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 is almost as though decades of ordinary families being able to accrue money and assets has led to some families doing that. I'm sorry if some families haven't done that. Anyone who doesn't like it should talk to their parents and ask them why they didn't try a bit harder or save a bit more.

• Not all young people deliver for Uber Eats, whatever the media might say. A decent number have decent jobs.

But you knew the answer really, didn't you? You just wanted to air your chip.

@Pinky1011 Was Industry a documentary about your work life, Harper?

It is almost as though decades of ordinary families being able to accrue money and assets has led to some families doing that. I'm sorry if some families haven't done that. Anyone who doesn't like it should talk to their parents and ask them why they didn't try a bit harder or save a bit more.

That's a bit harsh!

I benefited from the system but recognises it perpetuates inequality. It's mainly based on luck as opposed to trying a big harder.

Apropos of nothing, but are people still using "naice" in this place?

People sometimes tell me I'm lucky to earn what I do or have the house I do - a comment which they make with no prompting from me. It seems to be a rule of polite society that we have to smile and nod, rather than correct the person.

That sort of comment is made by jealous low earners who are trying to justify their situation to themselves - "I wasn't lucky, they were". They have enough going on in their heads without me sticking the boot in with some facts.

Smile and nod. Smile and nod. It's a kindness!

The flat I bought as a 30 year old was a similar price (lower), I had and still have a well paying career, a lot of that is luck as I am very good at maths and I enjoy it, I also grew up in a very poor family, so I grew up knowing I would never be able to rely on anyone else financially so I tried really hard to get a good and fairly well paying career, I was very lucky as it worked, it didn’t for a lot of people.

I also used to be a professional sportsman, I maintained my job while playing, so I saved every penny of my sport wage and any sponsorship. Alongside that I lived in a very small shared flat, so despite living in London my rent was very reasonable. I bought my flat with a 35% deposit, it took 9 years of saving.

But I was lucky to get a hefty deposit. A lot of people don't have good relationships with their parents or their parents can't help them financially. I'm lucky that my parents have and can provide a big safety net.

New neighbours that are FTB both around 32 he is assistant CEO of a company she is a project manager that on huge engineering projects and is a chartered engineer. Other new neighbours are both coders.

On my road two houses still have blue collar workers in but one is retired and one is close to 60. Everyone else Doctors, academics all degree related occupations.

Some of those people will have money from family. However some of them will have worked hard to save money, work in a specialist field, be good at their jobs etc.

I live in a London suburb (leafy, green, ‘naice’ schools) and a young couple just bought the house next to us.

Well, it’s a self selecting sample. Due to your location, you’re seeing people who are all probably in the top 3% of earners in the country.
So the question isn’t “how can young people buy a house worth 750k?” But rather how can a couple/young family earning 100k+ a year buy such a house? Well there’s probably a couple of million households earning that kind of money. Probably about 25% of them will be relatively young - and of course those over 50 will be less likely to want to move/buy a big house in the first place.

I'm reading this after my DD (16) has had her first visit to a uni today. She got 8s and 9s in 10 gcses but doesn't enjoy most academic subjects. She's likely to do something arty at uni and is doing 2 portfolio based A levels along with another subject. I'm not expecting her to get a highly paid job but I'm just not sure she would have stuck with maths and sciences as A levels or degree choices.

But if you read MN you'd think every other job in London paid 100k +. I'm pretty sure only the top 7-10% of earners have that sort of income and all of them are on MN There is a whole range of jobs in London paying NMW up to 7 figures, but 100k isn't exactly the norm.

People shouting family money are possibly not SE based where couples such as these in professional jobs for 10 years would be earning enough to buy such a property.

This.

I'm one of these people. Didn't go to uni. Waste of time and money for finance. Went to college and did accounting, got a job and worked my way up doing CIMA. No debt but very hard to study a masters alongside a job. Earning 60k at 29. Bf is similar. ACCA qualified now on £75k at 33. Been together 8 years and just got a house for 650k last year. Saved most of my wages since I was 18. Still went on nice holidays. No help from parents other than my lovely mum letting me live with her for a small rent so I could save.

No uni for "Mickey mouse degrees"
Teach your kids the value of money and saving
Teach them standards. For instance I had significant savings when I met my bf... 3 months into dating it naturally came up and he shared that he had savings too. It's hard to describe but if a guy had approached me saying he was unemployed I wouldn't even see him as someone to date.

Not everyone is getting poorer, wealth is getting more polarised. If you're doing well today then you're doing VERY WELL by early 00s standards.

There are so many reasons for it. It is harder for the average person to do "well", there are more barriers to entry level positions so people from less-academically inclined families, or from families without those industry network links are last to be considered. Families who can afford to support their young adult children through unpaid internships will help to give their children a better CV, so on average their kids will likely have more opportunities so earn more, will have subsidised housing or allowances through their parents so can save more deposit, and on top of that their parents are more likely to help with a deposit anyway.

This vid probably explains it a bit better than I can.

A combined salary of 150k is not unrealistic, which would give them approximately 700k deposit. With 10 years of working they should have been able to build up a 75k deposit and maybe they had a previous house that they have sold. I think it’s perfectly realistic for a 30 something professional couple working in London to buy a 750k house without needing family money

Not necessarily family money, I’m 31, my partner is 35 and we just bought a place (in the South West in his home village, we met in London and both work remotely in tech) for approx 500k and are doing extensive renovation. Partner already owns a property. Neither of us have family money, or have ever been supported by family money as adults.

We’ve both absolutely grinded like hell to manage this. I don’t know why the assumption is that everyone our age is living on handouts if they’re successful.

However, it is true that becoming successful requires luck and some cold strategy. It’s absolutely bloody stupid that you need to be in our income bracket (approx 200k joint) to buy a family home. We don’t work harder than anyone else. We’ve just chosen careers that pay rather than passions or roles that benefit society like nursing.

I feel very bad for the kids at the back! Some of them look so upset. ☹️

It’s a good vid, though.

If they’re in their 30s, it’s easily possible they bought a smaller place (or even one each) when houses were far cheaper, then benefitted from the rises in prices.

I met DH young and bought a little house in my early 20s. We upgraded and paid off the mortgage years ago.

If they’re in their 30s, it’s easily possible they bought a smaller place (or even one each) when houses were far cheaper, then benefitted from the rises in prices.

I think even this is now only likely when buying with a partner/friend/sibling. I’m 37. When I was 25 I bought a £178,000 flat in what was an unfashionable bit of London - I had worked multiple jobs to save a 10% deposit, and then started my legal career on £40k/year. In the next two years, while I trained, the only other people able to buy were those with family money behind them.

Frienda who have done what you describe in your post are just slightly older than me, 40 plus. There was a particular (cyclical) moment in London where all those shitty flats in Peckham, East Finchley, Acton etc went skyrocketing in price.

I agree with PP, they are likely high earners and have saved. Maybe family contributions but maybe not. They will also be able to get a good mortgage as high earners. Banks often lend 5.5x salary to some high earners too (lawyers, doctors, accountants etc) so that also helps

But imagine the potential size of the mortgage. No thanks!

I'm in my 30s now. I started a side business in my early 20's whilst I was working. I didn't start off well. It took over 10 years before I made good money. During this process, I learnt skills from people I met at networking events. The most useful skill I learnt was marketing/digital marketing because it taught me how to attract internet traffic to websites. I have more than one business now. I also buy gold from the Royal Mint. If I buy £1000 of gold, then sell it after a year, I will most likely get £1500 back. Better than keeping money in savings. In fact, I keep buying stocks because it more reliable than savings accounts although there is risk.

@purplepencilcase The reality is, especially if you are London based, if you have managed to save a reasonable deposit, and can get a large mortgage based on your salary, it is still cheaper to have a huge mortgage than rent. DD currently paying £2,200 between two, per month rent, I think that equivalent would be a mortgage of about £400,000k?