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...

@LemonRoses, you keep confusing other things with hard work. Competence and long hours are not the same thing as hard work. Even an incompetent care assistant works like a dog.

[quote Alsohuman]@LemonRoses, you keep confusing other things with hard work. Competence and long hours are not the same thing as hard work. Even an incompetent care assistant works like a dog.[/quote]
No. There are some incredibly lazy care assistants. Not all and not in good care services, but sadly there are plenty. I confuse nothing.

In your shoes I’d move to a 1970s doer upper with the potential to extend further down the line

Detached

There is something particularly unattractive about those who have done well, and like to talk about it, feeling the need to burnish their stories further by punching down on those who have had less material success. Its also very poor taste.

We none of us reached the top on our own. Fine to talk about success, especially if it encourages other women to have a go. Have a quick brag about the material benefits if you really must.

We none of us reached the top entirely by our own efforts. I can think of many occasions where for all the effort if the right person hadn't been supportive, if key information hadn't been available, if a bit of luck hadn't been on my side or even if some of my life experiences had happened at different times then my outcomes would have been very different.

To pretend otherwise is hubris.

@C8H10N4O2

There is something particularly unattractive about those who have done well, and like to talk about it, feeling the need to burnish their stories further by punching down on those who have had less material success. Its also very poor taste.

We none of us reached the top on our own. Fine to talk about success, especially if it encourages other women to have a go. Have a quick brag about the material benefits if you really must.

We none of us reached the top entirely by our own efforts. I can think of many occasions where for all the effort if the right person hadn't been supportive, if key information hadn't been available, if a bit of luck hadn't been on my side or even if some of my life experiences had happened at different times then my outcomes would have been very different.

To pretend otherwise is hubris.

Yeah, everyone knows that, and it's why nobody talks about it in real life. But on Mumsnet people can get answers to questions they would never normally be able to ask.

Besides, a million squid for a house is par for the course in some parts of the UK, and an impossible pipedream in others, so it's interesting to see people from different camps interact.

Yeah, everyone knows that, and it's why nobody talks about it in real life. But on Mumsnet people can get answers to questions they would never normally be able to ask.

My point was not about asking the question but the need some posters have to perpetuate the nonsense that anyone who doesn't live in affluence just hasn't worked hard enough, unlike their virtuous selves (and usually their equally virtuous high performing children who may or may not exist).

Its entirely possible to talk about comparative property areas/prices/tactics without doing this.

Besides, a million squid for a house is par for the course in some parts of the UK, and an impossible pipedream in others, so it's interesting to see people from different camps interact.

I live in a town with no £1M properties in it, but a few very nice period detached houses between £500K to £800K which, if we wanted to put all our money into our mortgage and had played the market, DH and I could no doubt have afforded already (and will definitely be able to afford when our parents die, happier with them alive and heathy though). But we have interesting jobs we love, a good home life balance (both work PT) and live in a gorgeous house much nicer than the London £1M properties we've seen on this thread. The money we don't spend on our mortgage we invest (because property prices here don't rise property isn't an investment). We have relatives in London with properties more expensive than our but we have a much better quality of life because we're not mortgaged to the hilt.

I live in a parallel dimension.

We bought a 1M+ house in our late forties. We afforded it by getting on the property ladder relatively early, getting into well paying careers and moving "up" the property ladder over time, living in places where property has been a good investment. It was the 4th house we'd bought, each one a big step up from the one before (first house was 49K in the 90s). We tended to max out and buy to our limit when we bought a property, be skint for a few years when we first bought then gain money to spare as our salaries went up but our housing costs didn't. If we'd been more savvy we'd have put that extra money into paying off the mortgage, but we tended to spend it on travel and the good life instead. So now we have a 1M+ house put we have a mortgage for about 60% of it, whereas we could probably have owned outright (or bought it years earlier) if we'd put much of our excess money into paying off instead.

It's a bit of an irrelevant question because it's time dependent and contextual.

The straight answer to your question is that we bought our first house costing £1m plus 5 years ago in our mid 50s.

However I paid £115,000 for my first house

£320,000 for our second house

But I/we purchased them decades ago.

@RedToothBrush

I live in a parallel dimension.

It's the people who live in 3 bed semis that cost £1M that live in a parallel universe but it's not one the rest of us should worry about. Spending all your money just to keep a roof over your head is not enviable. This house costs £775K, a similar house in my town would cost £100K. One is only affordable to the rich, the other can be afforded by someone on an average salary. But it's the same amount of space (and the one in my town would have a stairway that fufills building regulations).

Winds me up all these people saying "I work bloody hard". So do I. I'm a teacher. I can't earn more than £40k ever unless I become a Head of Dept or another Leadership post that I don't want as I actually like teaching.

I know this isn't the point. But the "I work hard" is infuriating.

Winds me up all these people saying "I work bloody hard".

Whenever I feel like I work hard in my well paid, secure, flexible job with lots of benefits I think about my schoolfriend and husband who both work in physically demanding minimum wage jobs all day and work on their farm in the early morning and all evening to keep it going and give my head a wobble. In my experience the more senior and well paid you get the easier your job becomes.

@catcatcatcat

Winds me up all these people saying "I work bloody hard". So do I. I'm a teacher. I can't earn more than £40k ever unless I become a Head of Dept or another Leadership post that I don't want as I actually like teaching.

I know this isn't the point. But the "I work hard" is infuriating.

If you are happy in your job, its a good choice for you. I can't see why others wanting a higher income and making a different choice is a problem.

I don't think anyone is suggesting that others don't work hard too, but there are choices to be made. If you want a higher salary, you could, assumedly, achieve that but choose not to.

This is the kind of thing you get for £1 million what’s I live. Hardly a mansion! A modernised terrace cottage or a refurbished ex-council house. But even the unmodernised ones go for a similar price. It’s all relative.

Actually they look good value @inthecathouse
A semi not much bigger will be about £2m+ there

In my experience the more senior and well paid you get the easier your job becomes

Seems to be the case in MN world but in my real life it's the exact opposite.

@catcatcatcat

Winds me up all these people saying "I work bloody hard". So do I. I'm a teacher. I can't earn more than £40k ever unless I become a Head of Dept or another Leadership post that I don't want as I actually like teaching.

I know this isn't the point. But the "I work hard" is infuriating.

The couple with the biggest property portfolio in the country were teachers. It's perfectly possible but you need to invest your money. If you'd bought Bitcoin at the right time you'd be a billionaire.

@Zenithbear

In my experience the more senior and well paid you get the easier your job becomes

Seems to be the case in MN world but in my real life it's the exact opposite.

Definitely not the case.

Sooo wouldn't want a mortgage on a million pound house
So many more interesting things to do.

I dont think theres the option for the generation getting onto the property ladder now to make lots of money from investments. My parents in law have never earned more than 19k each, but they bought three dirt cheap flats about 25 years ago with very small mortgages and with help of a small inheritance. They have all sold now for about 150k each. I know a few older people too who have made money from property, either letting or having multiple and selling.

Someone on a 19 k salary now struggles to get a mortgage for themselves, never mind multiple mortgages, so very different times.

What gets me here is this:

We bought a house in 2007. Just before the crash. That house only regained its market value after 10 years.

Meanwhile people who bought in the SE where prices continued to rise throughout ended up gaining equity through property. Locally this has meant that people have struggled to move up the property ladder and had to move to other areas, whilst the only people who could now afford the bigger properties here largely moved up from down south.

What does that mean in terms of getting a million pound mortage?

Round here it depends on where you lived before, how much you might have got from inheritance and how much you paid off your existing mortgage.

If you stayed local for ten years, even if you had a household income of more than £100,000 is it realistic that you could get a mortgage of £1million plus without inheritance?

Its unlikely. And it needs to be seen in terms of lower regional salaries too - for people who work just as hard in the same industries and jobs.

Houses where I live are not much cheaper than many areas in the south - its a sought after location. Ironically house prices here have done better than in some other areas locally too. It shocks a few people when they see the prices.

All this 'work hard' nonsense is bullshit.

It implies that people in the 'wrong' profession don't work hard. It implies that people who work in regions don't work as hard (even allowing for cost of living issues this doesn't always add up). DH's last job required him to regularly work in London at one of company offices and he was stunned at the difference between the work ethic culture - the one in London was far poor than Manchester and was more focused on socialising as part of work. It surprised him. Ironically he was being sent to London regularly in part to give them a kick up the arse because the work culture was so bad!

There are lots of £1 million pound properties around here. They are not bought by young professional couples who are doctors or work in law who have grown up in the NW and worked in the NW. They cannot afford these properties - especially if they have kids. Not unless they have inherited. Its people who have moved in or are in their 50s who buy them.

Do I believe that only people who live(d) in the south east work harder? Do I think they do more in work than those who have working and lived around here? Do I think the cost of living difference covers the difference in wages for quality of work actually done?

Or do I think there's a primary problem with inheritance and the exorbitant house market which has caused so much economic disparity and political division in this country that no one really wants to admit to. Instead hiding behind 'work hard' is a shield to protect themselves from the idea that they are merely lucky and this is based on what is essentially a very unfair system which probably needs a great deal of reform to address social problems within the country?

Difficult question this one.

As I say. I live in a parallel universe. And even then I still sit in the lucky category....

@Mreggsworth

I dont think theres the option for the generation getting onto the property ladder now to make lots of money from investments. My parents in law have never earned more than 19k each, but they bought three dirt cheap flats about 25 years ago with very small mortgages and with help of a small inheritance. They have all sold now for about 150k each. I know a few older people too who have made money from property, either letting or having multiple and selling.

Someone on a 19 k salary now struggles to get a mortgage for themselves, never mind multiple mortgages, so very different times.

Its impossible for so many who missed the property gold rush and don't already have a lump sum in equity or inheritance to invest.

Thats the bottom line. Under 30 and your home ownership opportunities heavily rely on who your parents are, how well off they are and what kid of health they and your grandparents are in.