Wealthy young people!

[Sushi4Dins]

There just seems to be a lot of them, suddenly! I just don’t understand how, in the middle of a cost of living crisis, droves of young people are still buying all these houses!

I live in a London suburb (leafy, green, ‘naice’ schools) and a young couple just bought the house next to us. They’re lovely, first time buyers in their 30’s and both consultants of some kind who used to live more centrally. There’s lots of similar people moving into the area.

This particular house was on the market for £750K. We’ve lived here just over 10 years, but certainly couldn’t afford to move here now! How is that affordable for first time buyers? They’ve also been on long haul holidays twice in the last three months.

I have teenage DC and I’d like them to become these people. How do I make that happen?

It’s always the same, I really think some folks just can’t understand that plenty of young people can earn these type of salaries and don’t have family help. Sure some do, but it’s not the norm. And for every young person In a well paid career, as said there are ten who are not

I'm a 34yo single mother, NHS worker at band 6 and I own a £750k house.
It's a mixture of family money, and good luck from previously buying in up-and-coming areas and making huge profits when selling.
I do also know people around my age who just earn shedloads and were able to save up a deposit and buy by themselves. They are much more rare in my own experience though - most of the people I know who are my age and own property had help from parents or an inheritance.

@Sushi4Dins I work in a scientific role in a tech company. I have a PhD, but there are plenty of other less technical roles that I work alongside that wouldn't require that. My partner works in a tech role in finance, he has a masters but that's really incidental.

I really think some folks just can’t understand that plenty of young people can earn these type of salaries and don’t have family help

People with successful well paid careers are usually from reasonably well off backgrounds.

I guess they have inherited money or there is generally family money available to help them, unless they are investment bankers who get huge bonuses.

We bought our first home at 21 five years ago. It's not worth 750k but there's no reason we won't be able to afford that in our 30's.
A lot of these replies assume family money. Id hate for people to assume we were gifted money to buy our home. We worked hard to pay for it ourselves. We did have some practical help with renovations but no financial help.
If they have high paying jobs they could have just saved and saved.

If OP's new neighbours are management consultants they could be earning an awful lot of money by their thirties. DD had friends who left university and walked into starting salaries (at 21 or 22 years old) of 50k. I can see how that might easily double and possibly treble in a decade. It might not be fair but there it is.
Plus inheritance. They're of an age when parents may have died, certainly grandparents. Many Grandparents choose to skip generations for inheritance, seeing that their own children are ok.
Again it might not seem fair, but it's easily explainable

Not really. They have high paying jobs and have bought a nice house. It’s not that surprising. If they were early 20s buying a £750k house that would be surprising but they’re 10 years on at least. 🤷‍♀️

Good for them 😀. Could easily both be on 6 figures each could be consultant doctors, finance, accountants etc. I love that sone young people can still get high on the property ladder. Wish it was fairer for others.

They deserve it.

Everyone I know including myself had help to buy & not insignificant help eg 6 figs.

I know loads of people who had further help to move up the ladder or renovate.

We have a high net worth (400k+ in savings, large house) and have good jobs, but the thing that allowed us to build this up was living abroad on expatriate contracts, including periods apart.

We’re early-mid thirties & recognise we’re in a hugely unusual position. We were lucky enough to have those opportunities and also took quite a lot of risks with work contracts and investments that paid off.

It’s perfectly possible for couples in their thirties to be earning hundreds of thousands a year each in London.

It's not the norm though even in London

OP said consultants of some kind. I took that to mean business consultants. I know the base salary of a few at 35 and it is £180k basic plus bonus. In about 2 or 3 years it will be >£300k

£750k house is not that much is you’re a big earner.

We are in the North so house prices are nowhere near mentioned.

I could have had family money, but my parents were financially useless, it all went.

Dh and I both well educated, me at private school (scholarship) him at a poor secondary school. He had a fantastic career and having retired early, was able to use pension withdrawal to give enough to dd to buy a flat outright. We're a bit younger than the boomer generation.

Dd had a free grammar school education and now has a good p/t job, she has some disabilities.

Life is different up north, thank goodness. I don't know how people manage in London.

Also if they were helped onto the ladder very young they will have huge equity gains.

So I do realise I'm missing the point. But where in London can you buy a house for £750k? I'd love to know!

the type of roles that allow young people to buy at this level have pretty much always been the same

but you didn't need to be on that level to buy in huge swathes of london.

My in-laws bought a 3 bed semi in z3 with only one income as a teacher.

Exactly. I know a few ‘Bob’s’ and by the time you get to Financial Controller we’re talking 600k.

I have friends with children in their 20s, and letting them move home after university and live rent free while they save for a deposit seems to be the default now. No one I knew did that when I graduated 20+ years ago; everyone moved into house shares or a 1 bed flat with their boy/girlfriend and started paying market rent as soon as they were working. Some were given deposits by family later on though.

My niece is 25. She's just finished her PHD and has taken a job with a salary into 6 figures. Her boy friend is slightly older but in AI with a similar income.

If they bought between them, a £750,000 house would be 3 x salary plus a 10% deposit.

Scary isn't it. But that was the same formula I used when I bought my first home 35 years ago.

This was me, and a number of my colleagues.
Good education, well paying jobs (think accountant, lawyer, IT etc), saving for 10 years, no debt from uni, family help, having children later in life.
and a crippling mortgage.
in their early 30s means they have been working for 10 years, by now probably have a combined 6 figure income.
Once children come along there is a lot less spare money…

so, what you can do for your children… support them through a-levels and uni so they can focus on studying rather than trying to study whilst holding down a job.
support them so that they can save.
basically - fling money at them and hope they don’t want to become a nurse, teacher or any other job that is helpful to society but doesn’t support you.
and if they do… buy them a house…

How do you make it happen?

Have a sizeable life insurance policy and die.

Sometimes it's for sad reasons you can't see, like someone has lost their parents so has inherited earlier than would often be the case.

Other than reasons like that though, it's a combo of family money which can be used to support and/or high paying careers ideally which also include the potential for large bonuses.

I know plenty of London professionals in their 30s on salaries that could afford that purchase as part of a couple. It may not be the norm but it’s not uncommon