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 DH needs to do more.
my friend was in a similar position when getting business off the ground and worked nights in a factory a few days a week to contribute towards to the house.

But very few people would turn around and say the same where a husband earned £52k and a wife only £10k because she’s caring for small children.

£62k is broadly twice the median salary.

Everyone works hard and in similar situations.

If that hypothetical mum was here moaning about not being able to buy a house in their 40s on those salaries with small kids then people absolutely would be saying they should have bought before having kids so I don’t agree with that at all.

@pinkfloralcurtains I would expect both adults to be earning a full salary whilst they don’t have dc. That’s when you build up a deposit. He was earning decent money before the business presumably and now has some redundancy money. It could be the business will never make money. Depends what business it is and how long he’s prepared to wait to earn more. However not saving with no dc was an issue and most people I know where a woman works part time is doing that solely because of dc. This DH didn’t need to do it.

Ok I stand corrected he was pushed, but he could have looked for other work, the comment still stands that setting up a business is quite self indulgent, it’s a high risk strategy that will hopefully pay off for them, but doesn’t leave them in the position to play victim.

I would at least get on the ladder. Get the one bed - one works in the bedroom and the other in the living room.

If the priority is the house/flat, DH needs to shelve what he is doing and get a job doing anything to up affordability and earnings.

If the priority is his business then the house/flat in the location you need to stay in will take a back burner.

You both decide.

Being blunt because I have been there.

@TheWayTheLightFalls thanks. No worries about being blunt; it's nothing compared to the wild judgement on this thread about why and how me and my husband are where we are, what we should and shouldn't have done, calling my husband (who couldn't find a job after being made redundant and months of searching), selfish for then trying to find an alternative way, and what may have happened in the past (which is frankly nobody's business, and not what my post was about).

@daisychain01 thank you.

My DP has his own business and we have always concentrated on ensuring he has enough income to pass affordability checks. That means he doesn’t claim expenses on things that other people might. He has deliberately put off starting a limited company (which would be much better for him) because he’d lose his proof of income for another two years. It is still hard to get him through the mortgage checks and he has about 15 years of tax returns and earns probably the same as you do.

I don’t know anything about shared ownership. Our first flat was £390k and we lived in it for 10 years and with our DD until she was 6. It wasn’t ideal but it’s what we could afford.

But we’re not mind readers op and you have provided zero context. You want to moan but the situation, if you’re not going to tell us what you’ve done for nearly 3 decades, seems entirely of your own making! We have to ‘judge’ because you haven’t provided the information.

@MarchInHappiness neat summary, thank you.

@arethereanyleftatall I understand. Answer is IVF. I just didn't really want to get in to that though.

Ah, then Yanbu 🤗

in that case, a proper discussion is required with your dh on how near he is to actually making something out of his business.

I don’t think there has ever been a time where someone on 1/2 the minimum wage could easily get a decent sized house.

It’s not that but you’re playing the first time buyer “it’s not fair” card, your situation simply isn’t the same as 2 x 20 somethings early on in their career trying to move out from their parents and get on the ladder, some decisions have been made that you don’t appear to want to take any accountability for. We couldn’t buy when we wanted to buy due to some personal decisions of ours, I accepted having children young meant it would take us longer to save, we actually ended up moving away to afford it, but the point is whilst the property situation in the UK was part of it, our decisions impacted it too, so I didn’t play the millennial card.

@podulpopda actually we are accountable for spending a fortune on years of IVF. I just didn't really want to talk about that.

it's nothing compared to the wild judgement on this thread about why and how me and my husband are where we are, what we should and shouldn't have done, calling my husband (who couldn't find a job after being made redundant and months of searching), selfish for then trying to find an alternative way, and what may have happened in the past (which is frankly nobody's business, and not what my post was about).

But it is relevant. You've made a sweeping generalisation in your title, which people are responding to. As a pp said, you aren't late 20s, feeling you'll never be able to save for a deposit. You are a couple with 20+ years of adult life each who have clearly made choices along the way. Both of you are / were clearly earning well (him "very well") from what you say and therefore have had options for a couple of decades.
We all make different choices with our lives over the years, which is fine. No-one is saying you are wrong for making the choices you (as a couple) have made over the years - we all have different priorities, but you are yet to acknowledge the fact that you haven't bought anything at the stage of life you are at, because you chose not to, when you could have, and not because of 'society' or being 'squeezed middle'.

@CarpetKnees my last posts have noted that we have spent a significant amount (money, energy, time) on IVF. Yes that has been our choice which I acknowledge. I didn't want to mention it as it feels very private, but feel that the way posters have responded I had to explain that things have not been quite as linear for us. I wish I'd not posted now tbh, but was just feeling particularly low.

Thing is though it’s not that you can’t buy because of the general housing markets or lack of schemes. You can’t buy because you’ve spent a fortune on IVF, your partner got made redundant and is now running his own business only making £10k a year. Unfortunate and not really your fault, but this isn’t typical of most families.

That’s shit and I’m sorry about that, but that’s still not the point is it? You’re making it sound like something it isn’t.

@podulpopda how? My post was about affordable home ownership schemes, not to have my past life/(difficult) personal choices ripped to pieces. Learnt my lesson now.

Buying a home and starting a business are both what you might call big-ticket items. Most of us can only afford one big-ticket item at a time.

Please ignore some comments on here lovely - you are not asking to have your life ripped apart when people don’t necessarily know the full situation. We have similar except in our early 60s and earn a lot more - we do have a business too

1 is he only paying himself £10k to keep under tax and leave money in the business or pay himself dividends separately? If that all the income- then that’s an issue and you need to give it a deadline- if it’s the tax thing then he’s going to have to for a few years not pay himself in that way - do PAYE- declare full amount and look again in 18 months

1. I’m also in an area where there are few shared ownerships and the ones there are are at the 40/50% level and about £220k for 50% - there is another great scheme called Heylo your move but you need25% as a deposit and that can’t be mortgaged- that’s shared ownership on the open market - so you just have the rent element and it has to be freehold. But what you can borrow depends on income - and that limits what you can go up to - maximum is £600k but you need to be on about£90k for this. age isn’t a problem though- we are going to do this and saving for the 25% at moment. Again though your H would need his income much higher unless you bought elsewhere.

could your parents ‘lend ’ you at all via equity release and you pay the interest every month to them ( you can do this on equity release these days) to enable you to pay a much bigger deposit on SO? Or for Heylo? That will then put you back in the affordability spectrum. I can’t presume though as they may not be remotely in that position or that kind of parent who would be willing to do so.

in theory and who knows with care costs these days are either or both of you likely to inherit? Because it may be like many you will just end up buying much later in life and just have to accept it , then of course he may be mega successful - please don’t get yourself in a tizz though - there are often options- just not always at the point you want them particularly if you want to remain in more expensive areas.