Just can't get on the property ladder

[NoFrills01]

We have a DS at school, I've just got a PT job and he works FT our income is just over 50K we can scrape together a deposit of 25K if we beg parents for help.

Still we are struggling to get a mortage and struggling to find anything worth having, we have been stuck renting for years. We need to stay in the area as DS goes to a wonderful school and because of our jobs.

We are both over 30 and it feels so embarrassing to not have a home we can call our own, we have no family support (pre covid) to help with DS so we do everything ourselves.

I feel left behind, my friends all have lovely homes, and lives and we are always worrying about money and going without trying to save as much as we can so we can have a home that's ours, and a better future for us all.

Worried to get a new build and still don't think we could afford it.

Has anyone any advise? It's all I think about!

You do just need to keep saving unfortunately- that’s how it works!

I live in London in an area we love and have a pretty good deal on a rented flat we absolutely love too - been here 7 years!

Also been saving for 7 years every penny we can every month - i couldn’t tell you the last time I bought myself new clothes or anything - I only get stuff I absolutely need!
We do still keep some money aside for a life - holidays, nights out etc - but most money goes in the house fund! We both have lifetime isa’s so the government top up every 4K we save a year by 1k each - which tops it up nicely

Lockdown we obviously never go out anymore so we actually piled more money than usual into savings

Now we are very nearly there - it’s been a long bloody road - but that’s how it

Also we are priced out of the area we live so moving to a slightly more affordable neighbourhood - it’s only 20mins from where we are now - but we found a lovely place we can afford! It’s only a 2 bed flat - but we decided we want to live in London and that’s all we can afford - if we want a bigger better house - then we are very aware we have to leave the city!

Stop comparing yourselves to others too - it’s pointless

We've been in the same position for the last 15 years and have realised it's always going to be impossible in the area we grew up in. We're moving to the other end of the UK and the 4 bed house we have just bought in new area is £600,000 cheaper than the cheapest 4 bed in our area. Relocating was the only way we would ever be able to own. It's rubbish, really. But we're looking at it as an adventure

Forget what your friends have. Look at what you can afford and choose the one that ticks most of your boxes. If possible increase your hours at work and pay off the mortgage quicker save the money for when you move up in a few years time. Can you get a 30 year mortgage for now?

Cost of living obviously plays a part but people’s expectations don’t always match reality. It’s not hard to work out that children are expensive and that part time working is a luxury, in return that means less for the larger purchases in life and not being able to afford a dream house.

I have a friend who bought for the sake of saying they own their own home - they have never been able to upgrade and their oldest child is now 18 and has lived his whole childhood in a small bursting-at-the-seams flat - if they had rented then he could have grown up in a house with a garden.

Remember that if you sacrifice your current home that is suitable and not too expensive, you could be condemning your child and yourselves to unsuitable accommodation for many years just for the sake of saying you own it. And the your child will fly the nest and you will ask yourself why you did this.

The priority is for your child to have a comfortable home near his school and his friends. Childhood flees in the blink of an eye.

If you stretch yourself financially you will have that worry hanging over you all the time for years - a worry you have saddled yourselves with for....what?

I bought a house - and @MrsGRtamsay and @VinylDetective I agree with you - bought it with modest mortgage ( between 2) But then Dp fucked off and left me with the 15% mortgage and the negative equity - it was not all honey and mead in those days

But Now DH - we bought a very small house -it worked.Then bought a bigger one - that worked - now downsized - that works .

Never in the world in space would we ever have thought that the "forever home" was within our reach early doors

And actually What is a forever home. - love my ( now little house ) but rather thinking of a nice flat with a balcony ) I do not covet detachedness,

So the only advice I can give to you @NoFrills01 especially if you want the lifetime one right now ( lucky ) my advice would be if you want to own - there will probably be compromises to be made. Pretty much most people do this- early doors or just keep lovely rental - no shame in that

Well ( probably too much ) my 2 pennyworth

Now the lifestyle seems to be have children, try and buy a 3 bed in a good school catchment area on one salary and complain its impossible to get on the property ladder.

I’ve done exactly that, except I compromised on area and went with a commuter town with good schools rather than the city. 3 bed semi new build, so the bedrooms are a bit pokey but it works fine for two kids under 3. New builds sell very easy here, though. One house in our street went on the market 2 weeks ago and is already sold.

We’re planning on selling up in a few years and building a detached home in the country. Not all new build developments are shitty- we have multiple at the minute in our town and they have all sold very quickly. All 4 on our street have sold within 2 months.

So, yes, you obviously do have to compromise but I think that statement is a bit judgemental. I bought my first home in my early twenties and we both were on pretty crap wages. Minimal help from family, too. But area saved us and as long as you’re willing to compromise on something, I think most of us can find somewhere to buy. We don’t just all sit around and complain about it.

@Mischance

I have a friend who bought for the sake of saying they own their own home - they have never been able to upgrade and their oldest child is now 18 and has lived his whole childhood in a small bursting-at-the-seams flat - if they had rented then he could have grown up in a house with a garden.

Remember that if you sacrifice your current home that is suitable and not too expensive, you could be condemning your child and yourselves to unsuitable accommodation for many years just for the sake of saying you own it. And the your child will fly the nest and you will ask yourself why you did this.

The priority is for your child to have a comfortable home near his school and his friends. Childhood flees in the blink of an eye.

If you stretch yourself financially you will have that worry hanging over you all the time for years - a worry you have saddled yourselves with for....what?

In the UK, it would be very unusual to be able to rent a house for less than the mortgage on a flat, unless the house is in a cheaper area. Average rents are high, so often a mortgage can be slightly cheaper each month. If the landlord made a mistake on rental values then the landlord could still decide to sell the property or put rent up at any time, then they would have to move. The trick is to find a property that works for your needs and figure out where the compromise is.

Op you just need a starter home.

@Mischance

I have a friend who bought for the sake of saying they own their own home - they have never been able to upgrade and their oldest child is now 18 and has lived his whole childhood in a small bursting-at-the-seams flat - if they had rented then he could have grown up in a house with a garden.

Remember that if you sacrifice your current home that is suitable and not too expensive, you could be condemning your child and yourselves to unsuitable accommodation for many years just for the sake of saying you own it. And the your child will fly the nest and you will ask yourself why you did this.

The priority is for your child to have a comfortable home near his school and his friends. Childhood flees in the blink of an eye.

If you stretch yourself financially you will have that worry hanging over you all the time for years - a worry you have saddled yourselves with for....what?

Sounds like other issues going on there. As rent is usually higher than mortgage logically they would not have been able to afford to rent a house with a garden unless they moved away,

The priority for the family is secure housing. As they have owned a home for 18 years then they should have good equity in it too. Which either they can release by moving to a cheaper area or the child will inherit. They also have the security of their own home when they retire and not sitting in rentals that may escalate above what they can afford or they may be asked to vacate.

Clearly they made the right decision, no one should give up on owning so they can have a garden.

You'd probably be better off moving to a more affordable area for your first home. The house I live in now (I have a mortgage on it and it's my first 'bought home') is definitely not my dream home but will do for now to get me on the property ladder and build up equity while I wait for my dream job and in turn a dream home. The time is not right for me now but patience is a virtue and all the while that equity is building. I've been here for a few years now. Yes it's hard at times when I see friends and family in their dream homes. Yes it was hard when I first moved here, in a doer upper, and had to paint and decorate in whatever spare time I had. But it's totally worth it because I know in the next few years I'll be able to start looking for my forever home. Don't forget, most people's first homes are not their forever homes. On the plus side, I live in a nice friendly neighbourhood and there are lots of lovely walks around here. You'll make the best of it wherever you decide to buy.

Also we are priced out of the area we live so moving to a slightly more affordable neighbourhood - it’s only 20mins from where we are now - but we found a lovely place we can afford! It’s only a 2 bed flat - but we decided we want to live in London and that’s all we can afford - if we want a bigger better house - then we are very aware we have to leave the city!

I think it's madness to buy a flat in London now unless it's incredibly cheap or you are happy to stay there a very long time.

It's pretty obvious that the cost of living and the cost of an average family home has risen drastically compared to wages

So true, especially in the public sector or anything funded by the public sector, where wages were frozen for ages and still haven't caught up. Meanwhile, rents and house prices have increased massively.

It's particularly tough in the SE, where prices and rents are above the national average, but wages in the public sector and for national companies are the same as anywhere else unless you work in London and get London weighting.

If you're serious about buying, OP, you'll need to compromise and buy somewhere smaller, maybe a flat, or that needs work or is in a less desirable area, then trade up. If you're canny about where you buy, you might be able to buy in an area that is on the up, and then you'll get a better than average increase in value.

And save as much as you can. With a £50k salary and rent that's "a steal", live like paupers for a while and save every spare penny. A colleague managed to buy a flat in a reasonable area not far from Brighton as soon as her salary hit £30k, because she had saved really hard, lived in houseshares and had built up a decent deposit.

This is a good article about the difficulties young people face trying to climb the housing ladder & this was pre covid & the associated increase in remote working.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.ft.com/content/5c49931e-9ddd-3db3-8a67-3fc2bc18f0d2

We did Help to Buy on a new-build as it was all we could afford. We couldn’t be happier with it, it’s so much nicer than we ever would have imagined our first home would be. New builds make people nervous which I understand but there actually are some very good developers out there. Our place is very well built with few problems, and all the ‘snags’ we have found have been fixed straight away. Do some research into different developers and upcoming developments in your area and you might be pleasantly surprised.

Im in Kent in a 3 bed terrace with bathroom and downstairs loo and garden , conservatory , its valued at £240,000.

@Twoobles

Now the lifestyle seems to be have children, try and buy a 3 bed in a good school catchment area on one salary and complain its impossible to get on the property ladder.

I’ve done exactly that, except I compromised on area and went with a commuter town with good schools rather than the city. 3 bed semi new build, so the bedrooms are a bit pokey but it works fine for two kids under 3. New builds sell very easy here, though. One house in our street went on the market 2 weeks ago and is already sold.

We’re planning on selling up in a few years and building a detached home in the country. Not all new build developments are shitty- we have multiple at the minute in our town and they have all sold very quickly. All 4 on our street have sold within 2 months.

So, yes, you obviously do have to compromise but I think that statement is a bit judgemental. I bought my first home in my early twenties and we both were on pretty crap wages. Minimal help from family, too. But area saved us and as long as you’re willing to compromise on something, I think most of us can find somewhere to buy. We don’t just all sit around and complain about it.

But you're obviously not who I was talking about if you are on the property ladder. I didn't say everyone complains about it, I said the people who don't buy before having children and then can't afford it are the ones who complain. Quite obviously the people who do afford to get on the property ladder don't complain that they can't get on the property ladder

Rather than a new build get something small on a plot that lends itself to a big extension in a few years time.

@Boatonthehorizon

There are hundreds on rightmove in your area. You can't whinge that you cant buy, if you WON'T buy. My road is ex council and populated by young doctors, teachers and other professionals. We are not in the 1980s any more.

Yeah, why can’t these millennials just accept that previous generations had it fucking easy? And they should live in expensive shitly made new builds.

Welcome to the 2020s - where millennials sacrifice their lives for the boomers.

Buy anything you can afford (as long as it has a resale Value). The more mortgage you pay off the more equity you have to move up the ladder.

@Doomsdayiscoming your post makes no sense. What do you mean by sacrificing our lives for boomers? I’m a millennial and am buying a 4 bed house in the south east. Our house will be bigger than my parents house was when I was growing up. I really don’t think my life has been sacrificed, I’m very happy with what we are buying and the house I had before it to get in the property ladder. Just takes a bit of hard saving and understanding that you can’t get the four bed straight away, but then no one ever could unless very rich. But completely doable still for average families.

Covid. I’m happy to protect the over 70s. 50-70s not so much.

Thanet has a huge amount of very affordable properties and 50k is a good combined wage for the area. I wonder if your expectations are too high for this property.

My parents' first buy was a one bedroom flat on a busy road and they had no furniture, then they moved to a nicer 2 bedroom flat. Then they moved to a 3 bedroom house that was a massive budget stretch, which they eventually did up and extended. They've moved a couple of times since and done up the house each time, just getting into a better area but similar size. Some people need a reality check, the majority always had to save money by going without treats and work their way up, and they still do. No good being jealous of the lucky few with family money or living in a very cheap part of the country, they're just exceptions.

You’re likely to find more properties come on the market this summer through death or job loses. You also might find lots of city dwellers wanting to relocate to greener affordable areas.