How do people afford to live in London?

[Rupster]

From time to time, discussions appear on here about buying property in London.

Often people will say they have a budget of, say, 800K.

I'm just curious as to how people can afford such an expensive property!

If the median UK salary is around 28K, two people earning this borrowing 3.5 time joint salary could get a mortgage for only 196K!

I appreciate London salaries are higher and people probably have some equity in their existing homes, but I still don't see how people can afford so much!!

[MissMargie]

Share an illegally let housing assoc property- 350 per month

[concertplayer]

Now married friends both bought crappy places 20 years ago when they
were single. Now in a decent place and had option of virtually mortgage free (baby at age 41) or remortgage and move up.
They are low-med earners so you need to take the rough with the smooth
Also lots of folk got a good deal on Right to Buy Council homes.
Either moved on or rented out but not to 800k!!

[Thecazelets]

Just luck and age in my case. Bought a 2 bed flat 20 years ago and gradually traded up to current 5 bed detached. Couldn't happen now - 3x my distinctly average starting salary and no deposit aged 24 bought me a 2 bed victorian flat in zone 2 in 1996. My children won't be buying in London unless we downsize to help them.

[fiorentina]

I bought a house in early twenties. Worked hard to move up the career ladder in the city, bought a bigger house and then when I married DH we bought together.
It's expensive but salaries are higher.

[faceymcfuckface]

Completely agree with Bitofeverything

It's luck

I know couples on £50k joint salary who thanks to a bit of help bought flats for £200k and then sold three years later for £350k

Whereas single people earning £50k on their own cant get a one bed place if they've always been independent from all financial help

Earning a good salary (50-70k) as a single person used to mean you could have a good standard of living - now it means being able to live on your own renting in a small one bed flat in London

[faceymcfuckface]

And does anyone else go at couples that manage to save £250k over a decade? You had more than £2k post tax spare income every month? Very luck you were able to earn such good salaries straight away

Pity the teachers and nurses and basically 90 % of people

[reader77]

Threads like this actually make me feel better. I'm a divorced single mum and blame myself for my housing situation. This puts it into perspective because it really isn't my fault.

[faceymcfuckface]

It fucking isn't your fault reader

All these people who have 'made' £200k on each successive property purchase could have made just £5k on each and still ended up in their nice houses. It'd just have been easier for you to catch up when you were ready

It's absolute bullshit

But it wouldn't be quite such a great story for everyone else to tell would it?

[DiggersRest]

In 90% of the cases it's luck. We were lucky that dh insisted we buy a house because l was pregnant. This was 2010, dip in the market, no stamp duty for ftb, and some savings from home.

We have a decent size 2 bed house but l doubt we'll be buying a 3 bedder in London. An extra room would cost more than £200,00 more than we paid for this. Crazy