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?

Don't spoil these people. They can dig a hole and live in it surely?

I bought last year on a single salary of 43k. I am married but I have the mortgage in my sole name. I would have bought regardless of whether I was in a couple.

It is in some parts of the country where prices are so high eg London and the South East.
The cheapest I can see is a studio 20sqm with share of freehold but no details crucially, of the length of the lease, for £199k. It's absolutely minute. You would need a £20k deposit and an income of £45-50k. London zone 5.

I’m sorry - why shouldn’t people expect to be able to buy a property themselves? Is that yet another aspect of life that is the privilege of being in a couple?

house prices in this country are ridiculous and it should not be that you have to be paired up in order to have your own home. I’m really shocked that people genuinely think this.

Im a single person - not necessarily by choice, it’s just how it’s worked out. I don’t know if I’ll find my happy ever after. But I’m also “lucky” that I e inherited - that, to be blunt, is how I had a deposit big enough to be accepted to buy.

So what would I have done without that inheritance? And what do so many people who don’t get inheritance do? What are we supposed to do OP? Stay at home with our parents all our lives until Happily Ever After appears? Single people don’t deserve housing?

Houses used to be 3/4 times income in cost. My little house is more than ten times my salary as a teacher. I and many many other single people are working our backsides off for a living and to keep the roof over our heads (of we’ve got one) - why should t we expect to be able to afford our own home?

Why shouldn’t a single person have the same ambitions as someone with a partner? They’re not second-class citizens. They should have every right to want the same security and invest in their future as a couple. If the only people who can expect to own a home of their own are couples, there’s something badly fucking wrong with the property market. In the 90s my DP bought a little starter house in a city as a single man on an average salary. People should be able to do the same now.

It’s not related to buying alone or in a couple - it depends on your circumstances and income. My DD owns and is single! I myself bought my first house before I became part of a couple (although I will admit it was easier then)

I think everyone should expect to earn enough of a salary to be able to buy a property.

By your logic, OP, if you or your spouse were to lose one of your incomes or were to separate, you wouldn’t consider it right for you to be able to own your own home.

Housing security should be a right, not a privilege. Married person who can’t afford to buy and whose income will never exceed 30k.

I am single and own my own home also like @CleanShirt post divorce.

I think it is hard but if it is your goal you make a way. You have to be very self disciplined with what you spend and save to get there.

Wonder if @Fivebedexecutivehome will return or too busy polishing their multiple taps. I’m a single person, like others not by choice, I work bloody hard and am in a fortunate position to put a roof over my children’s head. I hope that’s ok and my married neighbours who live in an identical home don’t catch my single status

In 2008 I managed to buy a house on my own. I was single and wanted to buy a house. Why is that unreasonable?
It's ridiculous to suggest it is.

You're right. The single youth of today are so spoiled with the housing options. Do you really even need a hole? Shovel is just an extra unnecessary asset.

BBC are completely obsessed with men who identify as women. 6 articles about the COL and all are about these males with "special" identities. So bored of this gaslighting.

In terms of the OP, I'm a lone parent so what would do OP? Suck it up in the rental system lining other people's pockets? Effing ridiculous.

I'm lucky that I'm on a 6 figure income so I've been able to buy a house but honestly I despair at people like you. You probably also think people shouldn't have kids unless they are in a heterosexual relationship!

I was born in the 50's.
I have many acquaintances who bought their house/flat as single people when they reached adulthood.
They were mostly in steady, safe, well-paid jobs in the public sector, and just wanted to invest in a home of their own.
Certainly, as many PPs have said, not everyone is part of a couple, and why on earth should single people not have as much right to own their home as couples, rather than wait around for a partner who may or may not materialise?
But the crucial factor is that we can't fail to know that housing was far more affordable then than it is now, and it was perfectly possible and quite normal for property to be bought just on one salary.
That's what well-paid single people are angry about.

Wait til your marriage goes tits up OP and then see if you feel the same.

Everyone should be entitled to buy their own home instead of renting. It shouldn’t be the way it is, where people have to rent because they cannot afford a deposit. I don’t understand why you have to bring relationship status into it. Why should someone not expect to want to buy their own home because they’re single? As if they’re any less of a person because of their relationship status. So what you’re saying is that couples in your eyes are acceptable to own their own home but single people have to make do with what they get? EVERYONE should be entitled to buy their own home, but unfortunately in todays age it’s virtually impossible

I would be wary of having a hole. Look at what NIMBYs do to moles.

Pretty much all our parents and grandparents bought a house on one income. I don’t see why this generation wanting to do the same is a problem?

I think OP thinks you're only a 'growned up' if you're married.

My ds and I bought a house. I paid the deposit (from an inheritance) and he was paying the mortgage. He was managing to pay that okay, but interest rate shot up, so we paid off the rest of the mortgage together. He has continued paying me the amount it was costing him on the mortgage and will pay me the rest of the mortgage money he owes later this year, leaving him (single and in his mid thirties) a fully paid up house owner. He does live in a low housing cost area though.

My closest friends are in their fifties. They all bought alone. Many of my friends who are similar in age to me bought alone. In good areas.

But DH is younger than me and many of his friends haven't been able to do similar. Particularly if they are several years younger.

I find it more strange the BBC are gaslighting us again because that's a man.

OK, clearly IABU!

I enjoyed some of the assumptions from some posters about my marriage and political views, including the one inexplicably accused me of being a homophobe.

Obviously there are a number of countries where home ownership isn't really the norm (Germany for example) and obviously the environmental impact of building enough houses so that every adult can own one would be huge, but I'm glad to see there's actually no nuance to the issue really...

So you and your husband both earned less individually than the person in the article, but because you had the great virtue of being marrieds you deserved it and the person didn’t?

I bought my own flat myself with a 100% mortgage. Its not fair people can't do that now.