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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think it just gets harder for first time buyers?

143 replies

chatterbug22 · 25/04/2022 19:54

We rent a new build 2 bed and are lucky to do so cheaply, we have landed on our feet with it really as properties on this government scheme are cheap and we have two very decent sized rooms with a nice big secure garden.

The goal is to buy in the next 18 months, and we are lucky enough to be able to save quite well. We have good jobs, both on the average salary for people in the UK and we’re not yet even mid 20s. We are up north. The help to buy scheme in our area is capped at £228,100. A year ago you would get a 3 bed semi for that. 6 months ago you’d probably get a 2 bed for it. I have just browsed today out of curiosity and there is absolutely NOTHING that falls under the scheme, apart from a 2 bed terraced smaller than our current house in a not very nice area?!

How is anyone supposed to do this? Demand seems crazy at the moment. Are we best to compete with it all or just stay out until it crashes (which I’m guessing it inevitably will).
I don’t want to needlessly be paying rent that we will never see again but nor do I want us in a situation where we are priced out of our depth.

Boggles my brain!

OP posts:
diamondsf · 26/04/2022 16:52

Also the cost of building work has gone through the roof.

AldiCookies · 26/04/2022 16:59

Overthebow · 25/04/2022 20:13

Our first house 5 years 7 years ago was the small two bed. You go for what you can afford then work up the ladder. Most first time buyers, even 20 years ago, don't start off with a three bed house.

Most first time buyers now have families and two adults working from home.

SarahSissions · 26/04/2022 17:02

It was tough to become a home owner in the 1880s, the 1920s, the 1950s, the 2000s in 2020 and every year in between.
your not unreasonable for finding it frustrating, but you are for thinking that others have had it easier.

AldiCookies · 26/04/2022 17:04

The other problem, which OP doesn't mention, is that houses are all now "offers over," compared to the traditional way of doing things.

It is essentially an auction process now, and FTBers are losing out.

In the last six weeks, we know of:

Offers over 300, went for 330
Offers over 310, went for 326
Offers over 325, went for 370
Offers over 340, went for 380.

FTbers can't win!

AldiCookies · 26/04/2022 17:05

SarahSissions · 26/04/2022 17:02

It was tough to become a home owner in the 1880s, the 1920s, the 1950s, the 2000s in 2020 and every year in between.
your not unreasonable for finding it frustrating, but you are for thinking that others have had it easier.

Maybe research the average house price vs average salary during the decades you mention... Hmm

diamondsf · 26/04/2022 17:12

@AldiCookies not just FTBs I've offered 35k over on 1 property & 30k on another. Both had ambitious starting offers. Still lost out.

XingMing · 26/04/2022 17:34

Houses have earned a lot more than their owners for two decades and this accelerated with the pandemic. We bought our 'forever' house at the bottom of the 1990s housing crash, for the asking price but its value has increased eightfold. It was 'valued' by two agents two years ago so we had an idea of what we would have to downsize for retirement and relocation, and what would be spare to give DC as a deposit: the valuations varied by £200K, and both said they really couldn't be certain, and since then prices have increased another 20%. But it doesn't help anyone get started. DC is going to start a long way ahead of most of his friends.

AldiCookies · 26/04/2022 17:35

diamondsf · 26/04/2022 17:12

@AldiCookies not just FTBs I've offered 35k over on 1 property & 30k on another. Both had ambitious starting offers. Still lost out.

Yes, you are right, it's not just FTBers affected by this now-prevalent 'offers over' technique. Out of interest, what were the starting prices for those two?

diamondsf · 26/04/2022 17:42

@AldiCookies both projects. one needed new central heating system as no radiators. Starting price 605k. The other much smaller but not as bad a project 610k. The first went for 660k, not sure on the 2nd but significantly more than 640k. The EA said the mortgage company would be down valuing it. Now I'm thinking I have to offer a silly amount eg 680k and renegotiate later.

AldiCookies · 26/04/2022 17:48

diamondsf · 26/04/2022 17:42

@AldiCookies both projects. one needed new central heating system as no radiators. Starting price 605k. The other much smaller but not as bad a project 610k. The first went for 660k, not sure on the 2nd but significantly more than 640k. The EA said the mortgage company would be down valuing it. Now I'm thinking I have to offer a silly amount eg 680k and renegotiate later.

Wow - it does make me wonder if we are on a cliff edge with regard to prices. It surely seems like a big bubble right now.

diamondsf · 26/04/2022 17:55

Well I thought that last month & Ive been cautious with my offers leaving money back for urgent work & some savings fully aware I'm offering more than market value. But prices don't seem to be slowing. However I've noticed some areas are so potentially I will switch to a different area.

Manekinek0 · 26/04/2022 20:44

Our house has doubled in price since we bought it as FTB 8 years ago. I worried at the time that we had overpayed because the market was slow in the area at that time and we didn't have any recently sold to compare to. I don't know how those not on the ladder are supposed to stand a chance. People say that you just have to cut back, save hard, compromise and find a way but with the massive increase to rent most have seen I just think more and more people are being priced out.

Blossomtoes · 26/04/2022 22:04

It surely seems like a big bubble right now

People have been saying that for the last 15 years.

diamondsf · 26/04/2022 22:32

my part of London that i'm in currently hasn't really seen much growth since Brexit, particularly on flats.

diamondsf · 26/04/2022 22:33

lots of people I knew were stuck on the ladder & the stamp duty reprieve & lockdown savings was the only reason they could move.

rainbowzebra05 · 27/04/2022 12:11

The ladder only works in areas still increasing in equity.

We own a modern, 2 bed flat. Bought for £85K in 2016.

It's now worth £80K (seems we overpaid slightly but essentially the price hasn't moved) and nobody wants to buy a flat. We had it on the market for over a year.

We're currently renting, and renting the flat out as we can't do anything with it.

The hope was to use the equity in it from the years of repayments to buy the next step, but we're stuck. Prices have stagnated here though and we're stuck. It isn't always as simple as buying small/cheap and climbing if you're in an area with no or very limited growth. Cheap starter homes here don't sell well now because so many wait that bit longer and skip the first rung too which doesn't help.

desiringonlychild2022 · 27/04/2022 12:18

@rainbowzebra05 I think it's because generally people want to buy flats in areas where it is prohibitive to buy a house/central areas/cities (this often coincides). It would cost a million to buy a house in my area so unless the FTB has a million (and wants to wait until he or she saved a deposit for that), flat is the only way. You can move further out but honestly a lot of the houses in the home counties are on the expensive side. While they may not be a million, they would often be £600k for a house that is significantly bigger than a flat so that is still quite a few years of saving.

When I was looking it was 400k for a flat with communal garden in London, or 400k for a 2 up 2 down in a town outside London + commuting costs. And the 2 up 2 down was same size as the flat really but with staircases. I took the flat.

Ithinkimightbebroken · 27/04/2022 12:39

Can’t you just do without the scheme OP?
The govt generally wants people to buy overpriced and cheaply built new builds and offers help for those.

There are so many older houses for less than 200k in the north.
I recently (post Covid) bought a 4 bedroom 1920s house with land for 250k. The new builds up the road are selling for 300k-600k with postage stamp gardens.
The house I sold previous to this was £130k, a 3 bed semi with garden and drive.

We only put down a 5% deposit, there are lots of those mortgages out there. You dont need to limit yourself to houses under help to buy!

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