade up. (I appreciate negative equity is a risk though.)

I don't want a better home than I have, but it wouldn't bother me at all if my home value halved. I'm planning on living in it for the next 30 years, what it's worth when I die doesn't matter to me. And a general property crash would make it cheaper for my child to buy a property.

Know it’s not possible for everyone but it’s ideal to try and buy before children. We’re in our early 30’s and some might say we’re sitting pretty now but we bought in our 20’s, missed out a bit whilst our friends were going on holidays, to festivals, exotic stag and hen parties, one of our couplely friends got married in Cuba and we couldn’t go. We didn’t upgrade our cars for years.

Think some people were scratching their heads when we bought, it was a 50’s semi in a not so great area (town near our village, we were priced out of the village) it needed everything doing. I worked 2 bar jobs alongside my full time job and hubby was living at work on overtime. We did have support from family though as we had our eldest at the time (3 DC’s now) when DC went to bed I went to work. It paid off as we were upsizing to a family home when our friends started buying their first homes and some of them said they then, understood why we had scaled back as they didn’t realise how hard it was.

It’s definitely worth saving now, the house price drops probably won’t kick in for a few years, from the 2008 crash prices were still low in 2013. Prices definitely need to come down, with regards to moving area, you don’t need to make a decision about that now but with savings you will have options and will be ready to pounce if prices do become more affordable. Perhaps might be worth looking at a cheaper area or smaller property to rent out, You need to be careful of tax, rogue tenants and a higher LTV but could be something to think about if you don’t want to leave your area.

It does actually grate on me when people claim it’s impossible to save while renting. Up until last year I was renting in a house share in central London at the age of 27. Sharing with virtual strangers for so long wasn’t ideal but otherwise I’d have no hope of saving. My salary is fairly high but London is expensive to live in and I’ve also spent the last 2 years using my evenings to babysit for neighbours to enable me to save even more towards a deposit.
This year I moved in with DP to bring down our rent slightly to enable us to save even more so that next year we might buy a house. We’ll have to move to Kent from South-East London and potentially have a longer commute if I go back to the office but we both work incredibly hard with DP working 7 days a week up until a few months ago and we’re extremely committed to buying a house before we do big lavish holidays, a wedding or children. It is possible but you have to make sacrifices and smart choices.

Op there are many help to buy schemes in Oxfordshire.

Hoping house prices will go down will not help first time buyers because lenders will lower how much they are willing to lend.

If you want to buy a house try one of the schemes, there is a big development in Didcot with much lower prices than Central Oxford. Contact Sovereign Housing Association, they can offer shared ownership too.

Dont give up.