Lack of affordable homes for the 'squeezed' middle

[mymiddleissqueezed]

A moan so please feel free to scroll by! I’m feeling so down and deflated about our housing situation. I earn £52k, my partner is getting a business off the ground and so only pays himself circa 10k at the moment. We are in our 40's and still rent privately (not through choice); currently we are covering our outgoings and saving a small amount each month towards a deposit by living pretty frugally. We live in a very expensive part of the country (not London). What we can afford on the open market would be a small 1 bed flat which is unsuitable as we both work at home. We can't move ares due to job, business and family. We have been looking in to shared ownership as a potential solution. The SO properties that come up around here are usually a fairly high percentage (40%/45%) for homes valued at around £480k. Have spoken with a broker who has said we don’t meet affordability for the SO properties. I despair at the thought that even schemes to make homes affordable are not affordable to us, and we will be stuck private renting and working until we die. I'm on a couple of shared ownership facebook pages; I honestly don’t begrudge anyone anything, but get very downhearted when I see people on much lower salaries than me and/or on benefits having success with this scheme (not bashing anyone on benefits btw, but the scheme in general). Very much feeling like the ‘squeezed middle’. ☹.

Your partner needs to find a job that pays more.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow really helpful, thanks. My point is that we have both worked hard all our lives, I earn what most people would think is a fairly decent salary; my husband is now working bloody ridiculously hard to get a business going which hopefully one day will mean we will be in a much better position, yet even a scheme designed to help people who earn under 80k, is out of our reach. Just feels pretty unfair.

I didn’t mean it like that.

What l meant is, you will struggle with that amount of money. 10k is very low. Can he not do something part time?

Small 1-bed flat for £480k that's not London? Where on earth do you live - genuine question because I am shocked!

Oh sorry I misread the OP. As you were.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow thank you, and sorry for being defensive. I was anticipating a husband-bashing to be honest! I agree, I would be happier if my husband had a job and was earning loads more, as he used to (in fact earned shedloads more than me), but when he's poured blood, sweat and tears in to starting a business after being made redundant (that hopefully does have the potential to be successful) and is his life dream, it's not easy to say I want him to give up on it. Part-time would be hard as the business takes up virtually all of his time, 7 days a week.Thanks for replying though.

This!!

It’s not just 10k it’s 10k and self employed. Not gonna happen!

It’s not really surprising that you can’t buy in an expensive area of the country when your partner is only earning £10k.

I would buy the one bed. This is what we did (in London), we couldn’t afford anything else at the time.

@kirinm of course I accept that with my husbands salary, buying somewhere adequate outright is virtually impossible in this area. My point is that it seems very unfair that I earn 52k, and a scheme that is designed to help people earning less than 80k own a share of a property is unable to help me, but people on much lower salaries and/or boosted by benefits are benefiting from it. I'm not having a go at these people, just feeling so frustrated at the way it's set up, or actually just the general unfairness of the North/South divide of property prices. If we lived somewhere cheaper (which we can't), SO properties would of course be cheaper or we would be able to buy on open market with my salary. I understand that life is unfair, just feeling very down about it all right now. I am however grateful that we can (just about) afford to have a roof over our heads when other people can't.

You do have a decent salary and it is a shame but in terms of getting a mortgage your dh could be seen as a dependant I suppose as he earns so little. Theres no wiggle room

@Budgetquery thanks. Broker confirmed that is 10k is taken into account and he's definitely not seen as a dependent by lenders. It's just not enough bloody money.

Your partner shouldn’t have started his own business until you both got on the property ladder @mymiddleissqueezed . Earning 10k a year while trying to buy a house is a bit 🙄

Why did you not buy property when your husband was earning more than you so that you had a high combined salary?

@Optimist2020 thanks, so helpful.

You need to move slightly there is no way you can’t find a property significantly cheaper 20 - 30 min drive away.

@LongLiveTheLego unfortunately that simply isn't the case here.

Your partner is paying himself less to minimising his tax so of course you can't afford to buy right now. Maybe in a few years

A 60k joint income isn’t the “squeezed middle”. 50k is not much over two minimum wages.

Honestly, you’re better off away from shared ownership properties.
15 years down the line, trying to sell mine for the last year so I can buy with my partner, the stress has almost killed me off. Absolute shit-show.

Hes paying himself less than full time minimum wage though

The reality is that desirable parts of the country will cost more

Your income is more than enough to find a really nice house in the midlands, vast areas are affordable. But people will turn their noses up.

So you make a choice

@Sofiewoo thanks for your perspective. I suppose I think of myself as squeezed middle as I have a decent salary, professional job, never claimed benefits, can keep my head above water independently etc, but I hadn't thought of it like that.

Absolutely this, they're a con, they're not affordable, you often pay leasehold costs as well a rent, service charge and your own bloody mortgage

Not affordable in the slightest

OP - you've mentioned 'benefits' three times now.

@StationManager @soupyspoon thank you for that perspective. It helps! I have read some horror stories about reselling, service charge increases etc, but the appeal has been that nobody can sell it from under you (as is happening with our current private rental).