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?

What are you trying to say?

He.

@Fivebedexecutivehome I recognise both of us are quite privileged in lots of ways

That’s great. But surely you can also recognise that a lot of people in the UK aren’t as privileged?

Grow up😂They’re not wishing him dead or to walk out on you FFS. They’re saying hypothetically if that was to happen and you found yourself single, would you still have the same mindset?

This appalling post reeks of comfort and privilege. The phrase "having a bit of family support" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here, and supports nonsense such as "...everyone expects..."
No, everyone does not "expect" but a good number of people who through no fault of their own are single do need the protection and comfort of their own home. This country's housing market is rigged in favour of couples - and I say that as a single parent who has suffered disappointment after disappointment in trying to buy (yes, with realistic expectations, before the privileged all pile-on after a glass or two of Nectar Points wine).

Ridiculous! I’m 36 and single, own my own 2 bed house, which I’ve worked for and also saved for entirely MYSELF …. What an ignorant thing to even post !

Yanbu. Single people shouldn't expect to have luxuries like homes and shit like that. They should be on the streets until they see the error of their ways and get married.

So, as no one as yet has corrected me on my maths, despite being invited to do so.

Let's say our single person lives in Swansea and works at Tata Steel. And will likely have no job soon, along with a few thousand other people. Possible tits up situation. Or they live in Hull as a Social Care Assistant and GM left a just enough for a deposit on a little run down terrace, unfortunately our SCA fell over and can't work so much now but the mortgage payments have gone up, along with everything else but our SCA can't work enough to keep up.

Bubbles......bubbles in the air.....or here..

Ludicrous POV.

I left my husband and bought a house on my own. Are you saying I should not have done this on my single salary?

What would you recommend? I find a man in order to get a mortgage? I move back with my parents? Either of which would be madness!

Insurance. The same as any home owner.

That he’s a man.

What a load of rubbish. I’m married but I earn loads, I have lots of money and could easily buy a house if I were single. Why shouldn’t single people be homeowners?

Wow! What so everyone buying a house has to be a couple?! I think you are very unreasonable to discriminate against single people!
I bought my house on my own 20 years ago, should I have stayed ar my parents into my 30’s?

So he is! I’m so unobservant.

Baffled that so many people are still deliberately misunderstanding the point of the post.

Of course if people on single salaries earn enough to afford a mortgage in the area they live in, they can buy and that's great.

However the average salary is something like 34k. That means most people would struggle to get a mortgage by themselves for more than about 160k. There are huge swathes of the south east where you cannot buy anything at all for that amount.

But as a country we are still pretending that homeownership for individuals is a reasonable aspiration, despite the figures above, despite the fact that we have a growing population, growing numbers of smaller households, and a housing stock that tends disproportionately towards bigger houses as opposed to smaller flats, setting millions of young people up for failure, instead of thinking about other ways of providing secure housing.

I am obviously not suggesting that the single homeowners on here should give up their homes because they've done something morally wrong, because that's literally insane. The number of bitter people here who clearly feel persecuted by someone about something is baffling.

For the many people making personal comments - "a bit of family support" came to about £4k towards a deposit, not nothing, but not a huge windfall.

And crucially, the many many people who suggested I would change my tune "when" (lol, classy, definitely not bitter) my husband walks out - no I wouldn't- because the original post is literally about how neither of us would be able to afford a home individually because, by and large, for average earners who didn't get on the housing market circa 2002 or whatever, the economy makes it extremely difficult to do so in the part of the country we live in.

Christ alive.

That’s a very discriminatory point of view. I’ve been single for over 10 years. Should I have been condemned to renting forever because I can’t get a boyfriend 😂

Nice bit of blasphemy to end your tirade. Was that absolutely necessary?

A single friend of mine owns 2 houses. Does that offend you OP?

This is exactly right. Plenty of single people make more than some couples combined.

I bought my first flat in the eighties, but I had worked a couple of jobs as well as my full time job in order to get a deposit. One of my jobs was working in a pub, so I could go out, still meet people get a couple of free drinks/tip. If you want something hard enough you will find a way to do it. I had no help from family.

You're deranged. I'm not remotely offended. Your friend clearly earns more than the national average and/ or bought at a good time. Good for her.

I would say it is reasonable that rent isn’t significantly more than a mortgage … but here we are

Cool, where did she buy a house for 140k? Would love to know.

I bought my first house when I was single. Back in the early 00s. 2 bed new build for around £45k on a 125% mortgage. Sold it after a year and paid off said mortgage fully. Bought my next house with partner. Sold that a few years later and was meant to buy next house with partner now husband but there was an issue with his credit score so we actually got the mortgage based only on my salary at the time. Wasn’t a huge salary either. But wasn’t an expensive house either. 3 bed old terrace. Under £100k. Sadly house prices took a plummet and it lost its value. Wasn’t able to remortgage for many years and add him on. We split. I still live there. Continued to pay mortgage myself. If we had sold it we would have ended up with a debt to share and not equity. Took a number of years of my own to actually gain some equity in it. I’d love to move to somewhere nicer/bigger as I’ve kids now and would love the extra space - bigger bedrooms, extra bathroom etc, but other than the similar houses the next price bracket up for the same number of bedrooms with more space and the extra loo is 2 and a half times what mine is currently to worth and on my now part time salary since having the kids I just can’t afford to move. BUT rent is more than my mortgage for the same house. Neighbour’s house for sale as potential investment and rent definitely double what I’ve paid on my mortgage.

I guess it depends where in the country people live and what they are earning. It’s not always grim up north!!