To feel so frustrated that I can't afford to move out of my parents' house?

[CantAffordIt]

I'm single and earn £32,000. My career does not have much progression, so I doubt my pay will ever increase by much more. I can't afford to move out of my parents' house. I feel like my life is on hold, I'm 30 and I can't afford to live alone and support myself. It's so embarrassing and frustrating.

I don't meet the affordability criteria for renting a 1-bedroom flat (£1000-£1200/month) or buying one on shared ownership. I don't want to live in a house share because I feel like it is the same situation I am in now, but instead of sharing a kitchen/bathroom/lounge with family it will be with housemates.

I'm living at home to 'save up and move out' - but there's nothing to save up for really. It's not affordable on my salary, and I can't retrain as I have already used up all of my student finance.

I feel so hopeless, life feels very bleak.

Ok so your monthly wage is around 2k mark? How much are you contributing to your parents? What are your monthly outgoings? What are your savings? I'd try to save say 15k a year. In three years you would have 45k plus any savings you already have . Would that get you closer to buying a small house-flat?

Just to say we live in a fairly cheap area for property. Dd is 24 on 25k, she has saved for two years and has 20k . She got a mortgage in principle for £105k She's just put an offer in on a 2 bed terrace for 110k .

Could you consider a second job to boost earnings or moving further away from London?

Look for an apprenticeship where you can get qualifications on the job. Usually nvqs, you need a career path to a better income.

Time to reconsider your career and location. In your shoes I’d do an apprenticeship while living at home, so retrain on the job, then move out of London once a deposit and new job found.

This.

I understand you not wanting to move away from where you grew up, but you need to compromise somewhere.

If you are set on staying in London and in a relatively low paying career (even in famously low paying professions like nursing or teaching, you'd probably be on £40k in London by now) you can't also expect to rent or buy a property on your own unless you're going to save hard for a number of years to build up a deposit so you qualify for a mortgage.

You either need to increase your income/get a second job, move somewhere cheaper or rent or buy with a friend or partner.

Sorry to hear this. 😢 You could try going to a career guidance company? My friend did that and changed her life! (For the better).

Also I've house shared for years and had some brilliant times, you might love it.

Hope things look up for you, I think try making some changes if you can. Good luck!

My god the victim blaming. It's her HOME, why should she have to leave the south east? Is she and her job not valuable to society? Who do you think is going to be doing the grunt work in the south of England if they can't afford to bloody live there?!

It's a massive inequality problem, and it will take us all down with it if we don't deal with it.

But a property in a cheaper area somewhere else in the UK and let it out. Even if you don’t make a profit, or much profit from the rent, the property will hopefully increase in value in the next couple of years and give you some extra money.

Well quite, it is something that the country needs to 'deal with', such as by spreading out investment and opportunities around the country so people who aren't from London feel that they have to live in London to get a job and adding to an already overcrowded city, but seeing as it's probably been decades since single people on below average salaries for London/SE have been able to buy in the area they grew up it's unlikely to be something that changes any time soon.

But all is not lost for the OP. There are shared ownership schemes and by living at home she's not spending all her money on rent, so if she saved say half her take home pay, and have a LISA, she could have already saved £50k+ and could double this before she's 35 so it's not as 'bleak and hopeless' as she thinks.

This

@OlderGlaswegianLivingInDevon I don’t think you understand shared ownership. Yes you buy a share of a property for a quarter of the price, so your mortgage is low, but you’re paying rent on the other 3 quarters! So often it actually works out very expensive…my friend for example is paying 1000 in rent and 400 for her mortgage, for 25% ownership of a 1-bed flat in London (full value about 350,000). They can also increase the rent to whatever they like, and there are always issues when selling. Would NOT recommend this.

OP, I’m also in London and can empathise. I’m 33 and have just bought but had help from my parents. I earn 40k and there’s no way I could’ve afforded it without the help. I was living in a house share before this and would fully recommend as it does give you more independence than living with parents. I lived with 2 other women in their late twenties/early thirties and really got on with them!

Ignore the posters from the north who think 32k is an ‘ample’ salary - they really have no idea what it’s like to live in the SE particularly London!

So are you commuting in to London for your £32k job - I guess so since you say you're living in the SE? What are your travel costs? I agree that being tied to London for work for £32k doesn't make sense.

I know someone who recruits in IT. 34k is the basic starting salary for a person with 6mo experience, usually at an Apple bar. After a year they leave and get 40k.

You can do better if you try.

You can buy a studio or 1-bed slightly further out in London for that, just search on rightmove. When your salary is low, you have to try to be a lot less picky and get what you can afford, even if it means commuting time or a smaller flat than you would like. Then enhance your career/ slaary pr perhaps you meet someone to buy together and you expand from there.

@Ace56

my 3rd reply actually gave the rent for one example property.

You must have loads in savings though? Living at home you could easily save a grand a month so I'd expect you to have a healthy deposit saved up.

Your problem then is living near London, if you want to move on you'll have to work out where in the country you can afford to buy something.

Living in a shared house with professionals is a great stepping stone from living with parents. I did this for a couple of years and it was brilliant, you have your independence and freedom.

You sound quite defeatist. You’re single with no children and living at home. This means you have a great opportunity to retrain into a genuine career path, because if your job caps at £30k and you’re already there, that’s not a career.

Start a new path save up some money and then consider moving.

What is your degree/job and how much have you got in savings?

If you’re commuting into London for work but will only earn a ceiling of £32k, that’s pretty poor.

The key word for the rent in that advert is ‘from’. Shared ownership is really not the answer and I’m sure OP has looked into this if she’s serious about buying. I was in the same position.

Surely you've managed to save a pretty substantial amount of money towards a deposit though on that salary and living at home? Buying the studio shouldn't be far off

It sounds like you need a different career

Honestly you sound rather entitled.

You can most certainly afford to move out, you're just turning your nose up at the solutions you can afford. Not a good attitude.

Then you find a WFH position and move up north. Fuck me!

How is it entitled to be pissed off that a salary of £32000 is only enough for a house share?

In London yes, but in most other areas that's enough to have your own place.