To wonder how anyone affords to move house?

[towonderwander]

We are a mid 20s married couple with our first baby due next month. Earlier this year we managed to buy our first home. It is an ex-council house which needed significant improvement in an okay area. Not the best, but good schools around and convenient motorway links. With kindness, practical and financial support from our families, we are slowly turning it into a beautiful place to live. It is now a really lovely home with just a couple of rooms left to upgrade. It is technically a 3 bedroom but the third bedroom is very small and houses our clothes as well as the boiler so would never be functional as a third room.

We are glad to be on the property ladder and feel lucky we had so much support, but the cost to maintain and upgrade this house has been more than I could ever imagine. We have a 4 figure mortgage as it is, thanks to interest rates. If we wanted a bigger house/slightly more desirable area, I can’t see how we would do it. Anything that wouldn’t need this level of work again would be most likely well out of budget plus the new stamp duty thresholds mean we’d have that to factor in as a large cost too. Plus you know, childcare fees and the general cost of living crisis.

How do people afford to move? AIBU to think nowadays it is increasingly harder and not as simple as just climbing the property ladder?

(To add before anyone asks why we didn’t start with a flat, most if not all have been bought by landlords round here, the ones that haven’t are leasehold and exceptionally difficult to sell on.)

Op, I mean this gently, but people afford it as they earn the money to do so.

Have you heard of the housing crisis?
What's a 4 figure mortgage out of interest?

I think it very much depends on what you prepared to compromise on. I wouldn't buy anything with any form of structural damage. any cosmetic work can be delayed, worked on in stages. My aunt bought a farmhouse which didn't even have a proper functional kitchen. They are there now for 4 years. So far they completed one bedroom, built a kitchen (after three years of cooking on a camp stove) and the bathroom is next on the list. They have a temporary shower and a bio-toilet for now.
Most town properties are nowhere near this level of extreme makeover. I could quite happily live with outdated decor and work on one room at a time. My grandparent's house was a perpetual DIY project all through my childhood.

A lot of people rent, and can't afford to buy their home, and moving is expensive for them too, if they have to pay a deposit and rent in advance, plus removal costs, and they might need appliances and/or furniture for their new place. People on very low incomes who get a council house have to somehow source flooring for it but there is no way of paying for that flooring other than applying for charitable grants (which are limited) or getting into debt. Those people don't have savings and can't afford to save since their incomes are too low.

I know the cost of living crisis affects everyone including home owners, and it is expensive to furnish and maintain a property, but I don't think your thread is going to go down particularly well tbh, since you are fortunate to have been able to buy your own home and you got family help too.

I'm a bit confused by the 4-figure mortgage, do you mean the monthly repayments are 1000+? I'm not at all surprised by that but then I live in an area where housing is very expensive indeed (to rent or buy).

We earn the UK median salaries so very much ‘normal’. Are you saying you have to earn much higher than average to be able to afford the average house?

Yes that’s what I mean, in excess of £1000. I think it’s so wrong. I don’t know how families bigger than us or on one wage are supposed to afford to live.

Have you not heard of the housing crisis?!
Yes of course home ownership is unaffordable for people on average salaries.

I think it sounds like a sound investment and considering your ages you’ve done very well! I’m older, and we’ve bought/renovated a number of houses and then moved. You’re not wrong that it’s so expensive these days!

What I would say is that for a number of our previous properties, we completed our renovations over YEARS. One took ten years. We’ve been in our current home for 4 years and it’s still not finished. Don’t expect to be able to do all the work overnight. Start with the important things (or the cheap, easy fixes) - electrics/roof/plumbing/heating, then move on to the cosmetic stuff. You can live with a dated kitchen for example while you save up.

As you get more experienced in renovation you’ll learn lots of tips, and find that you have the confidence to do certain jobs yourself rather than pay for workmen. Good luck!

Yes, I just think it’s wrong that it’s come to this in this country and that so many people are out of touch if they’re not actually in the situation of trying to move or trying to find a house in the first place. We both have respectable careers and still feel this way in a cheap town. I really don’t know how people who are unable to work or earn less than us are supposed to do it at all.

Thank you :-)

You have only been there less than a year so unless you have completely flipped it, then it isn’t enough time to be able to afford to move. Give it a few years, after which childcare will have reduced and you have paid off some of the mortgage then you may be in a different position.

Did you seriously expect your mortgage repayment to be under £1000?

The average UK salary for someone in their 20s is £30,316 (gross) which works out as about £2k/month (net).

If you and your partner are earning average salaries, you bring in about £4k between you.

How much are your mortgage repayments exactly? How much did you want to have left over?!

They wait until they can afford it. I didn’t buy my first house until I was 40. We had a huge deposit (about 40%) thanks to 15 years of savings. We haven’t done up any of it yet, and we’ve been here nearly 3 years. You are in an incredibly fortunate position. We never could have bought a house in our mid 20s. We could barely afford food shopping back then. We had to finance a £200 mattress in our first place together because we literally couldn’t afford a cheap mattress.

"I really don’t know how people who are unable to work or earn less than us are supposed to do it at all."

They claim benefits and they rent. Usually overpriced, poor quality housing.

You are not wrong OP. I don’t think many people can afford to move these days, hence you saw a lot of extensions in the last 20-30 years but now building costs have rocketed I expect people will make do and manage in a smaller house.
Essentially a lot of first time buyers try and get a 3 or 4 bed house from the get go so they don’t have to move.
Ideally stamp duty would be scrapped to allow people to move up and down the housing ladder easily. Plus our legal system around buying a house is expensive and long winded and can collapse last minute costing everyone in the chain money. That should be looked at in my opinion. There are loads of houses under occupied and I’m sure some elderly people would happily downsize but it just costs too much to do so. The whole housing market is strangled by a lack of houses and bloated costs.

You're only mid 20's and have brought a house. After the childcare years you'd have more disposable income obviously and earning potential for you and DH could increase depending on what you do for work. I'm nearly 40 and renting from ha and probably won't ever be in a position to buy. I'd just be grateful you've been able to at all

Have you been living a very sheltered life? You're coming across as a bit faux naïve in an irritating way.

There is a housing crisis. Many many people do not buy property. Lots rent. Some buy late in life. Many have family help/inheritance.

You stay in your house for 10 years, pay down the mortgage, then move when you have more liquidity.

This

Not really and you’re being quite rude. Sorry that I seem naive to you, I just think it’s wrong. Most people I know own their house. Possibly because we live up north. I appreciate it’s always been harder and continues to get harder with rising prices in the south, particularly London, where most people rent.

Three options:
a) move to a less desirable area
b) wait and accrue more equity, though this generally means everything else has risen in your area/surrounding roads (see option a)
c) take a larger mortgage, this is means tested so you will need to earn more to fit affordability criteria

Staircasing the market requires flexibility and the ability to take work on yourselves.

Three options:
a) move to a less desirable area
b) wait and accrue more equity, though this generally means everything else has risen in your area/surrounding roads (see option a)
c) take a larger mortgage, this is means tested so you will need to earn more to fit affordability criteria

Staircasing the market requires flexibility and the ability to take work on yourselves.

You're at an expensive time of life. The fact you're even thinking of moving in your situation when you have no real need to do so is bonkers. Enjoy the home you've bought and aim to get some overpayments (£100 month can have a huge impact) onto your mortgage to being the term down.

Most people buy a small flat as a first purchase btw.

Generally I think people expect to build equity and get promoted.

So your salary increases, children grow up and out of expensive childcare, and you have more equity to move up the ladder.

I don't think many people are actively saving an extra £X per month to move.

I think that having a three bedroom house in your mid 20s is more than a lot of people would expect. Home ownership is expensive but it's an investment of time and money. Also, plenty of houses have box rooms that they use for spare clothes until a child comes along. 😁

Over the years hopefully your salaries will increase.

Yes, I just think it’s wrong that it’s come to this in this country and that so many people are out of touch if they’re not actually in the situation of trying to move or trying to find a house in the first place. We both have respectable careers and still feel this way in a cheap town. I really don’t know how people who are unable to work or earn less than us are supposed to do it at all.

They don't do it at all

They rent a room or they sofa surf or they live with parents or they're homeless

There's a housing crisis which the government is aiming to sort out

I hope they succeed