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...

@HalfBrick quite a few of my friends could. Portfolio Managers, Investment bankers, solicitors etc. Alas at 26 I was content with being able to buy a flat for 350k - but that was my army husband's salary dragging our multiplier down.

We were both in finance with fairly well off parents but had not gotten on the property ladder until my early 30s.

Each of us individually had saved about 100,000 to contribute towards a deposit and our parents matched their respective child's contribution.

Our mortgage was large, ~7,000 a month and it was a struggle in the first few years. Thankfully we stuck it out and as our salaries rose we started paying off large chunks of it with our annual bonus which is over 50% of our compensation.

I'd bear in mind when reading this thread that you have NO idea whether people are telling the truth. I wouldn't compare yourself to anyone else tbh. You can't afford a £1m house at the moment, so I'd focus on what you can realistically do next.

To echo another poster - consider how you would cope if you lost an income?

I have a friend who had a big mortgage and then could only have a short mat leave to keep up with the payments.

We have a reasonable mortgage but didn't overstretch to the last penny as we were concerned about what would happen if either of us lost our jobs. I will enjoy 2 year long mat leaves.

@DaphneBridgerton

I'd bear in mind when reading this thread that you have NO idea whether people are telling the truth. I wouldn't compare yourself to anyone else tbh. You can't afford a £1m house at the moment, so I'd focus on what you can realistically do next.

This ⬆️ You never know who you’re really talking to.

There’s nothing wrong with having financial goals and working hard to achieve them - that’s a great thing! But don’t stretch yourself too far and take on a mortgage you can’t comfortably afford because you’re so keen to tick that box.

@DaphneBridgerton

I'd bear in mind when reading this thread that you have NO idea whether people are telling the truth. I wouldn't compare yourself to anyone else tbh. You can't afford a £1m house at the moment, so I'd focus on what you can realistically do next.

Totally agree. Think people often add another number to their actual salary!

We did OP, since you asked, but it was with a lot of help form London house price inflation, to be perfectly honest...

DH bought his first flat in East London when he was about 23 for about £70k. He had just started as an options trader in the city. I was in social work. We lived there maybe 3 years, then sold it for over £100k (can’t exactly remember), but we bought a 2-bed flat in Chelsea for about £250k (you could do that in the 90s)! About 4 years later, when we were looking to have kids, we sold that flat for about £380k, something like that, and bought a 4-bed terrace in the area for £650k. DH’s salary enabled this, as let’s face it, it wasn’t mine! We had two DC in this house. After about 4 years, we sold it and bought a 5-bed Victorian semi nearby for £1.4m. We renovated this a bit, but lived there until two years ago when we sold it for £3.2m. We have 4 DC now, all teens / tweens. We bought our current house for £4.5 million. I renovated it before we moved in as its an old house (1800 or so) and needed everything - new electrics, plumbing, the lot. Even the floors needed levelling and it was a job to get planning permission to do anything as it’s Grade 2 listed. The renovations took a year and cost about £300k. Last time I had it valued, they said it was worth £5.3m. I think we’ll stay put in this house for a while!

I’d be careful of pushing yourself too far financially and assuming the income/pay rises will always be there.

We learnt the hard way: initially we had a joint income of six figures. Both in professions that are always recruiting (or so we thought). Mortgage was £1800. Then we had children and our children had SEN and I had to step down from full time work which took away £30,000. We managed by being v sensible with money, no extras, no meals out etc.

Come March 2020 and Covid hit. DP lost his job almost immediately. His whole sector has been badly hit (basically everything closed down). He applied for everything and anything but didn’t even get an interview until September when he was offered a part time delivery job on minimum wage.

We’ve only got by from living off savings, JSA and my part time income.

Looking back we were so naive to think we would ‘always have work’ .

@mandala7 Do you mind letting us know what your mortgage is now?

Other couple’s parents bought him a £3m flat in Chelsea once he left uni. They both have good jobs earning in excess of £100k each but wouldn’t have been able to live in such an expensive house without help.

Oof imagine that! Just rolling off potentially a few million to help out your DC. I have a friend who got a five figure sum from her parents to help buy her first property (a modest 2 bed mid terrace) and I thought that was impressive. There’s ‘rich’ and there’s ‘rich rich’.

I know someone who had a home that was worth £800,000. They were a couple but were only children and their parents both owned homes. They husband also had a decent job so they were able to get a smaller mortgage and once their parents died they had their own home and 2 other houses so they sold all 3 and moved somewhere larger.

We were 47, upgrading from Victorian Terrace which we had already extended upwards from 2 to 4 bedrooms, and to the side and back, but it still felt lacking in living space with . We moved to

Hollow - our mortgage now is £440k. We rent out a flat which covers these payments. I do realise we were very fortunate that we could upgrade during a period of high property inflation and also there is no way I could have bought a house in this area in the salary I was on. It’s really hard for young people now. DH has worked extremely hard with his own businesses in the last 20 years which have been a rollercoaster at times, but I think, for him, it’s a combination of determination and occasional luck along the way.

Posted too soon ...

:55udidask

We were 47, upgrading from Victorian Terrace which we had already extended upwards from 2 to 4 bedrooms, and to the side and back, but it still felt lacking in living space with . We sold it for £815k and paid £1059k for a large 1940s semi with 4 double bedrooms, much more downstairs space, bigger garden, off-street parking etc. Our mortgage increased from near zero to £270k and I was nervous at the time but DS has had big pay rises since so we're well on top of it and have been overpaying so it should be fully paid off by the time we're 60. We've been very grateful for the space during the lockdown.

DS has had big pay rises
DH not DS

@FedNlanders

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

Fake it until you make it, take it all with a pinch of salt. Where I live you could buy a mansion for 500K, this is just a boast thread.

P.s. We"ve always lived quite modestly compared to some people - one foreign holiday a year, state schools for the kids - and have always overpayed our mortgage at every opportunity.

For all those criticising the OP for having a good job and being able to afford a more expensive house, if she wasn't willing to move 'up' at some time, then there wouldn't be any properties at the lower end on the market available to buy.

Keep all your house expenses in 1/3 of your income. Don't over stretch.

We both have had decent salaries for years, DH now v well paid. In 2013 we bought a run down house for £685k, spent c£250/300k doing it up while living in it and sold 5 years later for 1.25m.
Bought a new house in different area for just a bit more which also needs/needed work. Have a relatively small mortgage now for our income/other assets.

Two of my friends live in million pound houses. One married a chap 20 years older than her, who bought a very nice but ordinary 2 bed terrace on his own, non remarkable salary when he was a graduate. He paid off the mortgage before they met.

The area has sky rocketed in value and their place is now worth over a million.

Another married a very high earner, who works in financial services. They earn a fortune combined and were able to get a mortgage on a gorgeous house worth over £1.5m. They have since spent another £600k on extending and refurbishing it. I can’t get my head around those sort of figures!