Percentage of Millenial Londoners who bought in their 20s/ Percentage of MILLENIAL londoners who own property

[Opalfleur2025]

I was playing around with chatgpt and also searching manually online.

The figures I can get are this from the London gov website:

Less than a third of Londoners aged between 20-39 own their home, compared to 41% of people the same age across England.

The crazy figures I got from chatgpt was that as little as 2 to 5% or up to 10% of millenials in London were able to buy property in their 20s. I don't trust this at all but can't find any other data

I find this crazy cos DH and I bought in 2019 at 26 and 29 respectively (very much millenials ) and our combined income was £70k (£75k with bonus) so hardly investment bankers, and we bought with 15% deposit- 1930s 2 bed flat with no help to buy or lifetime isa scheme. One thing is that my parents paid for my uni and rent in London at university while DH (born and bred Londoner) lived at home other than 2 years for his masters in Germany (cheap city) and then we lived at DH's family home for 3 years after graduation before buying so basically didn't rent at all. Our income has grown but those were our circumstances when we bought.

If these figures are true it means London housing is much more of an inheritocracy than I thought it was.

Interested to hear from any London mumsnetters who are below 40...

People who buy in London regardless of whether they grew up here.

It must be nice. I see the rent rules and regulations in sime other countries and it's so much better for tenants. We rented in Germany for a bit, so much nicer than renting here.

Oddly though, even though other countries aren't obsessed with home ownership. People still do own homes across the world..some countries in higher numbers, some less.

Could you buy a property on supermarket wages in London or the surrounds in your day?!

I mean you could in the north though I think if you wanted to buy in the north you still could with 2 average wages regardless of student loan debt. Though it is still around 50% mark for millenials

I sold my flat to parents paying cash for their 20 something dc, it was the 4th on my road that I knew of to be sold to parents buying for dc. The road/area has completely changed demographically since I was a dc.

Agree- I graduated in 1996 and 3 friends and I rented a 4 bed in “ brunchy” Zone 2 for 425pw on our grad salaries. We saw loads of flats too- we had actual choice. It was a stretch- after rent and travel are I had 400pcm left for everything else for the first year and then 600pcm for another year but the fact is, it was easy to find a rental in a way it just isn’t these days. I finally bought when I was 28- one bed garden flat in Clapham for 200k - 4 x my salary- no deposit.

Things are harder now. I would caveat that my saying I hear friends with YA kids say they won’t share a flat if they have to share a bathroom etc or paying for an en-suite at Uni so I think there is an element of expectations being a bit high but honestly that’s anecdotal so not sure how typical that is.

The other thing that seems less common is having a flat share with a bunch of own friends rather than living in basically an HMO with randoms. Deffo when I graduated, we were all mainly sharing with friends or at least friends of friends.

@Opalfleur2025 I had a shop job at that age that paid pretty well but I worked during holidays & weekends. Property was much cheaper then & crucially lending was far more relaxed, tiny deposits, interest only mortgages etc far more accessible.

London is the largest city in UK. Young people flock there to start their careers and live in trendy places in shared housing. I would expect a large group of 18-30 year olds to have no plans or possibility of buying thers. People then move out to places 1-2 hours commute away in their 30's, particularly if starting a family.

It would be interesting to see the difference between under 30 and over 30 in your data group.

That doesn't surprise me. Most of my friends in London (25-35) don't own a property, they rent. I've also noticed that in London, people tend to find a partner slightly later in life. Once they've moved in with someone and started pooling savings, they're a bit older than the average first time homebuyers outside of London. Not to mention extortionate rent which makes it hard to save. My DH and I were only able to buy in London as my parents gifted us with half of our deposit. Most people don't get this opportunity.

I think people underestimate how little wages have grown. 20k in the early 00s is the equivalent to 36k today & 30k then is 55k today.

Also it is already having an impact, birth rates have fallen pretty dramatically in London & impacting school budgets. Obviously people are having less babies in general but the cost of housing is part of the issue.

Wasn't this also the case in 1985. Over 50% of 25-34 year olds were homeowners in outer London then.

For 25 to 34 year old. It's 17% for outer london and 10% for inner london

@Nanana1 the brith rate in London dropped by 17% 2012-21.

I’ve seen a few prep schools close, and local primaries that were adding an extra class a decade ago due to high demand now can’t fill the places.

Less children and smaller family size.

Housing a problem but also childcare - at £2k+ a month for childcare, you’ve got to have very deep pockets to have even two children.

House prices are certainly unfair but being single isn’t unfair it’s just a circumstance that is unfortunate or sad if someone doesn’t want to be single. We have a little control over earnings when we make educational and career decisions. Obviously you can train and do everything right and there is still a right time and right place element. Or a career path can be chosen where the chance of employment is really low or always short contracts.

I chose to leave my hometown and go to University, first in family and self funded and my sisters didn’t. That’s the sort of decision making I am referring to
My life is in no way comparable to my sisters a couple of decades on.

I am head over heart when it comes to decision making.

tbh the main reason why I own is because my parents funded my education and I married a Londoner from the same uni who also had the option to live at home. And yes we did earn enough to save.

I would call that luck not really choice, just something that happened. And for those who were gifted deposits, that is also luck.

The low home ownership stats and the fact that majority of London first time buyers get money from parents indicates that people like us are more common than the high earners who didn't also get help.

@MidnightPatrol yes childcare is ridiculous. I knew a few families who moved out during Covid because even though they were on the property ladder they couldn’t afford the step up to a house. The property ladder doesn’t really exist now.

Why are you using Chat GPT to do research? It's not a reliable source at all - it literally makes stuff up.

Us and 3 couples we were friends with in uni all bought around 26-28 on the inner border of zone 3. That was about 5-7 years ago now.
All on decent but lower salaries compared to some, probably combined around 70-85k joint.
All had a parental contribution or living with parents while saving therefore saving over the equivalent of rent each month.
All bought 1 bedroom flats sub 360k.
Rent prices have boomed even since I rented, it’s much harder now to rent and save enough.
But London figures are also skewed because lots of people don’t want to buy in their 20s. I know more people who knew they would be moving back out of London end would buy in their hometown.

You said it yourself really - you had a comparatively high income (£75k in a city where the average household income was only around £30k) and you basically lived rent free, so were able to save a large deposit as a couple. Most people your age were in nowhere near that position, even if they wanted to settle down together with someone (and buying as a singleton is vastly tougher still).

But London figures are also skewed because lots of people don’t want to buy in their 20s. I know more people who knew they would be moving back out of London end would buy in their hometown.

This as well. Lots of 20 somethings are in London because it was necessary/beneficial for their early careers, not because they have a long term goal of buying and settling down in London.

I am 39.

Dh and i bought a two bed flat in a good area at the edge of zone 2 aged 27. It was £350k.

We were given £25k by parents and saved £40k ourselves between us. We earned about £120k between us and were the first among friends to buy. Everyone we know who bought in London had help with the deposit, most had more help than we did. Most we knew had towards £100k of deposit help.

We had no student debt as parents had paid fees & contributed to living costs when at university (we both worked in vacations), DH also did some ad hoc work in term time.

We rented continuously after university and didn't live with parents at all but most people we know did a year or two at home with parents to save a deposit.

I think its much worse now. DH sister & husband have good jobs but left because they'd never have been lent enough to buy.