If you paid £1m+ for your house...

[propertydetective]

How old were you and how?
If just from savings/earnings, what sort of level were you at financially?

Sorry to be nosey. DH and I live in a three bed semi, we've been here a year and it's worth £550k. We don't have children yet but have dogs and realise that it's pretty annoying not having the space we desire and would prefer detached to not piss off our neighbours.

In our area a 4 bed detached can range from £850k-£1m+, we live by the coast in a commuter town so the closer you get to the sea, of course the prices rise. I found a house we would love to buy in the future just to figure out prices, that was listed for £950k. The houses are never on for more than a week before SSTC so they always seem to go for the asking price or thereabouts.

And my AIBU, is it just stupid to potentially have such a big mortgage? I'm 26 now and we have achieved everything with 0 financial help and we are really proud. But likewise, we will seriously need promotions/luck to get the money together.

We can currently get a mortgage for around £500k meaning we either need major promotions or to win some money. I like to dream though...

I think you're being a bit unrealistic tbh. Plenty of families with children live in a 3 bed semi, it's quite a standard house size for a family of 4 or 5.

Rather than looking for the perfect house, try looking for what is the best you can get with your budget. You might be pleasantly surprised if you're willing to compromise on a few things.

Lots of people simply can't afford the space that they desire, so they live with the space that they can afford instead. We are a family of 4 and live in a 3 bed detached. I'd love an extra reception room, extra bedroom, en suite etc but we can't afford it and that's just life. We are in a very privileged position to own a house in the first place. I have friends with kids that are renting small flats and they have hardly space at all.

is this ground hog day lol

You must be on very atypical wages to be able to afford a house that size already in your mid-20s with no help.

What line of work are you both in so I can steer my baby towards it?

So you bought a half a million pound property at 25 and you're discontented? No words for how very unreasonable you are being.

You need to understand that youbarecan outlier and as such advice from normals will be of no help tp you - carry on your extraordinary way and you will achive your dreams your way x

DH and I bought ours when expecting DC2. We were 35/42. We were both high earners and bought our first houses (separately, before we met) in the late 1990's, so benefited from big increases in value from both of them, meaning we both had good deposits to put down. We'd also used work bonuses to pay down our respective mortgages, as well as over paid on them before we had DC and had disposable income.

As you asked:

We were mid 30s.

No family help just a lot of good luck on the property market and DH starting a successful business yielding unexpected profits the year we made the move to our current house.

Bought property one in our 20s, lived in it and sold for 20% profit within 4yrs. Bought property two for £900k ish, sold £1.3m ish. Then bought this one.

You don't need a big fancy house to have a family. Our kids would be equally happy back in our middle property and we'd have made it work in our two bed flat.

You have two options:

• increase your income, aim for promotions and better paying jobs, do not go part time if you have children;

• save like crazy, pay off you existing mortgage as quickly as you can and start saving for a deposit on your next home.

Also, house price increases might help you but this is largely out of your control. They may also go against you as the value of the house you want to upgrade to may increase more than that of your existing home.

I am currently working on my mausoleum. Rather than get a mortgage I am saving up to do it out of surplus income and expect to have it ready at the end of my life, so around age 75 I suppose. At least that is what the ONS says. Not sure what it will be worth, but I bought a 15 hectare site and have some lapis lazuli and some marble ordered from Italy which is not cheap, but I want it to last at least 4,000 years.

@LividLiving

You must be on very atypical wages to be able to afford a house that size already in your mid-20s with no help.

What line of work are you both in so I can steer my baby towards it?

Forget the kids, I will retrain and so will my wife!

We are 42 and mortgage woes are always a struggle!

YANBU - I'm surprised at those saying that you are. Well done for doing so well at 26.

We are in our thirties and can get a mortgage for £1m, however I'm really leery of doing it because of the high monthly payments (several thousand a month). Currently we live in a property about same value as yours, however in London so its a small flat. Personally I'm looking for run down fixer uppers, which is what we did on our current property, so there's not so much money up front. We will need to move at some point in the next couple years, but focusing on getting a really decent deposit together by saving in stocks and shares ISAs and overpaying mortgage.

So I guess what I'm saying is its good to explore what you want and set goals with your partner. Different people want and prioritise different things, and if a house is one that you both want to prioritise, then you should go for it!

Our focus for example atm is investments and savings currently, and increasing income where we can. So I'm focusing on promotions at work, my partner is doing the same. He also is starting a new business with a friend, and I am looking at properties where I think we can add value as I really like designing and renovating. We are staying in our small space because it allows us to save more, to have more choices in a year or two

What do you do for a living?

We bought a house a few years ago that was not quite £1m but not far off. The house itself is very unimpressive - 1980s, semi-detached, 4 beds (two double, two very small singles), large living/dining-room, ok size kitchen, courtyard garden. But it's very well located in a nice cul-de-sac in London Zone 2, close to transport links, and has two parking spaces, which is unusual for this area. We mostly paid cash but have a small mortgage.

DH was 32 and I was 30 when we bought. We managed to save the money by working very hard in very well-paid careers (law/finance) where we can both save money each month and usually receive bonuses each year on top of that. We're eying up our next move now (we'd like detached, bigger bedrooms, bigger garden, an extra reception room). The prices for this in our present area are eye-wateringly high and you don't get many properties which fit these requirements so I suspect we'll have to sacrifice location for space and move further out. We wouldn't have wanted a huge mortgage because we're not sure how sustainable our present jobs are. We work very long, unpredictable hours and we're beginning to feel it.

We were mid 40s. We bought it on a 15 year mortgage and managed to pay it off 4 years early.

I love my house. It's nothing special because it's in a london suburb where 1m doesn't buy a lot. But it's comfortable and spacious and quiet. It's also a 40ft long south facing terrace which is great for parties but that's not much of an advantage atm.

Mid forties, so seven years ago, about eighty percent deposit. I’m not comfortable discussing our financial position but it was done ourselves.

For context our first house was when I was 23 and it cost 55 k in Scotland.

I think you’ve done very well for your age.

We were about 40. Good profit from previous homes, high joint salary. But it's a LOT to pay out every month so we don't go on lavish holidays or have fancy cars. But it works for us as we'd rather live somewhere we love than have a flash 2 week holiday every year and a Beamer on the drive but be cramped at home.

We could have done it when we last moved (late 30s) but we'd just had a baby and I was changing jobs so we took the more cautious approach and bought for a chunk less. Our next move will probably take us into the 1m+bracket.

At your age I was still saving for a deposit. I bought my first flat at 27. Couldn't afford a house until my 30s.

I bought a £1m house 2 years ago with my DP I was 34 he was 29 (he turned 30 in lockdown)
Loads of people thought we were stupid as "we didnt need that much space" and everyone had an opinion.

We saved aggressively in the run up (read up on FIRE principles) and did it because it was right for us.

We have a clear plan for our lives. In 12 months we paid for a gorgeous engagement ring, our wedding, and did the house. On our own. with no debt beyond the mortgage.

We earn well and enjoy nice things but are selective and careful with our money.

I also made 200k profit on my flat and we had good savings so were able to put down a 450k deposit.
My income is flattening now but DH is on the up and pushing hard. His salary has increased by 25K in 3 years expecting to do another 50K in the next 3 or so...

We both focus on maximising out earning, we lobby for promotions and bonuses and move jobs to max out pay levels.

Do I need a 5 bed for two people? hell no.
Do I love both it and our massive garden? A thousand times yes

Debt is cheap and at your age earning potential will go up in the main.
We also wanted to do it pre kids as we didn't want the faff of moving and your baseline expenditure goes up post kids so this house might not have been achievable for us.

DH and I are low/mid 30s.

When we moved here we were happy to take on a big mortgage because at 30 & 31 a 25 year term would leave us mortgage free by mid 50s which were comfortable with.

We had a decent chunk of help with deposit on the first property (a flat) we bought 9 years ago. We saved £30k and parents matched what we had saved. Then we are both on high salaries and we arent big spenders so we overpaid on the first property as much as we could. We were terrifically lucky that the flat also increased in value a lot, so by the time we were looking for a house we had a deposit of 300k in total. The rest we borrowed. Initially I did worry slightly about the size of the mortgage but both our incomes have risen since then and now the balance is less than 2 x our income which feels comfortable.

We've had 4 factors really: help from parents, high incomes, a lot of luck with property markets and high incomes. It helps a lot that we are seriously frugal with money.

Nobody's said what these jobs are that allow you to buy a £500k house in your 20s?
In Mumsnetland every other person works 'in finance', round here that means you work in a bank for £21k, full time.

@HalfBrick

Nobody's said what these jobs are that allow you to buy a £500k house in your 20s? In Mumsnetland every other person works 'in finance', round here that means you work in a bank for £21k, full time.

My daughter and her partner will be able to. One is an investment banker the other a commercial lawyer.

We are struggling to get a 180k mortgage between 2 of us. How do people do it?

I think you’d be silly to take on such a large mortgage. We bought our first house at 19. We’ve bought, improved, extended and sold twice since then and were mortgage free by 33. Out house is worth around 500k, we have 3 children. We could get a big mortgage and get something much bigger and better but I’d rather have no mortgage. The house is plenty big enough for us and has everything we need. It’s silly to live beyond your means in my opinion.

'works in finance' then! And law in this case. Good luck to them, sounds like they'll be onto a good start and will be answering the 'how do people afford these £25m houses' threads in 15 years 😄.

Just about to complete on a property that is 1.5m. We are mid to late thirties. No help from family. We own another that is worth around 700k and mortgage almost paid off.
We have taken on a reasonably large mortgage to buy this place but we will have it paid off within 5years.
Our secret....jobs with high basic pay and very generous bonus structure. Allows us to pay huge chunks off at a time and have decent cash deposits etc.