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!

We compromised on location and bought in Mitcham when i was early 30s / DH mid 30s (pre kids). Had saved up a deposit of £40k on a household income of around £75k over 10years ish (individual savings that we then pooled). House was 380k in 2018 - 3 bed (2 double + box) middle terrace with small garden). Mitcham doesnt have a brilliant reputation but we bought on the Colliers Wood side so we are 20mins walk to the Northern Line, rather than over the Croydon side, which has some of the bigger issues. The compromise is that Mitcham is a black hole for decent state secondary schools so we will have to move before DD gets to that age, but it means we'll have at least 10yrs of paying off the mortgage.

We bought our first home twelve years ago in central London, a three bedroom flat in Docklands, on the waterfront, for about £1.2m.

We we’re both in our thirties, and had been renting before then while saving up a deposit.

That needed a mortgage of 18 months wages. Neither of our families were in any position to help us, and we’ve never had any inheritance or money gifted to us, which is part of the reason that we chose to pursue high-earning careers. Neither of us are from London, we moved here for work.

Live in East Kent 55 min commute from London. Three bed semi, mortgaged, payed £280k 3 years ago and worth approx £350k now. Mortgage payments around 900pmth.

Had help from family, don't know anyone who didn't either in cash form or living at home.

Where I now live is a desirable part of London & the family support is another world, eg significant 6 fig sums to move up the ladder, renovations, dcs school fees etc.

It's hard when paying childcare costs as it's a significant chunk of income.

@LaFemmeNicola how much do you earn as a couple to get a mortgage that big in your 30s? Well done you both.

OP, I do fully understand about being an expat. I know it's hard to establish yourself and also there really are some jobs that are basically immobile. My advice to my kids is, get a job that is truly portable so you can take your labour and experience where it works best for you. Advice I wish I had had myself... Like you I also have a weirdly london-centric job. I get it.

we kive in cambridge. 50mins train to london kings cross or liverpool street.

in 2014 we bought 3 semi detached run down house for £230.000. We extended and make another 2 bedroom. So now its become 5 bedroom house and worth £500,000.

you still can buy houses in cambridge for £300k now. Cambridge is nice area, very family friendly, good school and close enough to london for my husband to commute to work.

@Marghe87 have you looked around parts of Kingston & Sutton. I was reading its was attracting lots of Hongkongers due to low crime, commute, cheaper prices (relatively) & excellent schools.

How often do you need to commute in?

I bought a 2 bed flat in a not-posh but up -and-coming part of zone 3 London just as Northern Rock were going under. Got in just in time as I bought with my DM to raise the mortgage and she lent me the deposit. We were considered a safe bet as we had a 10% deposit.

Had we waited six months, we wouldn’t have been able to raise that mortgage as lenders tightened criteria. The value of the flat went down by a third in that time as well. Spent a long time wondering if I’d done the right thing.

I had a lodger to pay a third of the mortgage and scrimped to cover the rest myself. Then lodger moved out and DP moved in. Ended up staying there ten years and had DC1 there, by which time it had doubled in value. We sold it and used the proceeds plus DP’s savings to buy a 3 bed semi in commuter-land (40 minutes by train to zone 1) in 2017, with a 40% deposit.

I would describe us as middle income - I pay normal rate tax, DP is within sniffing distance of being a higher rate payer. Not loaded by SE standards, and we wouldn’t have been able to buy this house without the significant leg-up that first flat gave me. But it involved a lot of sacrifices, especially around travel, and worry about money.

Bought on an insane income multiple. Like 10x.

thing is you can't do this anymore can you?

I know a few high earners who didn't have family help who did help to buy.

We were on about £800,000 between us back then. We’d both been in finance for about ten years. Banking pay has declined since then though.

As above, having no family money, no family connections for work, or prospect of any sort of help we both moved a very long way from home, and rolled the dice on investment banking.

We’re two of the fortunate ones who survived the relatively brutal early years and high attrition rate to come out well.

But they still had a family loan/gift for the deposit but the deposits were much smaller c

In West Sussex, bought six years ago. I was a Big 4 Chartered Accountant (not a partner!) and DH a Head of Dept teacher so both good salaries but not megabucks. I inherited £60k and that, plus having saved along the way, was enough. We’ve overpaid significantly and (all being well) are about to upsize to a home we’ll be in for at least a decade. I’ve gone into industry and DH has been promoted along the way but we’ve also had DS2…so our costs have gone up.

Live in Cambridge. 50 minute train ride to London. Bought 2 bed house jn 2011, moved to 3 bed house in 2017.
My husband received inheritance and we used that as our deposit in 2011. It was also pre children so no ridiculous nursery fees. We were 25 and 26 when first bought house.

39, Oxfordshire, detached with a large garden.

I’m the primary earner. Always have been. Sold my soul to the city for a decade. Bought early for the first house which was in a town that became commuter belt (so it doubled in value). Saved constantly so had a good cushion. Moved to Oxfordshire and used the cushion and sale proceeds, plus a mortgage, to get the current house.

Bought a one bed in Zone 2 east London in 2009 with a small gift from my mum plus a 92% mortgage. Lucked out and more than doubled my money when I sold it in 2017 because the area had become much more hip, plus I was literally seconds away from a tube station.

so basically luck!

Op the average full time salary in London is. 54 k and that’s quite low., that’s why you are struggling,,,sure you’d be considered better off in the outer Hebrides but you would not be paid rhe same, so you’re in low to average jobs, with a kid, hence your position.

Sorry meant to say am 42 and a single mum but bought a 5 bed semi in zone 3 after the flat sold

ie; not those that bought a house a long time ago before the crazy pruce increases of the past 2 decades.

I think a lot of posters missed this bit.

Also it's much harder buying post Brexit in terms of building equity as prices particularly flats have stagnated, not helped by Covid obviously & stamp duty is often quite prohibitive.

@Floweryflora is it?

I first bought in 2013 with DH (then DP) when I was early 30s. I'm from London and we lived with my mum for a year. We took a punt on z3 east London, just before the market went crazy round there, for £190k on a two bed ex council maisonette in a small block. Pretty much doubled our money two years later. We couldn't have done it if we couldn't live with my mum to save, but we did save really hard. We paid her rent to cover her costs and saved every other penny for a year. We were mid-low earners then. As it happens DH has gone on to be a very high earner and we've moved a couple of times and then out of London to be nearer this family. But yeah, do it before kids. We put off having kids and went on to have fertility issues, so whether it was the right choice, some might say not, but I did have two DC eventually.

We have profited but we've also made really conscious choices about who we sell to. We've turned down offers for more money from investors for eg. It's so hard to get on the ladder in London now. I feel very lucky.

I bought in Surrey near London boundary aged 30, with DH (although we weren't married at that point).

Basically - dead parents and grandparents meant we'd already inherited money for the deposit plus DH's previous flat had increased in value so we had equity from that.

And we bought before starting our family so no childcare costs and we both worked full time.

I’d say most people on this thread have bought within the last 10-15 years so definitely after OPs 20 year cut off?

My now husband and I bought our 2 bed terrace that was a big reno project in Kent when I was 21 and he was 22. We both worked full time as soon as we left school and started saving when we lived at home pretty much rent free so we were incredibly lucky and fortunate. I'm now 27 and have sold it this year for a nice profit but we're struggling to find something in the next bracket that we can afford in the areas we like. We have a 3 year old son and are fortunate that we don't have to pay for any childcare other than preschool lunch fees and snack but I only work part time. We'd be happy to do a renovation project again but we won't have any funds left to do it because of how expensive the houses are now, but a fully done house is beyond reach.

Yes it is, the op and her partner are average in London. With childcare it’s why they are struggling.,outside London it’s £39k average. They are not big earners by a long way.