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’. ☹.

@Crikeyalmighty thank you ❤️. Your response made me well up. I will respond tomorrow, had a gutfull of MN for this weekend!

Yes, it terrible for the squeeze middle. Little by little the MC is disappearing. There will be two class tiers and the lowest one would be totally controlled by the governments. This is good for them as without middle class they can push any agenda easily.

For you situation is hard. I would considered getting a one bed and hoping to upsize in a few years. The mortgage would be cheaper than renting and you can save the money for your upsize? If you have not kids is doable.

If your DH has spent the best part of a year setting up this business and works all the hours there are and can only pay himself £10k a year it's not going to work. I've run 2 successful businesses set up from scratch and they were both profitable within 4-6 months and could pay more than NMW after about 2-3 months. He'd be far wiser to get a job working for someone else and carry it on as a side hustle. Also you could move further into a cheaper area and commute back for your job if necessary. Together I don't think you're the squeezed middle. On your own you would be. Your DH is not pulling his weight. He could go on indefinitely like this. Has he set a timeframe for becoming profitable?

Hi OP, I didn’t want to read and ignore. We earn similar apart from neither of us are self employed and we are purchasing our second home in the south coast (although not as much as £480k) . A lot of lenders require 2-3 years tax records for self employment so at this moment you would be classed as high risk to lend to. Get your partners business up and running, really work on it and increase its value and income and then speak to a broker in a few years time to see where you stand. It can be done but as you are in your 40s your deposit does need to be increased around 15% to get a decent rate. We also don’t have any credit card, loans or debts and we have a healthy savings, I think this is why we were able to get on the property ladder.

Assume you will be in whatever you buy for a while or forever unless you get big inheritance or the business really takes off.
Aim for a decent one bed

How on earth can they pay an equity release taken out by their parents? That’s awful advice, especially for the parents! They need to re-evaluate the business and ensure DH earns more. It’s not sustainable to earn so little and think about a mortgage x 2 by adding in one taken out by a parent! It would also be a no no for the loan on a property too. In effect it’s 2 loans.

@autisticbookworm you're very lucky that various legitimate reasons don't tie you to a very expensive part of England.