To ask what you think a reasonable price for a small “starter” home is?

[TeenLifeMum]

We talk a lot about housing costs being too high but what would be affordable for young people wanting a 2 bed property in your mind? I’m intrigued by different perceptions and perspectives on this subject.

dh and I were very low paid (local newspaper journalists, graduates on terrible pay) when we purchased our first home. We did have 2 incomes but in 2005 I was on £11,500 and dh was on £10,500 when we bought our first home.

Does everything just get bunged in AIBU topic now???

Our eldest and her husband bought their lovely but very small, new build home off plan in 2021 for £148k. It’s now valued at £225.
Our youngest is in the process of buying his first home atm. Traditional but large and refitted 3 bed Victorian terrace in a less desirable area, £115K so I imagine that location is the key factor in your question.

Both are on the NW coast. If we had remained in our native London or Cornwall, neither would have had a hope of buying.

Where we are central south-south easterly you would need a minimum of 300k for a 2 bed starter mid terrace we paid 210k in 2014 for a 3 bed mid terrace, one bedroom could only house a toddler bed.

I would like it to go back to 3 times a median salary - say around 100k for small starter

What ever price that means that the mortgage payments are 1/3 of a household take home income. This is the one constant in houses, everything else is variable to achieve it.

Well I wouldn't like to say what's reasonable! I bought my first house - well, 2 bed flat - in a shared ownership scheme in 2022. We pay mortgage for 75% and rent on the other 25% (we will staircase to buy the rest over time). Including deposit it was £275k and the full value was £360k.

This was part of an affordable housing scheme (!) in Manchester, very central. At the time we both earned about £40k each and if we earned any more we wouldn't have qualified for the scheme. But equally I didn't want to own a smaller percentage because it is very hard to staircase from. 75% is the max amount we could own as a starting point, lowest was I think 25%

Obviously it's an expensive location but easy walk to the office, lots of public transport and amenities. We could have looked further out of Manchester and got a house as some friends have but decided we prefer city living. We were both 30 at the time.

A house on the street I first bought as a single recent graduate at the turn of the millennium has just gone up for 140k (all be it I bought a dump and this is beautiful).
I wouldn't be able to by that now on a typical graduate starting salary now, but it should be achievable as a couple.
BUT I live in a region that has cheap housing, and low employment rates. Probably not the first place graduates would move to these days.

Around £200k
That should be affordable for 2 people working just over minimum wage at 4x combined salary.

There’s still quite a lot of property at that dort of price near here. Plenty of 2 beds around the £220k market or under.

You need to say where in the Uk you mean. Assuming you do mean the UK.

As it’s so so variable. I bought mine 10 years ago for 95k. 2 bed new build.

My family lived in a 2 bed council house in Regent Road in Brixton when I was a child in the mid/late 60s. Even then, the bathroom was regularly mouldy. Poor construction.
Those same tiny houses are now mostly privately owned and you’d be lucky to get one for less than 3/4 million. Rentals are upwards of £2.5k per month. It’s insane.

We did have 2 incomes but in 2005 I was on £11,500 and dh was on £10,500 when we bought our first home.

And how much was your home?

Where I live a small one bed flat is £400-500k. Madness.

We have friends who are stuck in new build 2 bed homes that are just like a corridor and no one wants to buy an old corridor from them when they can get a new build corridor.

The first home that I would be comfortable with my kids going for - in terms of area and ability to resell is a 3 bed for £100,000 (I couldn't find a 2 bed that would be a safe bet) . I'm actually surprised it's as much as that. Around the £130 mark there is a lot more choice.

Blimey - where was that? I was on £40K in 2001 when I bought my 1 bed flat in Wanstead - only just about affordable. Looked at it just now and it's 'worth' £350K now.
Anyway, advising DDs to stay in or near their Welsh and Northern Uni towns to buy their first property if at all possible - they've got no hope down here.

I paid 125k for my apartment 19 years ago. Bought at the wrong time. It’s probably worth 110k now

Paid £250k for a one bed in London in 2010. Ex DP and I were on very average wages but had help with a 20% deposit. Sold in 2024 for £450k. Average salary in the UK is about £35k, so four times that, £140,000-£280,000 (single/couple), seems about right but that wouldn’t get you very far in London anymore.

XH and I earned just slightly above minimum wage when we bought our two bed Victorian terrace for £53k in 1996.

That same house recently sold for £475k. Well beyond the reach of a young couple in the same jobs we were in, with just 5% deposit.

I am in SE, but 50 miles from London. A three bed semi would cost around £600k

3 x annual income for full-time work on minimum wage.

So let’s say £75k for a 1-2 bed flat and £150k for a 3-4 bed house. Maybe a little less than that for a house to take things like maternity leave loss of income into account.

That just about tracks for round here.

It’s entirely location dependent, it’s impossible to answer without the context of which area of the country.

Varies too much by area. Just checked Rightmove. Around me the cheapest 2 bed property is a horrible flat over the shops for £200k. The cheapest house is £350k. There is a park home on at £200k also.

I apologise for not meeting the filing standards of the self proclaimed mn police. Feel free to ignore and respond on threads that you deem appropriately categorised.

South east (not London) £350k(you’d be fighting people and probably paying over)-£450k

It’s obscene really

£1200+ a month rent for a park home, my heart breaks a bit as I see the little kids skipping home to theirs from school.
£1800 for a private rental 2 bed.

I have just bought my firrst house (I'm not remotely young but I'm single so getting something on 1 salary that I could bear to live in has been tough.)

It was 275K for a very small 2 bed but it's a character property in Buckinghamshire. I could have got a 1 bed place for 180K in some areas locally but nothing habitable much cheaper than that.

Idk about what feels reasonable. 180ish seems fair, I guess given that most people do have 2 salaries but I think you should be able to get 2 bedrooms for that.

My dd viewed a house last Sunday, it was £140k for a 3 bed detached, location is everything

wow!! Is it a location that is pleasant to live in? I have never seen anything for 140K round here that wasn't a 1 bed flat with lots of corruagted iron and plasterboard in a notorious area.