How do people afford to buy a house!

[Itonlymakesyoustronger]

Is it me or is buying a house a massive struggle!

Without boasting I have managed to save 45k, to some it may seem nothing but to me its a huggee amount. But after calculating mine and my husbands wage we could only buy a house for £290k, where we lived that wont even get you a decent 2 bedroom house! I don't know how people do it! when I search right move a two bed house is 320-370k.

How do you afford to buy a house, what jobs do you do?

These days, either move to a cheaper area or they have family help / inheritance.

Some or all of:

• buy tiny flat pre DC
• combine two small flats each bought independently when move in together
• inherit money (we inherited c£70k)
• we’re both FT professionals jointly earning over £150k
• get a time machine and buy in the late 90s

We will never get on the property ladder, not without a lottery win or a substantial inheritance

There's just no way to save for a deposit when all our wages goes on rent and bills/food

It's depressing as fuck

We both lived abroad and worked in low tax countries. Meant a fair few sacrifices of relationships though.

High incomes. People working finance, management consultancy, law, accountancy, IT, sales etc in london can easily be on 100k each.

Then I know many people in HR, marketing, comms, PR etc earning easily 60k plus.

Higher incomes are key.

You live in an expensive area, which explains it. Most people don't but their first house there. You get on the property ladder any way you can (tiny house, cheap area etc) then move on up. And, do it all pre kids.

Earn 24-26k a year, I live in a cheap area and my mortgage is about 85k

We are in our 40's so have worked up the ladder , I don't know how the current New starters manage ! I feel for you !

Inheritance.

All my friends including us, bar one couple we know, have bought purely through inheritance.

Most of us would still be renting if it wasn't for that.

High-ish incomes - I’m a hospital consultant and DH is freelance in IT - combined income of around £190k. We live in SE and have a big mortgage

Bought a flat (£250k) after saving up a deposit. Renovated it. Sold it 6 years later for £100k profit. During this period our joint earnings increased. So we had larger borrowing power and decent equity for the next place we bought.

Unfortunately you sometimes have to start from the bottom and work your way up.

We had no inheritance. Please don't believe that that is one of the only ways people get onto the property ladder. A lot of people like me from working class backgrounds have had to graft and I find it insulting when people think it's the only way onto the property ladder for younger people.

for us it's living in one of the cheapest housing areas of the country, but it also = lower salaries.

Both in supervisory positions earning 25k and 27k a year, living in our 2nd house, 4 bed, which we bought 18 months ago for £230k.

1st house we bought was a 3 bed semi, in 2014 for £160k. We had saved £20k deposit back then.

No high salaries, no inheritances, no family help.

I have high income work but it still took me ages to get on the ladder
Most of my friends had parental help

First house at 29 for 100, 2nd house at 35 for 200.
Single buyer, no inheritance, slightly above average wage. Consider myself extremely lucky and do live up north which helps. I wouldnt have had a hope in hell if i lived south.

Its about your comvined salaries, as banks will lend around 4or5 times that salary, then deposit on top.

If houses are £370k, with your deposit you need a joint income of around £70-£80k to get the mortgage.

As others have said, this is why people move to cheaper areas. £370k for a 2 bed is very expensive

No inheritance in sight or support from any family or friends. It is just me and my husband. We both also work full time and are graduates! Maybe I need a change of career.

Its upsetting because I like to do everything by the books, but my goodness its exhausting and expensive! Its also looking very unlikely!

@EurghCobwebs absolutely - we are both from working class backgrounds too - no hand outs or inheritance for us either. We have worked hard to maximise our incomes

People saying "higher incomes" isn't helpful. I couldn't afford to buy in the area where I was renting. I had to compromise and move. So I started searching in different geographical areas, I ended up buying 10miles away from where I used to rent.

The main inconvenience was my journey to work was 30mins longer.

Everyone I know my age (20s) that has recently bought property had inheritances + at least 1 very well-paid job (80k and above). And they still had to compromise on location and/or size of the house.

Cousin in his 30s, works in finance in Canary Wharf and wife works in management. They tried to buy in London for a few years but it was impossible to save up a big enough deposit, no inheritances now or in the future. They finally bought a small house on the outskirts of Watford, and that was eye-waveringly expensive already.

Oh and climbing the ladder. Thats where i made most of my money.

1 bed flat, sold for £40k more than i paid, then 2 bed house which sold for £20k more than we paid for it. That equity plus the mortgage pqyments we had nade and our deposit meant we could buy our 4 bed house

DH owned a flat when I met him, which was bought with a large deposit given to him by his granddad.
We sold the flat when we got married, and wouldn’t have been able to afford the house we have now without the equity from the flat.

You need to buy in a cheaper area, £290K in my area would get you a 3 or 4 bed detached house with driveway and large garden.

We bought our house 10 years ago, 3 bed mid terrace for £85,000.

Me, my son and Dil bought a house together with a granny annexe. It made sense, they are 40 and could never afford a house on their own. We lead separate lives though pretty much.

Don't live in London or SE, easier said than done if that's where your job and life is but that's how I and must people I know did it. I bought my first house in my early 20s on a mid 20k salary, no inheritance.

I think we need to accept the assumption that everyone will be able to buy a house needs to end. If you live in an expensive area, you need to be earning a high wage to buy. You need to move areas, move jobs or accept long term renting.

The baby boomers were an unusual generation, in that a lot of the generation above them died in the war, meaning they could move up career wise quicker and have less competition for property when they bought.