To think you shouldn't expect to buy a home on a single salary?

[Fivebedexecutivehome]

Genuinely interested in people's thoughts.

There's no doubt there's a shortage of appropriate housing in the UK, and that prices make home ownership for many people on average salaries.

But I find a lot of reporting about the topic weird- lots of interviews with people who seem to want to buy a property by themselves.

most recent one on BBC but not unique:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c7209lk8x2wo

My husband and I managed to get on the housing ladder a few years ago, early/mid thirties, both full time with a combined income of about 75k at the time, had been saving for about a decade towards deposit, plus a couple of grand from each of our parents to get it over the line. Got in towards the bottom end of the market of the (south eastern) town we live in.

I recognise both of us are quite privileged in lots of ways - having a bit of family support and salaries in the 30ks and 40ks. But there's no way either of us would have been able to ever buy a property by ourselves. But there's 68 million people in this country, surely the expectation can't be that everyone wants to buy a property themselves? And surely that's never been the expectation previously?

Obviously it would be great if everyone could afford a lovely house of their own but people do seem very surprised that they might have to compromise in some way. Me and my partner separated and when I said we'd have to sell the property and split the equity they were surprised and outraged that they wouldn't be able to afford a house again. I'm not sure what they expected me to do if we didn't sell but it does surprise me that some people think they're entitled to a house when they can't afford it.

I never had any doubt that I would not buy on my salary

I put a plan into action

Saved up
Had more than one job
Got a better job with opportunities to progress
Kept an eye on finances

BS. By your thinking someone with no partner, single parents, widows etc… shouldn’t expect to have their own home? Not everyone has the privilege of a dual income.

where I am a 3 bed semi you could actually live in straight away is ~£600k .. obviously that’s the issue. Not a single woman saying she works bloody hard and should be able to buy a house!

Same here, My Ds bought his house when single and now his fiancée lives there with him.

What a strange post! Lots of people buy on their own for a variety of reasons, as for affordability presumably if you were single, you could have bought a small flat on your own, but because you were in a couple, you bought a house.
I bought my flat on my own and currently I am looking to buy afor a house, again on my own, a shocker!

House prices have shot up far more than average wages over the last couple of decades.

And this is the attitude I alluded to earlier.
The world has changed. Not only w.r.t to women working but the UK population has exploded. From 58 million in 1999 to 68 million today, about 2 decades later.
We're a tiny island.
Where are all these 3 bed houses with gardens going to be built, hmm?

You don't NEED a spare room, home office, garden. You want them, which is fair enough. But you don't need them.

Of course, flats don't have to be small and pokey, other countries have plenty of nice large ones, even more spacious than many UK houses. But the lack of a garden is an issue.

Which leads me to my other point, even if houses were built so that everyone could afford one, even proper big flats people would still refuse to buy it because it's not a house with garden 'because well in 1999 Ms. X bought on a single salary and it's not fair'.

Of course you did, much like the many other bitter people who've made similar comments.

In reality, in previous generations single people wouldn't generally own their own homes, no.

Well, I guess at almost twice your age, I qualify as a "previous generation" according to your post @Fivebedexecutivehome and I've always been single (no man to be dependent on), and I own my own home, and have done since the 1980s and 15% interest rates.

You lack perspective, and you are quite narrow in your worldview, understanding & knowledge.

This is essentially my point.

If every individual person on an average salary wants their own 3 bed house with garden, the housing crisis will never end, we'll have to concrete over every inch of the country and vastly increase our carbon footprint. If that's what we're waiting for the economy to deliver, lots of people will always be dissatisfied.

Sigh. You're another one willfully misunderstanding.

You're right. Let us aim for 38 million houses, one for each adult, each of which can be bought for £130k (roughly 4 times the average salary). What a reasonable aspiration for the nation.

we have been living on one income ( SE) mortgage and all, holidays and a car, from ages past. Yes, you can do it

forgot to add: not even her income , much lesser one

You should sell your house, you only need one bedroom.

Bit Dickensian to have the kids in the same room with us, but thanks for your input

Even more Dickensian to say single people shouldn’t expect to have homes.

I think lots of single people would happily live in small studio flats in cities, if the cost of them was low enough that they would have plenty of money left over to do things outside of those studio flats like go out for dinner, to the theatre etc.

But if you have to live hundreds of miles away from your friends and family in the middle of nowhere to afford to be able to buy at all, then yes, a house with a garden and a spare room is probably the minimum that you need to have a life that doesn't feel miserable. The space is sort of the consolation prize for being forced out of the city.

A policy that prioritised. converting big houses in London into multiple smaller flats, possibly by encouraging married people who work from home and don't need to socialise in order to try and meet someone because they're luckily enough to have already done so would help, but I'm not sure exactly what form that would take.

?

If you’re so worried about the housing crisis, concreting things over and carbon footprints, why did you have children? You do realise your children will want to have a home of their own one day? Or is that different?

@Fivebedexecutivehome

But not everyone does want their own 3 bed home with garden.
Some people don't want a garden, some people don't want 3 bedrooms , some people are happy with a flat. Some people are happy to rent.
A garden was very important to me, I wanted at least 2 bedrooms, I wasn't fussed about having more than one bathroom, utility rooms, ensuites. My 3 bed was cheaper than the 2 bedroom houses 5 mins walk away because they were in a street with trees and nearer the park
I'm at age where I could be looking at retirement flats but they are all more expensive than my house.
So I have a 3 bed house, for 20 of the years I have lived here I've had lodgers - now I have an adult son. So the house has always housed more than one adult.

Yes?

Agreed. I did the same.
Did I have to cut back initially? Yes. Did I have to stop drinking alcohol and having meals out? Yes.
But I brought a 2 bed end terrace for 150k with a 10% deposit, as a single parent. Sold it 4 years later for over 200k and now brought a 5 bed detached house on a private road with my partner for 600k.

Little steps.
Big sacrifices along the way.
But with no parent support. Worked 2 jobs at times.

Yep, OP seems to be saying that single people should not expect to own a home and live in it alone, especially in anything bigger than a soulless shoebox. Extra bedrooms and gardens are for families.

You are being silly. Single people buy in their own all the time and it’s a perfectly valid aspiration.

I bought on my own - so did a number of my friends.

why shouldn‘t we expect home ownership?