To ask how you managed to buy a property in the South East

[Marghe87]

I’d be interested to hear from people
in their 30s and early 40s mostly (ie; not those that bought a house a long time ago before the crazy pruce increases of the past 2 decades.
How far from London are you and what type of house do you own?
DH and I are in middle management jobs earning over £110K between the two of us. We live outside London and have a DC in full time nursery and a high-ish rent + London expenses (ie: commute cost etc). I appreciate we’d be considered rich with our income in other parts of the country but we can barely save for a deposit whilst paying for childcare and all we’ll manage to get when we finally get there, will be a 2 bed cottage in zone 6.

A few clarifications as I know I might get these questions:

• our salaries have increased a lot in the past 2-3 years, before then we were on a much lower income and that’s why we never managed to save big amounts. Then we got DD and now the majority of our spare income goes to childcare


• our jobs are tied to London and we are not interested in relocating too far away from here (DH from here and I am from abroad and have no interest in living in other parts of England as feel no attachment to it)


• we want to buy somehwere nice, easy commute and with good schools

it just seems so bloody hard!

I'm 35, live in Essex, an hour from London on the train. Bought a run down 2 bed flat in 2008 (age 21) with a 100% mortgage.

No chance I would I be able to buy the same flat today.

We live an hours drive or 30 mins train ride from London. We are in our early thirties now and bought our first small house about 7 years ago, and moved up the ladder to a four bed last year.

We bought before we had DC, we didn’t go on abroad holidays, get cars on finance or have money on credit cards, and we both worked full time. We prioritised saving for a house above most things. There is no way we could have done it after we had DC, now we have childcare bills and I work part time.

I’m 33, I live in Hampshire. Bought a small detached cottage when I was 23, so ten years ago now. Moved back home after uni for a couple of years and then straight out. So minimal rent. No sure how anyone saves for a deposit while renting!

Live in zone 6 South West London area. Only managed to get on property bandwagon (in 2011) because I was in a dual earning couple then, and both of us were left money by childless relatives who died younger than they should have.

There is no way I could have afforded it had I been alone or without family help. There is no way I could afford it now, as a single parent with two kids albeit 50/50 shared care.

Childcare is an absolute killer, as is lack of inheritance (chance, class) or savings (also chance mostly, and class).

I would say however that if I had my time again, I'd consider moving out of London completely and getting slightly lower-paying jobs in a cheaper area. All my relatives and friends elsewhere on good incomes seem to be doing much better than me and my peers down here.

Feeling a connection to an area is basically a luxury. It shouldn't be like that but for many people it is, and they have to move away.

@Goawayangryman I wouldn’t be able to have the same job/salary/opportunities if I moved far from London.
I am happy to move outside but need commutable distance.
it’s hard to get if you are not an expat but, to me, living in a differrnt part of England doesn’t make sense.

I’m 42 - household income slightly over yours but single earner so pay more tax.

We bought a flat in zone 2 for 200k in 2006 so we were mid twenties. Bought on an insane income multiple. Like 10x. Got a tracker mortgage then was very lucky as interest rates then went through the floor so our mortgage was about a quarter of what our rent had been. So saved lots. We sold it in 2011 for 350k bought a small rundown house in zone 6 for the same money so didn’t increase the mortgage. Then I got a big promotion and we bought a nicer house in a better area in 2018. Have a pretty frightening mortgage now.

DH is 32, I'm 30, our house is an hour train ride to Kings Cross (east coast line) or 2 hours straight down the A1.

We bought when banks reintroduced the 5% deposit 7 years ago. We saved that while renting, earnt about £35k between us when we bought.

No help, basically spent the time renting saving my wage and using DH wage to pay bills, so we saved 10% in just over 10 months, but used 8.5% to buy.

House is a 2 bed mid terrace. Literally 5 rooms and a downstairs toilet. But is City Centre and 29 min walk from train station.

20, not 29 min. Thats oddly specific 🤣

I’m 32, DH 35. Bought a flat in zone3 SE London in 2013 - bigish, very very unexpected inheritance. Sold 2 years later and now in Surrey. Very fortunate but not very helpful advice wise I’m afraid!

Sorry, you asked how far from London - we’re not 45 mins to Waterloo. Faaaaar cheaper out here but still insane compared to rest of country!

Have you costed up what mortgage you could get? With ideas of costs and what sort of property you’d like, people might be able to suggest somewhere.

38 live in Oxfordshire.
Bought first house 12 years ago.
DH and I had a joint income of £40k (but his credit wasn't good so I had to buy on my own and my income was £25k). We bought a 2 bed in shared ownership (35% share and paid a 5% deposit on that share). We were living in rented at the time and saved our backsides off for the deposit etc (literally never went out and didn't buy anything). We didn't have children. We made approx £40k on the house due to house prices increasing and what we'd paid off the mortgage. During this time we had 1 child.

We stayed for 6 years and then bought a 3 bed house out of shared ownership using a chunk of what we'd made on our first house. At this point our joint income was about £55k.

We have been in that house for 6 years now. We've had 2 more children and plan to stay for another 4 or 5 years. Our household income has dropped as I'm not working (trying to establish a business). We had a valuation not long ago and we now have about £95k in our house.

I don't think I wrote that very well - its been a busy day and my brain is fried!

*now 45 mins! FFS! Why do I bloody bother posting…. Sorry op!

We bought a massive renovation project for £180k and spent absolutely all of our disposable income on doing it up ourselves (with no experience whatsoever). Sold for a good profit and bought a new build 4 bed that we won't ever need to move out of.

Zone 4, 2 bed leasehold flat I bought at 34.

Some of it is compromise but a lot was relative luck in finding low rent places (around £650-£775 all inc) in London where I stayed a lot longer than I would have liked but put every penny into a deposit.

Don't get me wrong I still lived and went out, on holidays, bought clothes etc but what I could save went to a house.

BUT I also don't have nursery costs to worry about. Or a pension to really speak of so maybe not the best example!

I think the key for anyone to be able to afford property these days is to do it the old fashioned way and do it before having kids. Nursery/childcare fees are a killer

We're on the south coast near Chichester and bought 4 years ago. My parents gave us a 40k deposit after the sale of their house and we also used the help to buy loan.

Shared ownership 3 bed detached £400k value at the time. In Essex just off of the central line. At the time we earned below the threshold for shared ownership (under £70k I think) but now over £100k combined. That was 3 years ago. We will eventually put on the market and outright buy rather than staircase as we want a bigger house with a garage.

Me and DH both 33, living in North Hampshire, an hours train ride to Waterloo or just over an hour up the M4 (on a good day). Household income was only £55k pa, now £45k as I'm currently unemployed.

Bought our 3 bed semi detached home with garden and garage in 2016 for £280k, couldn't have done it without Help To Buy loan. We are originally from Berkshire but had to move 30 miles south just to afford somewhere that wasn't an apartment!

Don't see us moving any time soon though!

Zone 2, a 1 bed flat that we converted into a two bed. My DP's mum died (early) and we used the inheritance. We were paying £1700 a month rent before we bought and there isn't a chance we could have saved a deposit.

Bought in 2008. Shared ownership as only way could afford anything. Bought on my own, pre children. Sold in 2016 (shortly after having DD, as a single parent) and bought a wreck faaaar out. Did it up, sold for a good profit. Did the same thing two years later. Lucky enough to get additional childcare (on top of FT nursery) from a family member, which allowed me to work INSANE hours. Helped me to achieve multiple promotions and pay rises. Meant hardly saw DD until the pandemic hit when started wfh. Haven’t had a foreign holiday for more than 10 years. No car. Live very frugally. Now have a tiny cottage in a lovely part of zone 2 with a terrifying mortgage that isn’t set to be paid off till am 70.

We were 38 and 32 when we bought.

We bought a run down 3 bed in zone 3 13 years ago and it house has since gone up in value 3 times, including because we did it up but mostly because the area improved. We had help for the deposit from DH's family. I'm not going to pretend any of that was anything other than luck but there are still pockets of London where you can buy in the knowledge the area will improve, esp in the South east.

It's childcare that's the killer, and you can't hide it from your bank statements either.

It is ridiculous and London is going to run out of teachers, nurses, even doctors at some point if something doesn't change.

Brought a flat in London in 2003. Ex council really dodgy area lots of trouble around and basically the flat needed a lot of work decoratively. Cost me 145k

15 years later when I left my zone one flat had more than doubled in value. Brought a place in the south east (super expensive town) and am paying that off. Would like a bigger place as we have a 2 bed for 4 of us but will likely hold off until the cost of living crisis has passed.