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.

I feel like there are a few things going on. I do think almost anyone is able to buy property if the only requirement is that you only buy property. I went to a few property websites and saw properties I could buy in cash.

But I would guess for most people the point of buying property is buying a home in where you want to live and the property is not the speific priority. Yes, there is compromising maybe not buying in the dream area or not the dream house. But also not picking any random place anywhere in the country/world. Uproot your familys life, quit your job and home for the best based on property prices.

But the mortgage rate is so much lower now than 30 years ago when it hit 20+% and there was mass unemployment. Every generation has problems. People rarely buy in Germany.

@Mere1

Do you think that interest rates could perhaps go up over the 25/30 years mortgage?

@somenerve 😂 RTFT territory

I bought a flat in the mid-nineties for £52,000. I sold it 10 years later for £185,000! My salary certainly had not tripled, had hardly changed in fact (perhaps an extra £150 per month) so I wouldn't have been able to buy my own flat iyswim . I really feel for people trying to get on the property ladder now. Those at the top end of the property scale have seen huge increases in income but those in the middle or near the bottom not so much and require vast deposits. How they can save when rents are so high I really do not know. If there is no inheritance in the pipeline they are pretty much stuffed!

@Mere1 Germany does have very low home ownership rates but it also has strict rent controls and a generally higher state pension than the UK.

You cannot compare the two.

If the UK had strict rent controls and a higher state pension I daresay we'd have lower home ownership rates too.

Yes, property owners have no understanding especially the ones that bought 20 or so years ago and have benefited from huge house price rises. They forget though that someone has to pay these unaffordable prices and live like paupers to pay their rents or motgages. The housing market now is like a legalised Ponzi scheme in my opinion .

We got a house last summer, but we live in a very cheap area housing wise, not a bad area of the town we live in, the town is just a cheap housing area as a whole. Our 3 bed house cost less than 100k all together. No way we could afford a deposit for a 400k house! And we both have reasonable incomes so I know I’d be annoyed too if I were you at people suggesting that’s cheap or easy to afford a deposit for

I hear you, we had the same. Married 13 years, in our 40's, had ds soon after marrying. Took 13 years of saving for a deposit, fees, new furniture.
Everyones circumstaces are different

I worry for my kids. My DH and I both bought flats (before we knew each other) in the early 00s when they were throwing money at you for mortgages. As a result we were able to but our family home together a few years ago as we had capital in one and we rent the other.

To try and do that now would be borderline impossible and I genuinely feel for everyone who is striving to "get on the ladder".

YANBU to pissed off at their patronising diatribe but YABU in terms of not looking at other options.

There are plenty of government schemes including part ownership and there are other parts of the country to live in.

Back in the day we moved to where the work was and where was affordable.

You can rent a 3 bed house in bedfordshire for £850 depending on the area and it's much lower than that in other areas.

Shop around or you are right, you will never own you're own home.

About 40 years ago people used to buy 3 bed houses in a nice suburban area for £3,000.00 yes that is right 3K those house would now set up You back 300-500K!!!!

Something seriously wrong with the British housing market as the bubble should have popped at the same time as in the US, but for some reason didn’t. Means they’re still using the same scam they used.

GeraltOfRivia Why can’t you split the one you rent to get the kids on the ladder. Isn’t that what it’s all about all this working and saving? Or will that make them “privileged”.
I’m sure there’s people on here that would rather burn their money than help their kids with it. For me- that’s what it’s all about. It’s what drives me.

My sibling will not own until they inherit. Not only are prices where they are same like in UK, but wages are lower AND banks usually require minimum of 20% and number of these "low deposit" mortgages is actually restricted. So banks can give out only some number of them. There is also rule that
So i can absolutely understand the frustration of wanting to own, but not being able to even as a homeowner...

It must be cheap where you are, here it’s £900 for a 1 bed, tho we are near a mainline station

I feel really sorry for people trying to get on the housing ladder, it IS so much harder these days - but can someone tell me why people then spend £40,000+ on their weddings - don’t they think the money would be better saved towards the house deposit?

About 40 years ago people used to buy 3 bed houses in a nice suburban area for £3,000.00 yes that is right 3K

Around 40 years ago was 1980. Do you really mean 1980?

I don’t know anybody my age who has been saving for a house for years and years and has spent 40k on a wedding! The only people I know who had large weddings in their 20s were either property owners already, or had wealthy parents who paid for it for them.

I have a big 3 bed house for sale in Derby’s. Don’t want the prices to drop as I won’t be able to afford to sell if they do! Prices here are very different tho- 3 double bed semi £125k. So much harder down south for sure.

Op, could you move to the outskirts of Oxford or to a neighbouring town where you can still commute to work but where house prices are cheaper?

I live in a small town which is seen as a desirable area where house prices are high, but If I moved to the next town half an hour’s drive away, the house prices are much cheaper (3 bed detached for £500,000+ where I am now compared with £230,000 in the next town.)

Obviously there are reasons why the town further out has lower house prices so you have to weigh it up and consider schools, family, support network, transport, amenities etc. but lots of families live there happily and I am considering making the move myself.

I feel for younger people trying to get on the housing ladder but you say you are in your 4O’s so a possible 20 years you could have either been saving, retained into a higher paying role or moved to a cheaper part of the country even if you couldn’t afford the cheaper SE house prices of the early 2000’s.

Not saying it isn’t shit that you can’t afford it now but You have 20 years of choices you could have made to change things. Not the cases for someone who is only 21 and has no chance no matter what choices they make now.

I totally agree and I think it is something that government/banks etc should help with... rather than shared ownership schemes etc they should offer help to the people who pay their rent every month. We are on property ladder now but took us ages. Our mortgage is half the price of our rent but we had to jump through so many hoops to get it!
What was more frustrating is that we were classed as high risk at the age of 30 with 3 children and we had paid rent and bills and managed for over ten years but the 20 yr old down the road got a mortgage easily because he lived with his mam and dad and saved a deposit, yet had never had to pay a bill or manage money in his life and had no real responsibilities to keep his house for.

I think YABU. Do you think the majority of home owners are sitting pretty in their 400k+ mini mansions they acquired through no effort and work of their own? I worked, I saved, I lowered my expectations, and the main thing is I live in a part of the UK which wouldn't be my first choice if money was no option! If you're friends can't understand your situation get better friends!

@namechanger0989 I’m glad you brought up the risk thing. My DH wants to simply hand our house over to DD when she’s 18. I’m more like you in thinking that living with mum doesn’t prepare you for paying bills etc. Is this a hidden trap for the “privileged” who’ll inherit or be helped? Are we storing up a different problem of financially incompetent people for the future? I’m sure that if we are that’d be yet another time bomb waiting to go off.

Absolutely agree. I am now 50, and honestly don’t see how I’ll ever afford to buy 😔