AIBU-Sick of the narrative that young people can’t buy homes?

[Henryhoover12]

I had a heated discussion with some friends who said it’s “impossible for young people to get on the property ladder these days”.If they do their parents either lent them the money, gifted them the money or they lived at home rent free to save up. It’s not just my friends a lot of people of this age go on about it.

As a young person myself I’m bloody sick of this narrative, anything can be done if your willing to make sacrifices and prioritise for your goals which most young people aren’t. I purchased my own 4 bedroom home at 22 (few months ago) WITHOUT any help from family and whilst paying rent on a flat WITHOUT help from my family to pay for.

I called out all my friends who are blaming how it’s going on their ability to stop online shopping for new outfits every event, going out for cocktails, getting hair/nails/tan done weekly, Taking flashy cars out on finance, etc. that if they stopped then they to could buy but I got told I was being extremely unreasonable and that it’s impossible, well is it or do they not just like to hear the truth.

I don't think you're real. If you are, you've had a few bizarre issues in the past few months. How's the severely allergic child next door?

[quote Henryhoover12]@ninnynonny no I can’t see that because that’s exactly my point. As both Person A and Person B live in the same area, want to buy in the same area, earn the same amount so what’s stopping them from buying when they both can? For person B it’s that they want all the little luxuries in life such as her car, clothes, cocktails but then moans she can’t buy when she can if she just made it her priority.

I’m not comparing buying in wales and buying in London[/quote]
If you're not comparing buying in Wales and London, your title should have been 'aibu to be sick of the narrative among my friendship group in Wales that young people can't buy houses in Wales'.

Your title and original post are written as if everywhere's the same and you're just better at saving and working than everyone else. It doesn't even mention the fact that you are lucky enough to live and work in an inexpensive area where four bed houses are £200k.

Many people are born in places where four bed homes cost £1m, that's just the luck of the draw really.

Some life advice - it is easy when something works out well for you to assume it is because of your own superior skills/morals/whatever, but it is really unlikely that so many young people are struggling to buy a house without there being a reason for this. Maybe you have been lucky, maybe you were equipped with different resources from your childhood experiences, maybe it is an issue of privilege (I suspect you are white, I wonder if you'd have had a different experience if you weren't).

I don't for a second believe the problems with housing are due to your generation being lazy spendthrifts, whatever some right-wing groups might try to tell us. I think it is more likely that they face obstacles my generation didn't.

@Henryhoover12

Thanks for all the input, some agree some don’t. Love and appreciate all the comments, does put things into perspective which is why I came in here. Have a lovely evening all

AKA 'Shit, I've dug myself into a hole and can't get out'...

Why is the husband you've always spoken about, suddenly your 'partner' now?

@Henryhoover12

Thanks for all the input, some agree some don’t. Love and appreciate all the comments, does put things into perspective which is why I came in here. Have a lovely evening all

Read: “fuck, I forgot that all the bullshit I’ve previously posted about other equally unlikely scenarios remains in my posting history and makes it instantly obvious that I’m just some oddball who likes making up crap up.”

@Henryhoover12 you really don't know how lucky you are. You say you never had support?? You did it all yourself?

I guess your parents let you live in their house while you completed your A Levels. And it was a safe place to live without domestic violence and substance misuse? Without poverty, overcrowding, family members in the home with untreated mental illness, crime and violence in your neighbourhood? You were not being physically, sexually or emotionally abused? You weren't experiencing a combination of these factors. You could make sensible decisions, work and save your money for your travels and house. You might have been the first in your family to attend university (you're so amazing!)....but maybe they also encouraged you.

Many many young people are not as lucky as you (who could engage with travel and education), and your friends who can spend £££s on luxuries. Many young people don't have the options you had.

You are obviously very young and you are incredibly naive.

So you single handedly - with no contribution from a partner / husband for either deposit or earnings for mortgage purposes - saved a £20K deposit & got a job paying a salary of ~£45K pa straight out of uni with zip experience (not much of a credit history either) and were also able to afford to travel and pay rent - all by yourself?

I highly doubt it.

If you did this with a partner / husband then you did not do so alone and your circumstances cannot be compared to your friends or any other young person struggling to get on the property ladder. I bought a property aged 22 with my partner however I was able to recognize that without our joint income that would not have been possible. In life you will learn that others may not have the some fortunate circumstances you enjoy. For example those who live in the south east of England where property prices are anything from 10-20 times the average wage ensuring they are all but inaccessible to most let alone young people.

Round here the only things you'd get for 200k are a retirement flat or a park home!

@Tal45

Round here the only things you'd get for 200k are a retirement flat or a park home!

Where I live you'd be lucky to get a garage!

Is the truth that you and your husband are trapped in miserable jobs that you want to leave but can’t as you are worried about your mortgage payments? It must be galling to see your friend driving around in a flashy car, buying clothes and having fun, you mention her flashy car a lot, maybe if you pulled your socks up and worked that bit harder you could have the house and the car? Just saying……

I’m not smug at all, I’m proud that I worked hard and a had a good head on my shoulders to invest in a home then finance a car and splash on fast fashion so that I could be smug over Instagram.

You do realise prefacing a comment with 'im not smug' doesn't in any way reduce the smugness of the comment

anything can be done if your willing to make sacrifices and prioritise for your goals which most young people aren’t

This is the biggest crock of bullshit ever. Buying in the SE/london at 22 can't. And not everyone can make the 'sacrifice' of moving to rural wales. There may not be jobs there - you'd probablyn equally call someone an idiot for moving away from a good stable job. They may have caring responsibilites in their home town. They may need to live somewhere with a support network. There are hundreds of reasons we can't all just up and move to the places where housing is cheapest (which would also not work as it would artificially inflate the price of this housing).

What you're actually saying it's easy for a young person to buy a house in your area in your very specific circumstances.

I just think young people want everything handed to them. I saw it even in university the level of entitlement “oh my parents need to pay for this”. But why? Your parents aren’t the ones who chose to come to uni or benefit from the degree. Going to uni is a luxury so why should your parents foot the bill. “Oh our grandparents had it so much easier” yes they did but guess what complaining won’t make it better. Work hard and you’ll get there.

Most people don't want things handed to them but just to be given a fair shot.

Do you have any idea what your loan was vs the people who needed their parents to pay for things? Due to the sfe system some people get less than half the loan others do on the assumption their parents will help. So yes these people do need their parents to pay for things because their loan doesn't even cover rent, let alone food. And plenty of people have parents who push them to uni so in that case yes, i reckon their parents do owe them some help. Not to mention there are plenty of course where it's pretty much impossible to work alongside studying. Think medicine/nursing/vetinary with high contact hours and unpredictable placement times.

And guess what, people are allowed to complain! It's perfectly natural to want to let off steam about an unfair situation. And the housing market and massive inflation are unfair. You can complain whilst also working hard.

I suppose at 22 you can take out a very very long term mortgage and reduce your monthly costs. Which might make it doable. But you've still got to pay bills. And council tax won't be cheap. And you need to think of future costs- could you still afford to live there if you had to pay childcare etc?

Dh and i have moved to a 4 bed house. In Wales. We're roughly 20 years into our careers. Mortgage is doable between us. But our council tax, home fuel costs, petrol costs, food and childcare are pretty much more than the mortgage. We don't have fancy cars on finance and have one holiday per year, although I genuinely don't think we can afford it this year.

@Onionpatch yes I think so - it was just for one or two hours per month and it was a friend of a friend, just paid for out of the petty cash whenever they were way behind with their office admin and when virtually no-one could use a word processor. I thought it was huge money at the time which is why it sticks in my mind, but it was very irregular and I was (am) super quick, typing over 200 wpm.

There are too many variables to make blanket statements.

I have just done a search on Rightmove for 4-bed detached properties in our relatively small town. There are seven of them, ranging in price from £595,950 to £650,000.

The listing on the cheapest has a mortgage calculator, and the repayments would be circa £2,500 a month based on an annual interest rate of 2.8%.

Nobody in their right minds would expect a 22-year-old to be able to afford that, purely based on them saving the money to do it by getting their nails done less often, not going out quite so much and not buying that flashy car. How many people aged 22 can buy a flashy car anyway, ffs?

OP - you have no idea what life is like for normal people, and you are talking absolute cobblers.

Yeah I call bullshit. You and your best friend are both on salaries of £45k ish a year out of uni in Wales?!
Salaries like that are pretty unusual for graduates let alone graduates not working in London.

@Broads93 I completely agree with you.

Obviously a lot depends on where you live surely?
Hartlepool for example is a lot cheaper than London, you cannot compare the two.
Most young people under 30 who I know have only been able to move out because they have a high earning partner. For example, a TA I know is married to someone who works in tech. She would never have been able to move out on her own.

Buying a house at 22 isn't necessarily a smart idea for your long term opportunities either.

It means you can't take that excellent better paid job in another part of the country if you wanted it...

Why can't you afford an Audi or the latest trainers or a flat in central London? After all, "anything can be done if you're willing to make sacrifices and prioritise for your goals"!

Hi Theresa mae

This thread is a load of old twaddle, on another thread OP has been married over 2 years.

Have my very first ever

Depends very much where you live
Not many shop workers in london can but a house