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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

If you paid £1m+ for your house...

202 replies

propertydetective · 16/03/2021 11:07

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...

OP posts:
GrumpyHoonMain · 16/03/2021 14:21

People who own 1m+ properties fall into two camps. They inherited them or bought them through inheritances, or they took out a large mortgage (with a really large salary) and plugged the shortfall with savings or equity from another home.

DIshedUp · 16/03/2021 14:23

Honestly a reasonable proportion of my friends earn 100 odd k and none of them can afford a million pound house!

I only know of one couple whose house is worth that much and I know they have an insane mortgage, and currently they are in the shitter because she's pregnant and they will soon only have one income.

Op you are 26, you have a 500k house. Can you not move to a cheaper area to buy yourself some more space? Theres nothing massively tying you down? No matter how many people tell you they've bought a million pound house at 30, this is probably unrealistic for most people

Bluntness100 · 16/03/2021 14:23

Where I live you could buy a mansion for 500K

I live in the south east, I can assure you you’re lucky to get a two bed terrace here for that price. I get it’s hard to comprehend the numbers but property prices do differ greatly across the country. No one is buying a “mansion” in London or the south east for 500k.

missymousey · 16/03/2021 14:25

Round here a million gets you about 8 bedrooms and several acres for your pony. So no tips for you OP but maybe consider moving if you want lots of space 🙂

Thehawki · 16/03/2021 14:29

If your house is a semi, could you extend to the side or back for more room? It would maybe be a pain now but it would add an extra bedroom. Also consider a loft conversion if you have the head height. You could do that with a loan for way under £500k. I think 80k is a good amount for a side extension, maybe look into how much the bank is willing to loan you and how much you can save instead of a whole new 1 million pound house.

Thewiseoneincognito · 16/03/2021 14:30

LOL @ OP When will it ever be enough? 1, 2, 3 million?

Alsohuman · 16/03/2021 14:31

@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.
Very true. A lot of MN is pure fantasy.
HollowTalk · 16/03/2021 14:32

A couple of friends in the south are getting married. Each bought a house for £200K ten years ago. Each house is now worth £480-500K. So they're able to stay on their original mortgages and are buying somewhere together for £1m.

Loopyloututu2 · 16/03/2021 14:35

We bought a house for £750k 15 years ago - it’s now worth around £1.4 million. Dh is a high earner with his own successful business, property amongst other things. We were only in our 20’s when we bought it but that is unusual of course - there were no other people our age around here - one neighbour asked dh if we’d won the lottery!
We wanted a nice life for our dc’s and to move away from the “trendy” but crime-ridden area we were living in at the time. Moving to a more traditional, middle class area has its pitfalls (one neighbour described it as “Janet & John country) but it was a good move for us and obviously property is pretty much always a good investment if you plan to hold onto it for a while.

Beyondhumanity · 16/03/2021 14:42

Equity plus high earning household. We are looking at million plus houses at the moment but bought mid twenties the same price bracket as you’ve mentioned.

creepingthyme · 16/03/2021 14:50

Is anyone else having palpatations at the thought of a monthly mortgage of ~£7k? The fear of losing a job would mean I'd constantly be on edge.

GrumpyHoonMain · 16/03/2021 15:04

@creepingthyme

Is anyone else having palpatations at the thought of a monthly mortgage of ~£7k? The fear of losing a job would mean I'd constantly be on edge.
It would depend on salaries. 2 people in their twenties earning 100k+ (So combined 200k) would probably be ok with a mortgage of 750-800k. Provided they both continue to work full time.
charlottemont · 16/03/2021 15:12

I was 32, husband was 33. We had just been renting up until that point but we were expecting our first baby so we decided to buy. We are in central London so it was painfully expensive and we have a fairly large mortgage. Just financially plan carefully - we found that it was feasible based on our current incomes, but we were also still working through the career progression in our respective professions so expected promotions (which did end up happening) made the decision easier.

Lorieandrews · 16/03/2021 15:19

We worked bloody hard. I worked in the music industry. Now have a business in IT.

We were around mid 30’s. I love my house. You need to factor in the huge bills. Not just the mortgage. We’re lucky. Both have jobs that are well paid.

Lorieandrews · 16/03/2021 15:19

Oh. We had zero help financially. We did it all ourselves. Didn’t spend. Saved hard. Brought smaller properties and worked out way up.

notalwaysalondoner · 16/03/2021 15:26

We've just bought a second property so the 2 combined are worth about £1.3m. We were going to buy one but due to Covid having a place in London and a place in the country made more sense. We're 31 and had no parental help with deposits - we are very high earners. We have a mortgage of about 75% the total value of the two properties, but were confident we could afford this on one salary and it's about £3-400k less than the max we could have borrowed.

I would say that you shouldn't overlook maintenance with a huge house, it's not always worth the extra space - we are very glad we didn't go any bigger on our second home as there's a lot of work involved with maintaining a large property and garden - and even if you can afford others to do it for you, it's finding the right tradesmen who are reliable and going to charge you the right price, and right now, availability is a huge issue, everyone is ridiculously busy.

Lacucuracha · 16/03/2021 15:34

How can anyone comment if you don't say how much you earn?

Ddogisveryspoilt · 16/03/2021 15:49

My Dfiance and I are nearing 30 and we own a 450k-ish detached house. We put down a 30% deposit and did it just by saving a lot of our salary. Before we bought this house we lived/owned in an okay flat in a not the best area so our mortgage there was low. We earn about 40-45k each before tax which is decent but not ridiculous high earners. When our mortgage was £500 a month we saved an awful lot each month considering our take home is about £4500 a month. And also we dont go out much because we're quite introverted... and had an old beat up car, no fancy holidays etc. Just saved saved saved towards the house.

MrsTWH · 16/03/2021 15:51

We have recently bought a house for 1.25m. I’m mid 30s, DH is mid 40s. We made a bit of money on our last two houses in terms of equity. We have never had any help but we now earn a lot between us, and have taken out a scarily large mortgage which slightly gives me palpitations if I think too hard about it.

I’ve been promoted several times in the last 3 years, in education earning around 80k. My DH is an accountant and earns about 200k. We took out an 800k mortgage which is around 4K per month over 20 years. It needs money spending on it too, but we have saved hard over the last few years and so we have large savings to extend/change kitchen and bathrooms, etc. 15 years ago we had no savings, no equity, bought on a help to buy scheme and I was a SAHM with two babies. Life changes!

homeismyhouse · 16/03/2021 16:08

Just bought a £3m place mortgage free.
DH and I are mid 40s.
No help from family, we bought a flat with a 95% mortgage 18 years ago, sold a decade ago and ploughed profit into fixer upper, just sold that for a bit under £2m. The remainder is savings. We lived abroad on an expat deal for 5 years, rent and school fees covered and we rented our house out. Both benefited from work share schemes as part of earnings.
DH works on the board of a FTSE 100 company and I'm an in-house lawyer. Stuck with the career through the tough years of small kids.
I am beyond fortunate and it's a real dream come true for me. I grew up in a tiny house sharing a box room bedroom with my brother until I was 12 and sleeping on the floor several times a week when my Nannas visited until I left for Uni. Didn't clear that Uni debt until I was 30.
Can't underplay DH being the bigger earner though.
We only ever took on a mortgage we could cover with one salary though.
(Slightly pointless given the nature of the thread but) don't compare what you have to others - you'll never be happy. Make your own plan and execute on that.

ClearMountain · 16/03/2021 16:11

This isn’t possible nowadays. You needed to have a house before the property market tripled in price. If you were on the ladder when houses were £300k then you automatically have £1m now. If you weren’t on the ladder at that point (or if your parents weren’t) then you stand pretty much no chance.

Squashiesaremyfav · 16/03/2021 16:31

SakuraEdenSwan1
Well said! I wouldn’t believe one word of most people on this thread.

creepingthyme · 16/03/2021 16:54

I'm surprised Xenia hasn't appeared to tell us how she did it yet 😁

WaggishDancer · 16/03/2021 16:58

34 but we had both bought houses separately beforehand and hugely benefitted from an increase in value. My parents gave me money to put towards buying my first place and DH is a saver. We also bought before having children which would have decreased the disposable income to put towards the mortgage agreement.

quicklybeingdrivenmad · 16/03/2021 16:59

No I would not cos live in the north of england and would expect at least something like this for the money
www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/67781136#/
me and my brother have been unlucky with losing family members, some say luck cos we inherited, would rather have family, we have built up a portfolio worth 1,130000 in rentals all paid for (tbh originally due to brother cos he used to do all the work, since taught me to project manage trades etc and speak their lingo) we both live in nice houses 4 bed detached but would not want anything bigger cannot imagine cleaning the place above

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