Sorry, @ThankmelaterOkay I have been working all day so didn’t get back on Mumsnet until now. It would be extremely outing if I gave the exact figures, but the property was under 100K (in a fairly popular coastal city of a European country with good weather).
My salary is considered high, if you do look at the monthly figure, but as I have said, I work 24 hours shifts so my hourly rate is actually extremely close to minimum wage when divided by the amount of hours I do work and so I have essentially been sacrificing having a life (at all) for the (seemingly) higher salary.
The only benefit of working that much is not having the time to spend much of what I earn, so while I did start from zero, I have been able to save relatively quickly as a combination of continuously overworking myself and not spending almost anything due to lack of time & my choice to buy in a country where real estate is still affordable.
But see, personally, despite being a technical “high earner” and coming with a high deposit banks didn’t want to loan me because I was borrowing alone (despite the repayments being ridiculously low and not even amounting 5% of my monthly income). So unfortunately my only way to buying was buying cash & without help so it was a choice between overworking, saving hard & buying at my level or not buying at all (as there was no way I was ready to bring in someone else on a mortgage.)
But it was fine because it fitted my plans and I personally think the only way to emulate the “luck” people have had in the past real estate wise, is to invest in places that are still cheap but are likely to increase drastically in the next few years/decade(s), rather than in the already popular and overpriced places and that saving us a good exercise when planning to own anyway.
Now not everyone would feel comfortable buying abroad for example, and that’s alright, but I think if you can buy 3/4/5 properties abroad (or in a cheaper place in your own country) for the price of a 3 bedroom flat in London, and manage to get a revenue out of each, that can technically pay your rent in your dream apartment in London (and then some). Why not do that?
if I had to save up for a place in my home country/hometown to buy outright like I did abroad, I would need probably a few more years and that would be to buy a studio or a one bedroom. For a three bedroom I would need probably a decade+ and by the time that decade came around housing would have probably increased exponentially still, meaning I would probably still be behind, on gathering the amount I need. Yet now if I was to rent out my flat, I could likely afford most if not the totality of the rent of a similar sized apartment in my hometown (one I still wouldn’t be able to buy) with the revenue from my own place. It’s not my plan at all, as I actually quite love where I have bought and do want to live there. But essentially buying in city/country A could give me the opportunity to live/rent in in my dream place in city/country B if I wanted to, for almost free (depending on rent prices in B) so it seems crazy to me that some people who dismiss buying based on small things such as distance don’t see the potential of buying even if further afield or of overworking yourself a bit/ accepting a flat with a bit of work (that will no doubt automatically increase value once done etc…) as those sacrifices might mean potentially being able to own a place + still live in your preferred area.