Property ladder- how?

[hercules]

How the f are we meant to get on it?

I don't know really. Definitely can't afford London. We'd love to move up to Glasgow in a couple of years but I'm not sure that's within our reach property wise either.

Retirement worries me.

But whatever you do don't do what my Dad did sell your house with quite a large equity so that you can move to the area you hope to retire in, planning to spend half the money on a house (they moved from Bedford to Cleveland so property prices were literally half the price) and the other half on the business and then blow the whole amount on 'business' stuff (my ar*e) and end up stuck in an entirely unsuitable rented property

trouble is, the longer you leave it, the wider the gap between earnings and values. it seems that way, anyway.

I fear I will be a never buyer at this rate, ks. We're in HA- a nice 2 bed flat- but I would like a bit more space and more choices. At the moment we'd be screwed if we, say, decided to have another baby at some point, and impromptu visits from my partner's parents are verging on the hellish as there is nowhere to put them and we all get on top of each other. They are lovely and I feel bad about dreading what would be a nice family occasion if we had a spare room.

We are shared ownership {30%) but only two beds and need 3.

I really feel for people who can't afford to get on the property ladder - all our friends are in this position. We live in Ashford, Kent, and only just bought in time before the house prices rocketed - we bought in 2001, and 4 years on our house has doubled in value - plus, a rail link is being built for a faster commute to London so house prices are likely to remain high.

Oh well done Melon bet that makes everyone feel much better NOT!

Interest only appears to be the best option at the moment, or keep renting and hope for a crash

Sorry, didn't mean to rub anyone's nose in it! One of my friends and her dh are about to get an interest only mortgage for £130,000 and it's going to cost them £1,000 a month - I know it may be the only option for some people, but it would make me sick to think of paying all that money and not even reducing the mortgage.

prices in my area were plateauing, even dropping by a cpl of grand in the past few months. they do seem to be perking up a bit now.

Firstly, I am a regular poster, but dont want to sound like I am moaning. (well too much)

MGT on its own 1,500 a month every other bloody thing that comes with it equals broke.

You will probably find, most folk can afford a mortgage if they go to the wire, it is Council tax of £100 a month plus that cripples them.

You will probably find, most folk can afford a mortgage if they go to the wire.

Meanta mortgage of varying degrees, still maintain that the CT element is crippling.

Barring a lotto win, there's no way we could EVER afford a property in Edinburgh that would accommodate the three of us except in areas where you can't even get a taxi to come collect you - and I ain't going back to that for all the equity in the world .

ks - that is what is great about our new place. As we have SSTC on our place we were elgibale for their fas track reservation - which means that they will pay the stamp duty for us. Really makes the difference between buying and not buying

hulababy what does SSTC stand for? (I've seen it on lots of property websites)
Agree with everyone else that its all gone crazy - if we were buying now no way could we afford our own house. And we are quite comfortably off in a supposedly 'cheap' part of the country (a bit of a myth if you ask me). The house I grew up in, bought on one modest public sector salary, is way way out of our league.

We can't afford to buy either. And our income is above the national average too. I think several things are indicators of a stagnant and falling market atm:

lowest %age of first time buyers ever, this affects those wanting to move up
stupid income multiples needing to be used (5 x salary is ridiculous) because of stupid prices
People aren't prepared to pay asking price because they know the market is falling
Many, many people can't afford to buy their own house, this is interesting
A lot of people are better off renting. The house we rent would cost a lot more to buy than it costs us to rent, so that's fine for our landlord, who bought it ages ago and is prob covering his costs + making a profit but it asbsolutely wouldn't make sense for us to buy it - we'd have the same space for more money just for what? So we could own it. And we need something bigger really but will only be able to afford that by renting something bigger. so buying doesn't make sense to us and we can't be the only ones in this position. We have 70% home ownership in this country, which is v high compared to a lot of countries. I'm a bit fed up with this 'home as investment lark' actually (not aimed at anyone here, just in general) - since when did a home become an investment above all? I can't see us ever buying tbh.

I have to say I worry about the number of people I know taking out interst only mortgages based on the idea that they will convert to repayment when their pay goes up (or when they win the lottery). Our income is still lower than before we had ds1 - just seems to have stagnated...

Elliott SSTC = Sold Subject To Contract. Hula I think they paid stamp duty to ensure you went for it - another sign of a falling market is that house builders offer incentives to buyers like paying stamp duty/carpets etc. They're afraid they'll get a smaller return on their investment unless they sell reasonably quickly because if the market falls/collapses they'll be left with unsold property on their books. All imo.

elliott - sold subject to contract. We are int he very final stages of selling our apartment; exchange and complete could be any day!

ah, thanks hula!