is this really all that is available to me?

[ninetyoriginal]

looking to buy a flat. have a deposit saved. my income is around 30000. But I can only ever get a mortgage for around £120.000 as I understand it? Even though I have no debts and could afford easily to pay mortgage repayments?

I live in SE, not likely to get pay rise any time soon. I can't buy anything at all for £120.000! I work in London so would need to be near (plus all my family/friends are here) I don't even qualify for shared ownership on my income.

Can a single person on a mediocre income really never buy a flat? I don't want anything fancy at all just some security.

My friend's daughter bought somewhere in London with shared ownership with a housing association - it was a lovely flat, new build etc. I think she owned half but could pay off more.

I'd love to do that but all I can see when I search is for shared ownership are offers that require an income of about £70,000. even though the mortgage would only be for around £150,000! I assume they are targeting shared ownership at couples

Have a look here. It's a quarter share for £91,250 in Wembley.

I like this one near Canary Wharf.

You have a monthly rent on the remainder, so if you got a two bedroomed place and rented out a room, that would pay the rent side, where you could pay the mortgage yourself.

I can't see anything on these details about how much salary you need. That seems very harsh, doesn't it?

Could you buy somewhere outside London and rent it out to cover some of the rent. At least you would have an investment.

Yes it does seem harsh. I guess because you have mortgage AND rent to pay, and normally high service charges on London flats, they want to be sure you can afford it... I just feel a bit stuck at the moment. I already pay nearly half my monthly income renting on my own so it's not like it would be a stretch for me.

Can I do shared ownership and rent out the other room? Would they let me do that? it's an interesting idea I hadn't thought of, thank you

Canary Wharf one is nice ... but again this style of shared ownership is not available to me - because although I can get and repay the mortgage side of things, it also charges £780 rent and £159 service charge a month. So that's £939 a month before we even factor in mortgage payments of I assume £800 or so a month! My take home is less than 2k.

Makes you wonder who shared ownership is aimed at. If I had that sort of money I wouldn't need to do shared ownership in the first place?

Do you have any friends who'd want to have a five year plan with you, OP?

My cousin and his DP recently bought a shared ownership flat (I think for price was £400,000). I think shared ownership is for couples mostly because of the cost of mortgage + rent

My Nan suggested I by it a little place of my own with shared ownership instead of renting, I had to millennial-splain that I can't borrow very much (£100k) and then there aren't any properties that are eligible for me and I don't have a deposit. She owns 3 houses in London, 2 are empty

No, nobody who would be interested in buying/sharing in the same areas as me. most of my friends earn more than I do to be honest or are in couples so don't need to worry!

Guess the SE just isn't set up for single people to be independent flat owners!! I think my only option really is to get a much much bigger deposit.

I was kind of hoping someone would tell me banks loan far more than they make out that they do, and that I could be eligible for a bigger mortgage!!

Can you live further out? I live in Southend and you can easily get a flat this way for £120k. An hour commute door to door to London.

olderthanyouthink Your grandmother wouldn't let you live in one of her empty houses so you could save up?

Mortgage would be a bit less than £800 pm. The calculator at the bottom of the page says £113500 at 3% interest is £539 pm or it would be lower if the interest rate was lower and advertised deals usually are.

You could get a Monday to Friday lodger in the second bedroom easily in that area I would have thought - BIL used to lodge in London in the week and return home to his family in the north at weekends and I think he paid something ridiculous like £800 pm for a tiny room in a grotty shared house near to Canary Wharf.

Don't know if you can take rental income into account for mortgages though - you'd have to talk to a broker.

I feel your pain! Am on £35k, no debts (apart from student loan) and have £25k in savings, which would easily cover the deposit/fees/furniture etc for most shared ownerships - but my salary doesn't qualify for any!

There seem to be a few minimum salary price points. Since looking for last three months (admittedly South London and surrounds so extortionate) have seen only one for 33k and 35k minimum salary (both were already under offer), a couple for 37.5k, a few for 42.5k, but the vast majority seem to be 47k, 52k, or more. It's so depressing isn't it.

In the housing associations' defence, they work it out so that you don't pay more than 40% of your take home salary towards the mortgage/rent/service charge, which makes sense.

However was chatting to some friends about this and they said that you can ignore the minimum salary and get accepted anyway (but I guess that would mean paying more than 40% which probably isn't advisable). And was talking to a mortgage adviser the other week who reassured that, yes, people DO get houses on our wage, it just may take time to find the right one.

The other tip I've had is to go for second hand properties rather than new builds which aren't as overpriced and have less service charge.

Also, with regard to getting a lodger to help pay, I know someone who's done that and it's working out well. However, they don't take that into account when applying, so you're still in a pickle if you can't qualify in the first place (or only manage to get a one-bed). Fyi the friend who did that found it easy to qualify for a two bed place as they're earning more around the 50k mark. They had it all done and dusted and moved in within two months of deciding to go down the shared-ownership route...grrrrr!

So for me, plan is to get a job for 40k plus then hope for the best. But that's easier said than done of course as that's quite a big leap.

With regard to the poster from Southend - hello, I grew up in that area! Have seriously thought about moving back, but there are two issues 1. paying up to £250pm to commute on the C2C and 2. As a single person it's sad to leave your friends/life to go back, and it gives you a smaller pool of people to potentially find a future partner to share costs with! Although I totally get that you need to be willing to sacrifice to get on the property ladder.

Btw OP have you seen the thread discussing whether it's more difficult financially for single people? www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2917932-AIBU-to-think-the-govt-should-do-more-to-help-support-single-people

I think if you go to a broker he may be able to source you a lender who would be able to lend you up to x5 your income but I don't think you're being realistic if you want to buy anywhere near London on an income of £30k, sorry.

If I were you I'd focus on trying to boost your income then look at buying.

Or would you consider moving out of the SE where housing is more affordable?

Imperial there was a plan for me and a cousin or two to live in one of them but that fell apart when it came out that a huge amount of tax needed paying on at least of them and it's based on the value of the property and both houses are currently shit holes full of crap, it's in her interest to keep them worth as little as possible I think.

Also I think she'd want a fair bit of rent (probably to cover the tax thing tbh), houses round there are £1600-1800pcm. Be nice if I could live there for dirt cheap and help fix up the places (I have mad DIY skills) but it's not happening at the moment.

and I don't thing her dick of a partner would approve

Oooh, this just popped up in my email - a one-bed flat in Putney for £863pm inc rent/mortgage/service charge for an £81.250 share. It doesn't say minimum earnings, but I assume that for the 40% of net salary you'd be eligible.

Obviously you don't want to live in Putney anyway, but was excited because it means there is potentially some hope!

bird that flat is interesting, though the catch is "Please note: Applicants must live or work within the London Borough of Wandsworth to be eligible for this property.". I wonder how long you have to live there for.

I don't understand shared ownership. it seems a real racket. As OP says, if she could afford the whopping rent and fees, she could afford a bigge rmortgage and own it herself. How does it help anyone?

The best thing I could find in your price range is this in Harlow, Essex, which is commutable.

thanks everyone. yes it probably is just a case of trying to get a higher salary... shame though as I love my job and I'd probably have to move sector to earn significantly more.

I have just been looking at help to buy loans and although I don't fully understand it yet, it looks like it might be an option? thought I'd mention it for the other people on this thread who are struggling. The government loans you up to 40% of the house cost, you put in 10% and mortgage the rest... the salary criteria are much less stringent! Only problem is it has to be a new build...

I reqlly dont like these shared ownership schemes and think people advising them are being reckless

As mentioned you pay mortgage and rent, plus super high service charges, restrictions on being to let it out in future and goverment gets market rate ror their share when it comes to selling. Plus thye only apply to new builds, so in london amd surroundings where two beds are 500k+, when it comes to reselling in a few years people wont have HTB scheme and struggle to buy at such a level

If i was you id look at commuter towns and wait till you earn much more and have a partner.