Do most people who buy a 300k+ house...

[PinkTriangle]

Have a hefty deposit (possibly from making a profit on a previous house sale?) in order to afford mortgage payments?....

Or are can you tell me your secret? What is your line of work?

Our budget is £200k, we only have a£20 deposit ( from our last mortgage, we made a loss in the sale but had paid of about a 1/3 of mortgage). We have okay paying jobs (£25k each) but we're so not looking forward to paying £1000 in mortgage each month. It makes me wonder how others do it :/

[Beaverfeaver2]

Agree - nowadays 30 is just the start of finding the career.

I heard 40 is the current average peak now which makes a lot more sense

[TeddyBee]

I hope mine didn't peak! I only just got my first promotion by thirty! Then I had three children so I've had a bit of a hiatus. OH certainly didn't peak at 30, although 40 was a good year :)

[LondonGirl83]

The couple I know don't have a nanny the send their son to nursery which is 1,200 a month.

[TwoLittleTerrors]

Actually a couple earning £45k each cant afford a nanny and a £270k mortgage. you are confusing net and gross income. At £45k you only take in £2300-2400 a month net.

[Apatite1]

I can't believe UK earnings peak is at 30. In my field, earnings keep going up in your 40s and beyond. If we put our backs into it, our household income would be 500k plus in the next five years. As it is, I'll probably continue part time and have kids instead. Life's too short to work so hard!

I'm sure there are many professionals in careers where experience is commensurate with pay.

[GotToBeInItToWinIt]

A UK workers earnings peak at 30?! I hope not. DH and I are both 30. He's mid management level, earns a decent salary (more than 50k) but has a long way to go in terms of his career. Similar for me (although currently a SAHM). A 30 year old has a lot of working years left.

[SnowBells]

hereandthereex

Our household income is over the 100k mark. Both of us working. Not in London, but SE. And it seems there are plenty of people buying 300k+ houses. There are houses being built down the road from us - modern semis. Selling price is £550k+

Our salaries only really shot up after the age of 30. And so have most of our friends/family. Who on earth peaks at 30??? Are your figures skewed towards manual work where physical fitness is key?!?

[SocksRock]

We bought wrecks and did them up. So first house £145k then sold for £185k 20 months later. Second house bought for £230k and sold for £250k 8 months later. Then current house we paid £250k but it was a wreck. We've spent £110k over 6 years on it, it's now worth £500k but we only have a £180k mortgage. The £110k to renovate came from the profit on our previous properties, an inheritance, some borrowed from parents and our own savings. Helped by a legacy mortgage rate of 2.5% so our repayments are not great.

Definitely right place right time and lucky to have parents to borrow from.

[LondonGirl83]

Sorry for the multiple posts but you of course have to make more than average to buy a house that costs 300k. The average house price in England and Wales is 179k. 300K is almost the double of the required house hold income is almost the double as well.

[Artandco]

We were never asked any questions about children or childcare before Xmas, and my brother was never asked either a few weeks ago. They never asked what we spend any money on. Just the basic what do you earn, can you afford etc. this was x4 main banks.

Of course a couple both earning £45k could afford with children. £30k a year gets you a full time nanny, leaving £60k income

[LondonGirl83]

Also, the couple I mentioned do have a baby, so while you may not think its doable, it clearly is for some people. They also have a car and go on holiday so they really aren't hand to mouth as a result.

Their mortgage is around 1,300 a month. Their child care is around 1,200 a month. That leaves them with 3,000 a month for food, bills, fun and savings post tax.

[LondonGirl83]

If you read my post, I said a couple in with each person earns on average 45k could afford a 300k house with a 10% deposit. This is the situation for a few people I know as was my situation when I first bought a flat for around that price.

There are 4.4m people who earn 45k so while it makes you at top earner, its a significant portion of the working population. I'm stating facts, not opinions.

[hereandtherex]

A 350K household income is probably in the top 0.0001% of UK incomes.

There's no point in throwing these incomes and mortgage numbers around like they are common, they are not.

The average UK household income is sub 50K.
The average UK worker's earnings peak at 30 years old.

A couple on 45k could afford 300k. A couple with kids, even if both still earned 45k could not afford 300k - most of one salary will be wiped out by childcare costs. There are very few 45k couples. Most couples have one person earning a very low wage - 30k + 10k is more typical.

[LondonGirl83]

I should add, my husband and I bought a flat for 315k 9 years ago as our first flat. Our joint house hold income back then was around 115k. We saved our deposit ourselves and were in our mid to late twenties.

18 months ago we sold our house for 100k profit and used that to buy a fixer upper. Our mortgage is around 500k and we have about 500k of equity in the house based on the improvements we made and the change in the market since then. Our incomes are now circa 350k combined though a large chunk of that is variable so we wanted to make sure we can afford the mortgage without it.

[LondonGirl83]

A 10% deposit is pretty typical. The Bank of England rules are that you can lend 4.5x income as a max and depending on your other commitments (children / personal loans etc) many banks do lend that high a multiple.

My friends who bought homes recently at around the 300k mark have household incomes of 90-100k. One friend bought on her own with an income of 90k, the other was a couple where their combined income was 100k. They borrowed around 2.7x and 3.0x their household income which is fine and both had around a 30k deposit plus stamp duty. Everyone was in their 30s and they were all first time buyers in London.

That's how it works. Also, 4.4 million people are higher rate tax payers which makes 45k plus earners a significant part of the working age population. A couple each on 45k can quite comfortably afford a 300k+ house.

Some people will inherit money from their family or be given money to help with affording a house even if they earn less than that.

Lastly, other people can only afford 300k+ houses because they bought a long time ago and were already on the property ladder.

That's it. In expensive areas, first time buyers without family help are getting older. You need to be fairly advanced in your career so you earning a decent amount and have time to save before you can buy on your own unless you go into a very highly paid field.

[LittleBearPad]

We bought our first flat for £360k 5 years ago with a 10% deposit and are selling for £540k. Our future mortgage will likely be £700k for a 4 bed house (plus £200k equity). Both professionals and with income well into 6 figures. We both work in London and moving too far out isn't feasible if we ever want to see our children in the morning and/or evening.

[Unidentifieditem]

DH and I bought our first London flat for £250k, sold for £360k 4 years later. This was over 5 yrs ago. Bought out house for £1.2m using the profit on the flat and saved cash. We are high earners - combined salary of approx £200k+ bonuses . We are just bloody lucky. I could have studied and gone into something far less lucrative yet harder working hours and struggled to get on the property ladder. £300k buys you depressingly little in London now.

[TheWildRumpyPumpus]

We bought our 3 bed semi (first house) for 365, using savings and a small inheritance. Our joint income was over 100k luckily as our mortgage was still approaching 2k a month.

We sold 3 years later for 590k thanks to crazy London prices and the work we had done to it.

Now bought out of London for 348k and only DH is working on a much smaller salary, but we have minimal mortgage thanks to equity from the last place.

[hereandtherex]

Or planning on having kids. Most couples do.

[hereandtherex]

That's London salary rather than household income.

Banks might apply a hefty discount if you have kids and childcare costs.

[hereandtherex]

It depends on the MMR.

A bank may be happy to loan that some if the person has no othe debts of commitments i.e. kids.

[hereandtherex]

The average London salary is 35k:

career-advice.monster.co.uk/salary-benefits/pay-salary-advice/uk-average-salary-graphs/article.aspx

[GotToBeInItToWinIt]

That's good to know Art, we're looking to borrow £170k (10% deposit) on a 55k income soon and didn't know what our chances of getting a good rate would be!

[Artandco]

I wouldn't say the average household salary in London is £27k either

[Artandco]

Most banks are happy with 10% deposit though. My brother was looking a few weeks ago, and I went to the bank with him. They were all happy to give him £300k, with 10% deposit on £55k income. All good rates also.