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?

They live elsewhere. £290k goes a long way outside of the SE.

We are both late 40s

Surely just just buy a shit house, live in it for a bit, sell it and buy something bigger/better.. The 'ladder'. Theres always a chance that prices will plummet but at least you'll have a roof over your head

It's a long time ago now but my DH bought a flat with a mate on a 100% mortgage around 20 years ago, it went up by £100000. I used some savings (probably around £8000 so not much) and he used his profit to put a deposit on a rubbish two up two down, we lived there for 7 years then moved out of London to a large terrace with 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms etc etc.. Eventually we'll sell it and move somewhere cheaper

OP its really a question of lowering your expectations.

The house we bought to get on the property ladder in 2001 was £60k. Its now worth £100k.

Our salaries were set at the time by our profession - £10,850. Salaries for the same level are now £22,794 - so arguably 20 years on, you'd actually be better placed to buy that house (or one like it).

It was in a not-very-attractive suburb, it was a tiny 2 bed house and we both had quite a long commute (1hr+) - but it was all we could afford at the time.

I'm not saying you'll be able to find a house for £100k within commuting distance of where you are, but there will be something much closer to that than £290k.

Move to a cheaper area and commute is the most logical option. It obviously depends how feasible that is though.

Combination of excellent timing, good luck and hard work.
Bought our first house for 50K (2 bed mid terrace villa) just outside Edinburgh in 1999. Sold for £100K about 5 years later. Bought second house for £108K, sold for £185K two years ago. Current house on new build estate was 300K, just had it revalued for mortgage purposes (changing mortgage providers) and its been revalued at 350K in only two years of owning. So all incredibly lucky and making a profit each time.
No inheritance from either parents, both from a working class family.
DH has been incredibly lucky and hard working (to the point of our marriage suffering) in his chosen field of pharmaceutical research, and is now on around 220K after last recent pay rise, but I supported him and was the only earner while he did his PhD when we first got married, and he has been incredibly rewarded through the ranks in his current position.
Also, we live just outside Edinburgh in a little town where house prices are pretty good for what you get. Our 4 bed detached was just under 300K which you would never get in the city centre and probably nothing like that in London.
I am a vet nurse and earn a pittance so none of it is to do with my wage!
So location, timing, good luck, hard work, good wage for main earner.

I really feel for people trying to get on the property ladder now.

You have to consider what's more important the property or the area?
We moved out of Greater London 5 years ago to a neighbouring county as it was cheaper and we got a better house for our money.
Despite not being so local to friends/family I actually feel it was the best decision we ever made as now I couldn't imagine living in Greater London anymore.
Yes the commute for DP is longer and can be more stressful its a compromise he is still happy he made.

You need the right salary and the right area.
We bought a 2 bed mid terrace in 2019 for £250k - we live in Berkshire so pretty expensive area but cheaper than London (where I’m assuming you’re based as there aren’t many places more expensive than here!) and very commutable to London and other jobs. When we bought it our household income was £50k. You should be on at least that as you’re both graduates, if not look for a new job. We found a local building society was more amenable than high street banks but they still have a limit of 4.5x salary. Speak to a mortgage broker if you’re not being offered that when you’ve looked yourself.

They won't! The younger generations are completely fucked! Thanks boomers!

We bought in a cheaper area with a 10k deposit. 20 mins down the road is a very 'naice' area where our style of house costs another £100-£150k!! We use the extra money each month to pay for private schooling as the schools near us are dire!

People can afford to buy. They may not be able to buy in the place they want to live in. That's not the same.

If you can't afford the area you want, you have to look somewhere else. That may mean changing jobs or a less pleasant commute or being further away from family. But it is a reason why WFH isn't the devil some MNers think it is, as it means you may be able to live in a cheaper area.

Even though prices used to be more realistic, it has always been the case that some areas were (much) more expensive than others, and people had to cut their cloth. My father's job was based in Southampton (in the 80s) but we couldn't afford to live anywhere near at the time (though I don't think my parents looked at the other side like Portsmouth) so lived near Torquay instead. He was home based so just did a lot of driving!

@lonelyapple

They won't! The younger generations are completely fucked! Thanks boomers!

How is it boomers' fault exactly? Not that I am one.

A lot of the ‘buy a tiny fixer upper’ or ‘move somewhere cheaper’ advice is great if you’re very young but ignores the fact that a lot of people trying to get on the property ladder now are in their late 30s and 40s, often with kids and other commitments in the area we live in. We needed at least two bedrooms since we both WFH, and we are tied to an expensive area because of jobs and family so we couldn’t move, which is why Help to Buy was a godsend for us. Won’t be right for everyone but I’m so glad we did it.

I live in the North. you can buy a 2 bed house for less than £100k round here.

A lot of people get help from parents. Or moved before this recent price rise. You've saved a large deposit. Just look at some cheaper areas.

Location and timing for us. Wouldn’t be able to afford this area now: only 4/5 years later.

We were only on a joint salary of just over £50k. So not high earnings. We live in the north west so cheaper, but was able to buy a standard 3 bed in a popular area with a large deposit ( not inherited but saved) .

is now on around 220K after last recent pay rise

surely if he's on that sort of money with a house worth £350K you'd just get rid of the mortgage altogether [missed point of thread] and enjoy his income?

Family help. 88 per cent of buyers get money from inheritance/parents.

Couldn't get a mortgage as newly self employed. Paid half up front ourselves then borrowed money from friends and acquaintances. Paid back over a few years. Its quite common practice to do that where we were based at the time - people are not as £/$ rich as in the UK, but have more disposable income. Lending and borrowing large sums of money between trusted friends and acquaintances etc is quite common, obviously you often need to lend or borrow from half a dozen or more people if it's a large sum.

I'm in City law and I can't think of any of my contemporaries (mostly lawyers, bankers, doctors) who bought a house as their first purchase. We all started with small flats. Most of us were in crappy house shares to save deposits and then some of us took in lodgers if we were able to buy a place with more than one bedroom. I think wanting a two bedroom house as your first purchase is hugely ambitious. You might need to manage your expectations.

Everyone I know who owns a house had help from family or inheritance.

I'm lucky and grew up in an area with cheap housing. Me and DH bought our house with a 5% deposit last year just before lockdowns hit in April. £120k for a 3 bed semi detached with dig drive and nice back garden :)

It needs a lot of work (worst house on the best street), but we've already upped the value to around £160k with the help of the rising prices this last year.

Yep, time machine. I bought a flat in a dodgy bit of North London in 2001 for £107k. It had two beds and a river view.

On a 100% northern rock mortgage.

Otherwise you need to move further away from the place you want to live, or buy a do upper.

We moved to a cheaper area to get a 4 bed detached house. We could only have afforded a 1-2 bed flat for the same price if we’d stayed where we were.

We live in the North West. We live in a lovely area that used to be quite run down but has had a lot of money put into it in the last decade. We bought our house when the house prices still reflected the area in its' previous form.

In the past 4 years or living here, our house has gone up in value by £100k. If we were looking to buy now, we wouldn't be able to afford it.