To think we will never be homeowners?

[GroundToAHalterNeck]

House prices are completely out of my reach now. DH and I are low earners due to life circumstances, no family support and a SN child requiring high levels of care.

We currently rent our home. I’ve been looking at options to buy but even the cheapest home in the cheapest areas would require a substantial deposit. Help To Buy and other government schemes also require a huge deposit we are unlikely to ever be able to save whilst paying rent too.

I met a friend for coffee this morning and she was explaining how they’re planning to upsize and how she will make a huge profit on their current home. It made me wonder how on earth first time buyers with no financial help would get on the property ladder in current times?

Is anyone else in the same position?

BertieQueen where I live one bedroom flats are about 180k plus, 2 bedroom 220k and houses start at 375k so there’s a massive difference.

[quote onlychildhamster]@BertieQueen very different from London then.

London 2 bed flat- 400k, 3 bed flat- 750k, house-£1-1.4 million

Even in St Albans, i see large flats for £440k-500k (smaller ones for £325k), but the house can even be up to a million, mostly around £600-800k.[/quote]
We are not far from London just had a quick look online no 2 bed flat under £300k most of them a lot more. 2 bed houses most need a lot of work in rough part of town from £320k.

@onlychildhamster

People who say they can't afford to buy- can you not afford the standard 3 bed family home or could you not afford a flat? I understand that british people want houses as they have families, but its not possible for many people in more expensive parts. I know flats get a bad reputation because of cladding and leasehold issues but you can get period apartments which are share of freehold/residents' managed, and thats what I did in London. DH and I bought a 2 bed flat and are planning to upgrade to a 3 bed flat before we have DC (so we have a study and if we want a second child, that would be a possibility too). I posted a thread on mumsnet asking how common this is; and apparently it is!

Yes it probably seems unfair that previous generations could afford to buy houses while our generation can't; but I could also feel resentful about the fact that in 1939, a surveyor working for the council could also live in a huge flat in Highgate with his wife (and a servant)- based on 1939 census. Or that a telephonist civil servant lived in my flat by herself (probably not possible today) in 1939. Times change and our expectations need to change too.

Wow.

Live in a box and be grateful.

A box that is still beyond the means of most stuck in the rental trap.

@CrimbleCrumble1

BertieQueen where I live one bedroom flats are about 180k plus, 2 bedroom 220k and houses start at 375k so there’s a massive difference.

Just did a quick search 2 bed flat here from £300k and 2 bed houses £320k most need a lot of work and are in rough part of town. There is literally only a couple most are valued a lot more.

BertieQueen just goes to show how it varies area by area. Here you can buy a nice 2 bedroom flat with an open plan living room/kitchen and possibly a balcony for definitely under 250k. A family could easily live there with a couple of toddlers/young DC.

It's simple

A minimum of two people on decent wages are required for a mortgage and able to save for a long while

Or

Inheritance

But the plus side of renting is that's the norm now or certainly becoming the norm and

Atleast renting allows you to move around and live in different areas and if your job changes or your kids move schools you have the flexibility to move to accolade the change

@RedToothBrush I like my flat :) it was built in the 1930s and has a communal garden. I can walk to highgate woods and Muswell Hill and cherry tree woods and it is fairly near hampstead heath as well. I would like an third bedroom and perhaps a larger living room for DH's work pod.
to be fair as Xenia once showed me, her first home in zone 5 london that she bought in 1980s is the same price as my flat (zone 3) and she and her then DH were definitely middle class as a trainee lawyer and teacher. She said she could only afford a flat in Ealing (zone 3) even at that time and therefore chose to buy further out. In a sense, people have always made compromises even during that golden age of mass property ownership. A townhouse in Chelsea is a bit unreasonable; even the very wealthy need to buy a flat!

Families all around the world live in apartments including in singapore, Germany and France!

The only way I could get on the ladder in Bath when I was young and single was a 2 bed flat and rent the spare room out, which I hated doing. Done that for 5 years, met husband and could use my flat as equity against house purchase.

Flat now paid off and we still own it (won't rent it out ever again) but still paying a mortgage on current home.
Couldn't of bought either until after we had children.

@BertieQueen what about 2 bed flat in nice part of town? I mean i could afford a house in zone 5 or a rough part of london, they are also around 400k. I don't want to cos i would rather raise a child in a flat in a good catchment area . But yes a 2/3 bed house in a nice part of town is going to be expensive. Esp a 3 bed house- that is the house type that is most in demand.

[quote onlychildhamster]@RedToothBrush I like my flat :) it was built in the 1930s and has a communal garden. I can walk to highgate woods and Muswell Hill and cherry tree woods and it is fairly near hampstead heath as well. I would like an third bedroom and perhaps a larger living room for DH's work pod.
to be fair as Xenia once showed me, her first home in zone 5 london that she bought in 1980s is the same price as my flat (zone 3) and she and her then DH were definitely middle class as a trainee lawyer and teacher. She said she could only afford a flat in Ealing (zone 3) even at that time and therefore chose to buy further out. In a sense, people have always made compromises even during that golden age of mass property ownership. A townhouse in Chelsea is a bit unreasonable; even the very wealthy need to buy a flat!

Families all around the world live in apartments including in singapore, Germany and France![/quote]
Thats nice. None of those where Iive. Its a choice between a 1970s box or a 2010s box.

And they still above the affordability of anyone not in a professional job.

Anyone under 30 has to move out the area, these days.

I fee for you. I’m the first person in my family to go to university and own my own home. My mum died last year and her council house went back into the system. Of course it means I never had an inheritance and never will. And the stable fair rent my mum paid is not afforded to most people as the majority of council houses on her estate are now in private ownership. Luckily I got on the housing ladder with £10k saved deposit aged 27, I’m nearly 50 now and we remortgaged for the last move (hopefully) last year. Will be paying a mortgage into our mid 60s but have plenty of equity thanks to these ridiculous prices. I don’t know how people manage to save enough now. I dunno what the answer is, perhaps long mortgages that get passed down when the owner dies.

@onlychildhamster, I think you married quite young? Most people now cannot wait 10 years post marriage so that they can move up the ladder twice before TTC.

I had my dc quite early and buying wasn't a priority. We rented a lovely flat. Dc3 had significant health problems and I had to give up work for several years and we got some housing benefit (so prabably just as well we didn't have a mortgage!). When they leave school I'll have to give up work completely, so zero chance of us ever buying.

I mean this gently but the issue is the low earning and high outgoings, it is out with your control, and yes impacts all first time buyers with low earnings and high outgoings, and has done since time began op. Even when house prices were arguably much cheaper, many people couldn’t buy, as they earned low and had high outgoings in comparison.

But you have a roof over your head and your provide for you and yours, food on the table, a warm bed at night, and give care to your child and that’s the important part. Anything else is just jam.

I'm paying £650 in rent in a tiny house but a mortgage on a bigger house in a better area is around £400 with a £15k deposit

But that 650 is everything.. there’s no unexpected maintenance or repairs required on top.

Giving a comparison of just those two figures isn’t a true representation.

Since moving here 3.5 years ago we’ve spent a little over ten grand on repairs/maintenance, on top of the mortgage. That works out at roughly 240/m over that time. There’s more that needs doing, easily could spend another ten grand to do windows/doors and other stuff. Houses are money pits whilst you live there unless you get new, which is a premium anyway.

We are the same. No real hope of buying. Have moved to less expensive areas but prices just keep outstripping our wages and savings. We are now late 40s and possibly getting too old for a mortgage. My sister and her husband are wealthy. I have never let their wealth come between us and have never really resented or been jealous of it. But when they bought a second home for their holidays last year from their lockdown savings and increase in value from their primary home I did have a little cry. It just made me feel like a complete loser more than anything else. Through no fault of our own we just didn't manage to buy at the right time and make all this money that many others did. I don't even want to make any money. Just want to buy a very modest small home and hopefully pay it off before retirement.

to everyone who is struggling with housing.

Find a mortgage broker. They can wangle a deal for you. A single man in his early 20s I knew got a mortgage this way, and he’d only been employed full time for around 3 years. He did need a deposit but it wasn’t huge at all, couple of thousand.

It's not always as bad as you think. You can often get a 95% mortgage, and if you buy something needing some work you'll get more for your money. I did that at 20, sold at 24 and made 60k. Now looking to upsize. Biggest barrier for me was outgoings but reduced massively for the short term to rack up deposit. Don't lose hope!

I would agree with the comments that the majority of first time buyers do it before children, becayse after, irrelevant of the child’s needs, costs are huge, child care, is astronomical, and that’s befor you factor in what else children need, unless you’re on a strong career trajectory, children befor you’ve bought can take people out of home ownership for life.

In addition I’ve noticed some renters rent much more than they need or could afford to buy. They set the max budget they can afford then get the best place they can for it, when financially it would be better to have a couple of years in cramped but suitable accommodation, in a less desirable area, and save a few hundred a month towards a deposit.

Everyone has different priorities, makes different choices, and has different life circumstances.

@FTEngineerM I agree with this, the only reason we bought in London is because we want to retire in London (am only 29 and 31 so quite a long way off) if we stayed in the UK. If we didn't stay in the UK, I am from quite an expensive country so would to own london-esque housing to even contemplate moving back. Otherwise, it makes no financial sense cos renting is cheaper than owning or at least equivalent to owning in many cases with the effect of typing up a lot of capital.

If the main objective was security in retirement, it would make sense to buy a house in a cheap area, rent it out and then rent wherever you want or need to live. More flexible. Even if the BTL doesn't generate any income, you are buying future insurance for when you can no longer work and need a free place to stay; and the rent should cover the mortgage. as my friend in the north reminded me last night, there are houses for 50-100k in the north. even with 20% deposit, thats 10k so 5k savings each...

@Rosebuud But many people manage to upsize with 1 or 2 DC? Even with expensive childcare fees etc. Presumably because they have started earning more. While you do build equity after buying, just paying your mortgage itself is not enough to upgrade without increasing your earnings. I overpay by £1k every month but still need to increase earnings in order to upgrade even without DC.

Unless you quit your job after DC or something (and then may have problems if you have a big mortgage), i dont see how buying your home before DC is a magic solution.Its an earnings problem that prevents people from saving. And how to solve that would differ from person to person, with OP, i don't really know what the solution is.

Yes same position, single working mum but don't earn enough to get a mortgage. My rent is extortionate. I also have a daughter with sen. I've just joined the housing register but don't expect to get anywhere. It's so so depressing.

I think one of the things we need to do is to make our dc financially literate from an early age. My dc20 received £5k recently compensation from an accident when he was younger, and I have been trying to persuade him to invest it for a few years to get a deposit going. Unfortunately he'd rather upgrade his car.

I'm never going to be able to buy a house or flat or bedsit or shoebox. Where I live, I'm priced out of everything including renting at the moment.

I've ended up moving back in with my DM, because of my health issues admittedly, however it is a council property, I'm trying to get my name put on the tenancy so when (God forbid) you know, I won't become homeless, that is my only option.

It's made o live on a houseboat when I brought it the value of it was a deposit on a basic 3 bed home on outskirts of London. I got it on a mortgage. Not not even a deposit anywhere on the commuter.belt.of London. So baby on the way back into renting even out of London. My husband earns London average wage and we would only get a mortgage offer of 200k if I was working maybe 300k but don't cover a flat in most of London. People boosting about property profit is selfish and been plenty of articles about how high house prices is destroying family like and having a decent job is not enough anymore.

I feel the same. We borrowed money when younger. Paid it off then moved to London paying extortionate rent then I got pregnant and didn't work much. We are on our way with paying off the debt but I feel like we will never own at this rate. I'm 40 now.