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?

Going back again to my initial point.

People often leave stuff out of their savings story.

I know a fair few people who have had really good deals on London flats that wouldn't be available to a person who didn't have the right connection at the right time for example.

Well don't vote for 12 Homes Sunak if you want any chance of buying your first home (or moving up the ladder). His stamp duty holiday (about a billion in lost tax revenue) was the last thing needed by the already overheated bubble

Wrt the suggestions that OP moves somewhere cheaper. Whilst a solution for some, it's not the answer to the wider problem. Not everyone can easily move. Many need to stay close to family and support networks - either for caring responsibilities or childcare (that enables them to earn the money to fund housing).

And of course, if everybody moved 'somewhere cheaper', it would no longer be cheaper.

We need less taxpayer funded Help to Buy schemes that push prices up. A drastic crash would not be good but a stagnation wouldn't be such a bad idea. The market needs to calm down.

We also need a lot more social housing.

Something not always mentioned about the 90s. A fair few people committed fraud to get on the housing ladder. They (sometimes significantly) exaggerated earnings self certification. I know of several people who did this. Also higher interest rates meant better savings rates.

That said plenty of people couldn't afford to buy in the 90s. They're in a particularly vulnerable position today. Heading into their 50s and beyond in unstable private renting. The housing emergency isn't an issue only affecting the young. Add in relationship breakdowns and in fact the over 40s are the fastest growing group of private renters. It doesn't bode well for the future. Will a basic pension pay private rents? How to fund their social care with no home to sell? Etc etc. There's a growing need for a mass social housing build for Generation Rent (young and older).

Fixer upper property to get you started is my advice as that’s what we did. No inheritance here, just started with a cheap house and kept moving every 3 to 5 years. We’re in the south east.

Not popular on here but parental assistance! Was gifted the deposit for our first house and we were lucky with equity and house prices after that.

Would do the same for my own kids in a heartbeat.

Oh and yes it was a fixer upper!

@QforCucumber

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.

Where is this? Those prices are 🤩

Basically don't expect to buy your forever home initially. Could possibly take 3-4 moves with profits before that happens

Have to be with a partner or friend as one income just doesn't cut it

Go cheaper than what you want and in a cheaper area

Pray some long lost aunt does at the grand old age of 120 and leaves you ££ in her will

Right place right time , sometimes there's no houses sometimes there's loads

Be willing to compromise

Take any help from family and extra hours that you can

Kiss goodbye to luxury's and holidays when you save

Work hard like everyone does

And maybe just maybe if your lucky you can get some two bed fixer upper in a bit so horrendous area to start with

P.s
who needs a car

Comparing trying to buy a house now compared to when I bought mine is unhelpful as it was in 1999.

The house next door sold three months ago, it’s the same as ours and the price over those 21 years has risen by 400%.

We did have good jobs that at the time were well over the national average wage. We didn’t have DS till we were over thirty. One aspect that was unusual is both of us started investing when we were teenagers. So had saved quite a lot of money for our ages.

DH is from a wealthy background I’m not but neither set of parents helped. DH job gave him a great relocation package. It ended up covering all moving fees, legal fees and the survey fee.

Bought a small flat in a much cheaper town, waited several years, sold it for a profit and then bought a house. We do engineering jobs though- income £40k each

" they saved 50k" at 22 and 24 ?

What bits of information are you leaving out ?
That they were both working full time from the age of 16. Ds contributed 25k. If I remember correctly he had 8k in childhood savings.He went straight on to an apprenticeship at 16 and has done well in his career moving to a global company at 19. To get to 25k he would only have to save on average about £40 a week. Obviously when he was younger he didnt save that much when he was on an apprenticeship wage but as his wage has gone up he beame a saver and also investor.
I cant speak for his girlfriend on how she got her deposit, it's none if my business but I know she has a good work ethic.

We bought a tiny fixer-upper as our first house. We fixed it up over 5 years and then sold it for 1/3 more than we bought it for. We then bought a much bigger fixer-upper and 4years in are still fixing it up!

I appreciate not everyone has the inclination to do a house up, and what I consider liveable in whilst we do it up, most people wouldn't. But you do pay an enormous premium for a 'done' house - I'm not talking cosmetically perfect either!

Full time from the age of 16 and your DS contributed 25k?

40 pounds a week to 25k is 12 years.

So yes guess living at home rent free in that time, or at least heavily subsidised.

So putting it down to work ethic and saving is again disingenuous

And yes, there's a reason it's called a property ladder. You climb up.

We bought a house pre kids, so that we had more disposable income and also could cope with a smaller and poorer condition property. This did mean choosing not to have kids when we might have, but we were fortunate that our ages meant we could choose. But ultimately it is a choice.

An unpopular opinion and one based only on my small cohort of friends and family is:

• expectations of what house they want outstrip their budget
• they aren't willing to compromise on style and condition in particular.
• they won't make sacrifices to save - I don't think that millennials (which I am also) can't buy houses due to takeaway coffee BUT add up those coffees, cinema, nights out, takeaways, subscription boxes and multiple media packages and high cost phone contracts and it DOES add up. A friend of mine spend over £100 per month on subscriptions and £60 on her phone and £60 on lunches and coffees - cut them out for 6 months and she'd still have Netflix and prime but be £1300 better off, more if she cut down on clothes and takeaways for that period. DH and I literally didn't go out, including turning down birthday celebrations in order to save.
• lots want what they want NOW - new sofa, contract car, latest phone.

Obviously the above is not everyone, but it's my 2 brothers and girlfriends, my best mate and husband and another friend.

@Thepineapplemystery I'm the same.

Have always lived in building sites! I'm sure people shudder when they see the state of some parts if our house, and the muck and constant mess does really get to me ( a clean freak by nature), but it's the only way we could have this house. We are doing about 95% of the work ourselves too as don't have money to pay builders, so it takes an age to get anything done!

Having said all that though, the upside is I know each job is being done thoroughly, and I'm not having to pay for/ rip out someone else's taste and/ or botch jobs!

It's worth remembering that in many countries renting is the norm. The idea of the Englishman's home being his castle leads to many feeling they have failed because they rent.

But it must be frustrating. My DDs have all managed to buy, some with help from me towards deposit. I am not sure how they would have managed it without.

Take heart - when I bought my first house the mortgage interest rate was in double figures!

Ah it's tough OP but it's definitely the area you live in will be the big factor. Even if you have a higher combined income if your living somewhere like the SE you will definitely struggle. We're North East and now mortgage free at 33 years old. Completed our mortgage in 8 years with a combined income of 50-60k. We have a 3 bedroom semi on a quiet cul-de-sac and the house price at the time of purchase was £106k. We managed to get married during this time and have yearly holidays but we basically pumped everything into doing the maximum overpayment every month to bring down the term. Saved a ton on interest. We had no upper chain and the previous owner had inherited it from his parents so wanted a quick sale (possibly something you can look for rather than an upward chain).

Full time from the age of 16 and your DS contributed 25k?

40 pounds a week to 25k is 12 years.

So yes guess living at home rent free in that time, or at least heavily subsidised.

So putting it down to work ethic and saving is again disingenuous
Not really. I said in another post that he had 8k from childhood savings. He raised 17k. I also said he has a good job. He saved bits from the age of 16 when he got his apprenticeship but like most teens pissed most of it away. When he qualified and started earning serious money, got promotions and started moving up the corporate ladder he could clearly save a lot more , especially when he was working in different parts of the country and abroad and his company were paying the accommodation and food bill. He also works all the overtime he can.
Pick holes if you want but I was just showing one perspective 🤷‍♀️

I think the saving money thing is a bit out.

It's OK to have that self control for a year or 2, but the studies show that someone who was single would have to save for 22 years to get a London deposit together whilst renting (no holidays and a basic existence).

Also rent now takes up about 45 percent of income, where as in the 1980s on average it was about 15 percent.

I agree about not compromising though, we lived in what was latterly an in demand area or zone 2 in London. Younger friends complained that their parents could buy there but now they can't. Yes but their parents all rented in trendy areas back in the 80s and moved to this area when it was considered a bit dodgy and there were a lot.of squats.

Ah so you were leaving things out see. Negates the saving point when you've been subsidised when that isn't open to most.

@Itonlymakesyoustronger

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!

Apart from inheritances 🙄😁

It's saving on the larger outgoings helps...

Like shopping around for insurance, cancelling unused subscriptions.

Also picking up very part time work - literally couple of shifts in a pub... Can all been thrown in savings.

And be ready to move as soon as you've found something you can afford... Have all the stuff in place.

JohnHuffam1812
Ah so you were leaving things out see. Negates the saving point when you've been subsidised when that isn't open to most
What have I left our? 🙄 when I said his work paid accommodation it's not like was every week or even month.
And why are you picking up my story when I was answering the OP on how people get on the property ladder. Everyones story is different as this thread proves and everyone has a different way of doing it. Ds and gf found there own way. I made no claims it was the only way, just how they did it. Ds 2 is now doing similar.
Their main advantage is that we live in tbe NW and houses are quite inexpensive.
Is there anything else you want me to clarify while you are at it? How much my son earns? How much he spends on trainers?

I'm picking up your story because like many people you left bits out initially. As I said way back

You also now say you don't know where the GF's deposit came from having put it down to saving before.

BTW did your son rent before buying or did he live at home? Pay market rate?

It annoys me greatly because leaving important info out plays into the idea that those who can't afford it aren't trying

I managed to buy in the 90s from birthday money/holiday job money (parents as guarantor) till getting secure job. I was very lucky due to age. I am to help my DC as much as I can. When it comes to inheritance etc I aim to pass it to any grandchildren to help them after helping my DC when they wish to purchase their first place. I worry about the future with house prices

@Mischance

It's worth remembering that in many countries renting is the norm. The idea of the Englishman's home being his castle leads to many feeling they have failed because they rent.

But it must be frustrating. My DDs have all managed to buy, some with help from me towards deposit. I am not sure how they would have managed it without.

Take heart - when I bought my first house the mortgage interest rate was in double figures!

10% of £100 < 1% of 1000 so the mortgage rate being lower now is irrelevant.

Also countries where renting is normal have stable tenancies and better protection for renters, it’s not ver profit making to be an LL. unlike in the U.K. (although it is becoming harder).