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?

I don't think most people do it by starting off with a house, nearly everyone I know, apart from a few people who have very wealthy parents, started off buying a flat first, then once in the housing chain and as their careers have grown moving up the chain.

Until a few years ago my husband and I earned very average money, in our twenties we both did extra shifts to help save for deposits and we have only had children in our thirties, with careers settled down, but we bought our flat first, then a house in need of a lot of work, then another house that was bigger but also in need of a fair amount of work.

I think aiming to go from not owning at all to a two bed house sounds like quite a leap to make in one go.

I bought years ago, I earned £13k and lived at home to save up the deposit of £2500, my mortgage was £39,500. Years later houses here are from £100k but a typical salary in the position I was in then is £28-32k, the multiple is similar thus

We managed to get the last new build on a large development. It was listed at 275,000 but we offered 215,000 and it was accepted. This was back in 2009. I would wait to buy, house prices always go in cycles.

EurghCobwebs, you may not have benefited from an inheritance but you benefited enormously from a massive rise in your house price which was lucky for you. First time buyers now have it much harder.

Live up north.

We put £35000 on a house costing £135000 9 years ago! Very cheap for the area we live in - it was ex mod housing that had been renovated to a liveable condition and we've done it up further. House is now probably worth £250000. We don't have high paid jobs but we get by!

Deposit mainly come from Dp. He bought a cheap studio flat flat many many years ago. Ended up renting it out when he moved in with ex and sold it on for a lot more than he bought it for!

It's unlikely to be FTBs buying such expensive houses. More likely people who can afford £300k+ have equity due to increase in prices over time and paying off a mortgage. Plus possibly inheritences or being paid well above average.

Otherwise, if you want to live in an expensive area, you need to accept a smaller house and if you can't accept a smaller house, you need to move areas.

A 2 bed house costs £100-£150k here, a £290k budget would get you a larger 3 or 4 bed.

We're getting a mortgage on one 35k wage using two help to buy ISAs and 5 years of intense saving. It's in a rubbish area up north but it's a very liveable 3 bed terrace and I couldn't be happier! You just have to adjust your expectations with house buying I think.

I don't know if this has been updated but might give you rough idea of where you can buy in UK:

BBC:House price calculator: Where can I afford to rent or buy?

We live in a much cheaper part of the country. Bought with big deposit due to inheritance/sale of dh's mum's house and help from my parents. We couldn't have afforded it otherwise - bought our house for less than half of the OP's figure.

Area is a big compromise. We often look at the cost of housing in nearby city and we couldn't afford the type of property we have now (small town).

My son is moving to Hull and taking a big pay cut to do so, but in Hull he can buy a 2 bedroom house even on less salary. He saved for deposit whilst living at home and saving hard. His house will only cost £80k for 2 bedroom tertace.

We did it without any inheritance or family help. I bought at 22 with my then boyfriend (now DH).

We saved like crazy, bought somewhere we absolutely didn't want to live but knew it would be an investment.

By 25 we had bought a house for over £500k using profits and continuing to save.

I also sold my soul working a job I hate but high earning.

We bought a 2 bed in our preferred area for 300k earning around 40k each 10 years ago pre dc. Saved up a deposit of 8% in a year by moving in with parents. It sounds like you are somewhere expensive so there will have to be a compromise on either the location or property. Buy what you can afford according to your priorities. It was location over house size for us (it has served us well tbh with amenities good school etc) but each to their own.

Everything for us is luck of the housing market, and generosity of our parents.
The same flat my husband bought in 2010 for £90k on a salary of £23k has just sold for £170k, which a single person on £23k would now never be able to get a mortgage for.

With a 45k deposit you can afford to buy somewhere, just not in your preferred location.

We did a mixture of saving having some money from an inheritance, and we bought in a cheaper area as we knew that was what we could afford.

I hear you OP.

The only way I could buy was to get a one-bed flat. I am just hoping that when the time comes this will help me upgrade to a house. There is no way I could have gone straight in at a house without this first step.

We are not on high incomes for London- combined income 70k.

Lived with MIL for 3 years, saved up 70k. Borrowed the rest and got a 2 bed flat for 400k in zone 3 london in 2019. I was 27, DH 29.

My question is how do people upgrade! I am trying to find a better paid job, and DH is applying for promotion. I am trying to overpay by 1k every month. I would be happy with a 3 bed flat in the same area tbh.

I've been very lucky, that's it in a nutshell.

Although we haven't had handouts as such (no inheritance etc, no rich family), my husband was able to live with his parents until he was about 26, by which time he'd been working in a highly-paid IT job for 5 years straight out of uni. He also lived with his parents through uni, so didn't build up the kind of debt I did and started saving quite young. He got on the property ladder in 2013, in a relatively cheap area, and we met in 2015. Our combined earnings are about £80k now (most of which is him) and we don't have kids.

I'm from a low-earning working class family and I know how lucky I've been. If I'd fallen in love with someone who earns what I earn, or stayed single, I'd be renting for life.

You have to start small. Buy a tiny house and sell it after a few years.

Inheritance and being a good saver when I was able to helped me buy a flat. DP - who came along post purchase- had his savings wiped out by some legal costs. It was worth it but his every spare pound goes on paying off the loan he had to take after the savings ran out. It's affected everything for him. He can barely afford to live.

My plan has always been to try and make a good profit when I sell my flat but we've accepted that wherever we live next, I will likely be majority funding - although he will contribute- to stay on the ladder. He is currently hunting for a better job to help with this, too, but we are probably stuck in the SE- I'm hopefully moving to a job that is London based and only London based and can't be done remotely. It sucks but it's my best chance atm to get up the career ladder and in turn get up the property ladder.

We also play the lottery!

Our house cost us 60k - it's just a standard 2-bed terrace with a decent sized garden.

Around here, 290k would get you a 4 or 5 bed detached with an enclosed garden, two bathrooms and and garage.

We lived with parents and saved up a deposit

Bought in a shit street in a cheap area. We were not and still are not high earners. Our deposit was a 5% with a high interest rate I think about 4%. This was in 2014. Our deposit was less than 5 grand.

We then got a much better deal after two years when the initial deal ran out. We sold that house after 4 years and bought the next one at a better LTV. Selling that one now for a profit having done it up and buying another one for cheaper but in s different area. Taking some equity out To avoid early repayment charges, which we will either put back in over a few years or put back in if we move.

We afforded it by not going to Uni and beginning work straight from school, doing most of the renovations ourselves, and being pretty careful with our money over many years.

Inheritance and moving to the literal cheapest decent 3 bed we could find on rightmove in the whole of England