To think there’s no good option for first time buyers

[ton29]

Prepared to be told it’s always been like this but I’m not quite sure it has.

On our combined income as it is now (both earn the average UK salary) in 2018 we would have been able to buy a 3 bed semi, possibly 3 bed detached in a really lovely area. We couldn’t buy then as we were still students.

Fast forward to this year and prices have rocketed so much so the same houses are 60-80k more making them unaffordable.

Buying a flat isn’t always the answer if you’re going to outgrow it immediately because if you move fairly quickly after buying, there’s the risk of negative equity and costs associated like legal fees and stamp duty on the new property.

Buying a house in need of renovation isn’t suitable for everyone. It’s ok if you have family help or are quite creatively minded, but if you work very busy 9-5s it’s soon going to get expensive and untenable to rip up flooring and knock through walls.

Moving 30-40 miles away to a cheaper area makes life inconvenient for commuting to work and seeing family.

I’m not sure why you can no longer buy the average sized house when you are on average sized salaries. Buying wouldn’t be an issue either if it was more secure to rent, but as everyone knows renting in this country is huge instability.

You seem unrealistic. Most FTBs stretch themselves to buy the best place they can, even if they is only a 1 bed flat. The overpayments come at a later stage in life when salaries rise and the mortgage starts to feel more manageable.

Don't be so bloody daft. It's not about "this generation not wanting to start at the bottom" its about this generation not being able to afford to start at the bottom so by the time they get a decade or two into full adult life the bottom is no longer suitable for their needs.

Reading. A flat is a more affordable of course.

Reading isn't rough? Is it? It has loads of jobs and is close to London, of course it's going to be expensive.

Oh right daft, so I guess there are no families living in these houses then or couples?

Get a grip, I have lots of friends with 2 adults and children living in rough areas with 2 bed terraced houses and Flats. Stop avoiding the fact this is a want not a need.

I assumed they meant rough as in "approximate" rather than "dodgy".

You're right, and my post was a bit under thought. It is objectively harder now and to a greater differential than it was hard 5 years before we first bought. But there's not much good dwelling on that can do on an individual level and OP doesn't appear to be contemplating organizing a political movement.

As people have said, you have to decide where to compromise, and I agree that there's no right choice - so you have to pick your least bad one. We chose to compromise on location, which is against the standard advice (all the advice is to compromise on anything except location as it's the only thing you can't change at all). I still don't know if that was a bad decision or not. We liked the house a lot and enjoyed living in it but the area went further downhill (I thought it might gentrify!) and so the house was hard to sell and made less money than a smaller property somewhere nice in the same city would have. I also felt quite differently about living somewhere sketchy once we had children than I had beforehand. On the other hand, the people we know who did picked location and did shared ownership to facilitate that have really not done well out of it - I know quite a few people stuck with what appear to be unsellable flats. You can't predict the future so you just have to do what you can now and try and not get caught up in what might have beens.

Ah that makes sense! 😂

Quite, just put 20+ miles radius in that search then, there are plenty of properties.

Well you said a 1 bed terrace. So I compared like for like. If I go to 20 miles, there's a couple for £200k.
Could you afford the house you bought on what an equivalent wage would be now?

There are also a lot under 100K.

Actually I still live in a terrace and its valued at £150,000 and I earn £70+ and my partner earns a decent wage, So yes easily. But in my area house prices have not raised massively at all.

Granted I'm staying here whilst we are investing our savings to upgrade to our final home with a minimal mortgage.

So do you overpay each month, or at the end of the year?

Monthly overpayment

You seem unrealistic. Most FTBs stretch themselves to buy the best place they can, even if they is only a 1 bed flat. The overpayments come at a later stage in life when salaries rise and the mortgage starts to feel more manageable.

I don't think you're following the conversation, I haven't said that this is something most FTBs do.

Sorry I did make a mistake there, was trying to follow the thread on my phone which wasn't the best idea

@Twiglets1 no worries

I was quite gobsmacked tbh at the number of first time buyers trying to buy our house. And one couple actually have!

For me, this house was the 3rd house - not my first purchase.

I think people need to get more realistic and get off instagram!

Also, interest rates are relevant. Yes, my first house might have only cost £120k (now worth £450k!) but interest rate was about 6%. You bought what you could afford the mortgage no, not the house per se.

I see this with acquaintances in London - a sense of entitlement that they should be able to buy in their preferred area (nearly always Central/Inner London) and throwing their toys out of the pram when they can’t, moaning about being “generation rent” etc. These are relatively high earners too.

They’re not generation rent so much as “generation I want my dream lifestyle NOW”. I moved out from an inner London area I loved with all my heart to Zone 3 when I was buying my flat. It was traumatic but it’s what I had to do to get on the ladder. Some people will simply not entertain the idea of moving further out.

@thewillowbunnies if they've managed to buy your house then why do they need to be more realistic? They're presumably able to?

I wish all the people who are discussing their first buys mentioned how old they were when they bought them. The average age for a FTB in the UK is now 34

I was 27 & dh 35

I was 37 and bought with a 100% mortgage at 16%. I’d still be renting now otherwise.

Go for a 2 bed terrace, do it up nicely over time and only move when you genuinely outgrow it. In the meanwhile keep saving what you can and over time your house will provide you with equity. I started in a 2 bed terrace now I've worked my way up to a 6 bedroom detached and mortgage free. Small steps at a time is the way to go.

I bought at 22.

instead of renting rooms or one bed flats, I bought one.

saved up my PT wages at uni which I put down as 10% deposit on a 60k student flat.

my friends thought I was mad, they wanted the 3 bed house and didn’t see the point in buying a flat.

5 years later I’d saved a fortune in rent, as the mortgage was less than rent, paid of a chunk of the mortgage, and the flat sold for 100k.

moved to a 2 bed house while my friends were still whinging about not being able to afford that 3 bed.

5 years later moved to a 3 bed- while my friends were still whinging about not being able to afford it- now I was “lucky” rather than stupid buying when I did.

nothing to do with my age, but the fact I bought rather than spend 10 years renting.

I did, I said I was 25 and my partner was 29 when we bought our first property in the late 80s - 1 bed flat.

And to add to that, we were 27 and 31 when we bought the next place - a 2 bed terraced house and by that stage we had a baby. Still had no expectation of being able to jump straight into a 3 bed semi detached home as we couldn't afford it and that was quite common amongst our peers.

Most FTBs stretch themselves to buy the best place they can, even if they is only a 1 bed flat.

That's my experience too, which is why I thought it a bit odd when the OP said they couldn't buy somewhere that needed doing up as they both work 9 - 5 all week I presume most couples that buy a house, both work (some, longer hours than that, but, the OP implied they wouldn't then have time to renovate.

The overpayments come at a later stage in life when salaries rise and the mortgage starts to feel more manageable.
Yes, or, like I did, from getting a lodger, and also a 2nd job, to increase income.