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.)

It's really hard. I'm 50 and can't afford to buy. I find it impossible to save when renting a.house/paying bills etc. I earn ok money but renting etc isn't cheap either. I'm stuck renting :(

People shouldn't tell you what to be upset about but you get to tell people how many bedrooms they need? Hah.

And those 5 bedrooms are mine to do with what I please. Who are you to tell me that one type of usage is more important than another?

And yes, people should take responsibility. People should take responsibility when they have children and make sure that they can afford to house them instead of blaming other people for not giving up their homes to accommodate them, which is such a stupid and self entitled argument to make.

It is more common in london. The first time buyer stamp duty exemption for the first 300k is reserved only for first time buyers who buy properties that are 500k and under. That will get you a 2 bed flat in most areas of London, in fact 400k is a lowish budget for a 2 bed (I did get my flat at that price but honestly I wouldn't have realistically gotten anything significantly bigger for 500k or less; still the case 5 years on, though I have seen acceptable properties for 525k to 550k but still a flat)... also there are many pre war flats in London where residents have bought the freehold.

The average age to buy a house is 38, and to have a child is (I think) 31.
It takes most people a lot longer to save and have some money behind them.
If you do things much earlier, you won't have had that same time (including progressing in your career into higher salaries).

It would be lovely if the average person could afford a house and children in their 20s, but that's just not the reality in our economy.

Tl:dr - be thankful for what you've got.

Tbh my parents, grandparents, DH, SILs , baby niece would never have been born if their parents had waited to earn enough to house them. I suppose baby niece has enough room living in grandma's 5 bed house but her parents can't afford to rent really.

My grandparents eventually bought a 3 bed terraced and then bought a 4 bed house with my father (and eventually died in a detached house) , my MIL upsized from the 1 bed flat to a 3 bed house when my Dh was 6 (had 3 kids by that point). But when they conceived those kids, they had no space. I suspect for most of human history this has been the case. But we need those future taxpayers or I wonder who will wipe our backsides when we are old and infirm

This is exactly what the situation is and has been for some years.

Or humanity can just die out and the planet will manage to go on, and thrive.

And I see what you're saying, but it also sounds like your family made do with the space they could afford and up sized when they were able to. My issue is more with those who have the kids and then complain about taking care of those kids or being able to afford those kids as if that isn't entirely a problem of their own making.

It takes time, as it did when I was in my 20s. Not to sound at all condescending but you're lucky to be on the property ladder now and any improvements you make will benefit you and future buyers. I must admit I lived at my first house for 3 years and didn't like it, loved to another one and loved it. Stayed 19 years there, moved again and previous doubled in value. Xx

Your salary should increase as you gain more skills and experience over time. You can save towards a bigger house. Pay chunks off the mortgage as and when you can. You might get an inheritance or bonus at work etc.
I bought a wreck at 22 on a single income, scrimped to afford it and the renovations were mostly done diy. I’m now mortgage free in my late 30s with kids in a 5 bed detached. It’s possible with luck and hard work.
equally there are people who won’t ever be in a position to buy. You’ve done well to get on the ladder at your age.

I have concluded that there is no reasoning with someone who believes that they need and are entitled to 5 bedrooms. For 2 adults and some cats

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

Yea. Weird.

In other words, welcome to the real world in 2024.

Do you have any money saved for a deposit - or if you are you in London there's a scheme where you can get reduced rent for three years to enable you to save a deposit to get started on buying a shared ownership place.

Thinking back to happier times when our first mortgage repayments were £250pm. Ah the nostalgia

People should take responsibility when they have children and make sure that they can afford to house them instead of blaming other people for not giving up their homes to accommodate them

They are, see the birth rates & previous generations didn’t all wait to buy a house before dc….

No savings :( single/solo parent so no spare money to save unfortunately.

Wow never heard of that.. is that through social housing/HA? Although not London:(
Even SO where I am need a 5 to 10k deposit and with rent and mortgage the monthly cost is 1k. My rent is 800 at mo x

There is a massive age differential.

Younger people - less than 35 yo - are all in the same boat as you. Many older people who didn't buy soon enough are also.

Some parts of the country are much more expensive than others which makes a massive difference. You can't compare two places like London and Middlesbrough - totally different situations. People forget this when replying to threads.

In London this has been a fact of life since well before 2000. It's taken longer to escalate elsewhere but in some provincial places, affordability is now even worse because salaries are lower.

We really struggled in 2000 to buy a flat with two professional jobs. Our incones have gone up but mortgage is now over £2k a month for when we stretched to a small house 14 years ago.

I just feel incredibly lucky to have a house. That's not going to happen for my kids with the housing crisis. 😞

It's a scheme that the London Mayor funds. Apparently to be eligible you have to be unable to afford to buy. You get a reduced rent for three years which enables you to save a regular amount to get enough of a deposit to get you started on a shared ownership place. I read about it in the Metro yesterday but haven't kept the paper and I can't remember what it's called.

Are you in a secure long-term tenancy or local authority housing for life? The rent trap is the problem when trying to get the money together to buy. You pay a lot for your monthly rent that would pay for a mortgage if only you could get started. Maybe there are schemes outside London, I don't know. If there is some way you could buy together with someone else, whether a friend or family member. I was reading yesterday about a facebook group for single mothers set up to help each other, whether that might be sharing the costs of accommodation or in other ways. There are millions of single mothers in similar circumstances and with those financial pressures. Worth checking it out.

It’s taken us until our mid-30s and one of us earning 6 figures to be able to buy a 2-bed flat, but we’re the only people I know who didn’t have deposit help from their parents. London is just beyond ridiculous for both rent and house prices.

As others have said:

• your child care costs will reduce as kids go to school
• your wages will go up
• your mortgage will come down (if and when you get opportunities overpay the mortgage)
• you’ll have equity in your house
• can you extend existing house to make it want you want eventually? If not, don’t spend much more doing it up if you plan to move
• move to a cheaper area?

You’ve put yourself in a good position in mid 20s, see where you are in 5-10 years and you may find it more doable than you think.

So my parents who live in a 5 bed house should sell it so a family can live in it? A house my parents bought when all their children were still children, a house that is well used, even their 4 spare rooms are used.

A house that families don't want because they'd rather live in new builds instead of older non estate houses. A house the majority of younger families can't afford anyway even if they put it up for sale? It makes no difference the number of 5 bed houses on the market, if a family can't afford a 3 or 4 bed house they wouldn't be able to afford a large 5 bed house.

Thankfully we don't live in a country where people are forced to do things like downsize when they get old or heaven forbid don't have children. We don't put families above others and say pensioners, single people or couples without children are less worthy.

A lot of people these days wonder how anyone can afford to buy a house at all. Just be grateful you’ve managed to do that and enjoy the lovely home you have.

Give it a few years, see how your circumstances and finances change, and maybe you’ll be able to able to afford to upsize. It’s really not the time to think about it now when you have only just moved in.

Agree with the point about affordability. Freeing up a 5 bed so that a family can buy (who could afford it but ended up in a 4 bed due to lack of availability of larger homes) means - the retired couple buy a 3 bed instead of a family with a smaller budget.

The 'small starter flat' as the first rung 'housing ladder' idea in your early twenties is very 1980s.

I am surprised to read that. I lived in Edinburgh in my late 20s/early 30s and almost all of my friends bought a 1 or 2-bed flat as their first property, as did I. Many then moved out to houses or bungalows in the suburbs or nearby commuter towns in their mid-30s when they started to have kids. This was all quite recent (we're mostly approaching our late 30s now).

That's a location thing though, not a price thing. Some people live in flats forever in places like Edinburgh, central Bath, Oxford/Cambridge where space is a premium. Whereas most FTB skip the flats in my SW market town and buy a small 3 bed first (flats go to landlords).