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 moved in with my boyfriend in a 2 bed flat at 29 in East London in 2012. Sold it when we got married in 2015, very fortunately with a £175k profit. Used it to buy a 4 bed house in Kent using a small inheritance, savings and our joint salary.

Sorry, we are 20 mins from London Bridge.

Our commutable first house was 500 sq foot and cost £140K 15 years ago. The people on our street ‘tsk’ at the price. But we were able to borrow 14K from parents and others with a 2K here and there.

It sold a few months ago for £270 and our current house has gone up by 200K just because of the market in 8 years….I don’t know how anyone gets on the ladder these days.

Went home to parents after uni , saved hard for 2 years and bought a 1 bed flat in zone 4 using HTB equity loan and 5% deposit. Now married so we have 2 incomes plus equity growth from the flat , just bought a 3 bed terraced townhouse in zone 6.

Some industries are still extremely heavily concentrated around London, though. I work in one.

Zone 3
No kids
Some money initially from both sets of parents
Income over 160 +

Likewise @YouHaveAnArse - DH and I work in an industry which is almost exclusive to cities, and there are a max of two companies in each city outside London whereas there are maybe 40 within London. It's a small industry but even smaller when you leave the capital.

I live 35 minutes north of St Pancras and bought a 2 bed flat on my own in 2019 when I was 27. Was earning around £40k at that point but had been saving and chipping away at it since finishing uni to get the 15% deposit. Took out a help to buy ISA and a lifetime ISA which was super useful as gave me an extra £1000+ in savings annually - topped up my deposit and covered all my fees etc

Bought with DH in 2014 age 28. We had a combined income of £100k, put a 10% deposit on a flat in zone 4 London (which DH has saved as he is very good with money).

Have just upsized and have a stonking mortgage which we need to overpay on if we re going to pay it off by the time DH is state pension age.

The key for us was doing it before kids, and at a point where careers had progression at a good rate.

Prices have got ridiculous in the last 10 years. We bought in a popular commuter town just outside London in 2012, which was when prices had stagnated for a fair while, so we got lucky. Now late 40s and our house is worth double what we paid for it.

OP, you won't have nursery fees forever, so for now I'd just put away what you can and once your DC are at school you can start saving in earnest. As for now, just start doing your homework. Think about where in London you need to get to for work and research the towns and cities on the most convenient train lines and see what the houses are worth for what you want. Some places are really, really expensive, but there are bound to be ones within your budget somewhere. Go on day trips and visit them. Check out the train lines, go and look in estate agents windows. Of all the friends I had in London in my 20s only one still lives there - everyone else has either returned overseas or moved out to Essex, Herts, Kent, Surrey, Sussex, etc.

@maranella thank you. That is the plan although in an ideal world we’d move before she starts school so we can settle in an area.
i’d definitey move to a nearby county, not even considering London to live in but it is where our jobs are.

To be honest lots of bought just after the 2008 property crash

Live in zone 2 in a 4-bed house.
Bought a smaller place in a 'gritty' area in 2009 at the bottom of the market with a deposit partly from our parents and partly savings. We both loved with parents for a while to save as we are both from London which obviously helped massively. Higher multiples of income on a mortgage were allowed back then.

Stayed in that place for 10yrs over which time the area went from gritty to extremely desirable and the property doubled in value. Childcare costs for first kid but salaries went up a lot too over that time.

Had a second kid and moved to current house, which is in a similar value location but larger. Large deposit this time from previous value increases plus a bigger mortgage.

Not very helpful because basically it was parental help plus lower prices back then, plus to be fair buying in a smart location which went up. We've been very lucky.

I am a bit younger than what you asked for (28)
We bought our first house in 2018 after solid savings for 3 years (with one kid in nursery full time and renting a small flat for £900pcm). Our combined gross income at the time was £50k with a London commute for one of us.

We got a 5% deposit and an awfully high interest rate fixed for 5 years and a long 35 year term.

We bought a modest house that we got at a steal compared to the neighbouring properties due to how badly the previous owners smoked in the house and had no building reg documents for their rear extension.

We were gifted £25k for a deposit on our first flat. Massively over payed on mortgage (also had help to by) and managed to buy a 6 bed Victorian house in SE London a few years later (with more help). Did it before DS was at nursery so no fees to declare and just about secured a decent fixed rate before hellish increases.

Oh and we have a lodger!

I think buying before having DC is key

We bought a 1 bed flat in Zone 2 for £275k in 2012 we were 25 and 27 and had saved a 10% deposit whilst renting. We sold in 2014 for £375k and bought a 3 bed house in Zone 3 for £480K. Look to South East London, there are still affordable parts!

I'm 24. I got a 40k deposit together with DH when I was 20, and I'd been saving since I was 16.

House was £340k. I'm 35 minutes away from St Pancras, London.

First DC at age 19. Luckily bought a house before we knew he would be profoundly disabled... I'm now a carer and the mortgage is uncomfortable but not eye watering

Depends how far away from London you want to be - hour ok ?

i was a nanny now a mn and most of my families /clients have moved from london to Kent to get more for their money and mainly a garden bigger then a stamp

sevenoaks is costly but tonbridge or Bromley way cheaper slightly

train can get into Charing Cross 22mins fast or 40 ish mins

what is your budget @Marghe87

@Blondeshavemorefun those are potential areas we could consider, yes.
What puts me off is that I read Kent has a high crime rate overall but I guess it depends on where you live.
DH is from Surrey and we have friends and relatives there so it would be our preference, however most areas within 40 min-1hr commute are pricey.
Budget would be around £450,000 I reckon, although we are not there with the deposit yet.

How on earth did you afford to buy a detached cottage at the age of 23?

I think the answer to your question OP is "generous and wealthy parents"!.

@Maireas I think if I recall correctly it was £200k. It was just a small rural little cottage. Great bones but needed a lick of paint to reach its potential.

As I say, DH and I both lived at home so minimal rent, saved about £12k each over a couple of years to afford the deposit and moving costs. I was relatively minimal wage at the time so only made about a grand a month, saved about £500 of it and gave my parents a couple hundred quid for rent. Think I made about £15k and DH was on around £25k. It was a decade ago so I’m trying to remember but hopefully my maths adds up! We definitely couldn’t have done it without the parental help of nominal rent.

I graduated in 2010 at the tail end of the financial crisis so struggled to get a job, hence the crap money. When I finally left and got a “proper” graduate job my salary increased significantly so we ploughed some money into a new bathroom and kitchen and made a nice profit. We are very lucky with how well it set us up to move to our second home.

So, generosity from our parents, teamed with a commitment to saving what we could, and a cautious eye about what would be worth buying.

Yes, you were fortunate in that respect.