How old were you when you bought your first home and do you wish you'd done it sooner or later?

[Halfwayoranges]

When I bought mine I had left it longer than nearly all my friends.

Crikey. I was 36, 18 years ago. I was a late starter.

I was 18 and dh was 21. We bought nearly 11 years ago.
I'm glad we bought then as if we had waited I'm not sure we would have got on the property ladder although I wish we'd saved a bit more and got a bigger house.

23 - the right time for us, we had saved up for a few years to get a deposit. We bought the first house in the late 80's, sold it seven years later for twice the price - however everything else had also doubled in value so our next mortgage was more than double the first one to get a bigger house . Most cars are more expensive now than our first house was then!

We were both 24y. About 1.5 years after university. Was the right time and the right price. Was a good buy.

However haven't done well overall in the housing stakes. We've never managed to buy and sell at the right times, so never made much money out of housing.

Very glad we bought when we did, I was 27: even a year later houses were twice the price and we truly could not afford to rent anywhere near here now!

I was 24 - it was the right time & I loved my flat so much for the 10 years I was there, but part of me wishes I'd tried to scrape together the money to buy the house I used to rent the previous year. I loved the house and £15k seems so little now.

I was 19, so could not have done it much earlier!

18. Spent my 18th birthday in the mortgage advisers office That was three years ago. Still own the house, hoping to get it valued later in the year but hope to have increased the value by between 25,000- 30,000

I was 24, DH (DP then) was 27. It was the earliest we could after uni/student loans and I'm glad we did it as early as possible. We've done pretty well out of property since and still own the first place as a rental property/nest egg for our DC when they need it....it's almost paid off now and we are several houses on.

21, no regrets.

33 and only became l was pregnant and dh insisted! I didn't want to buy, l didn't want to stay in the UK. But 5 years on and dd2 has arrived it's given us stability here.

We'll sell soon if Brexit hasn't totally crashed the UK market and economy.

I was 27 and DH 26, we bought in 2003. I wanted to buy before this but financially we weren't in a position to. I'm glad we bought when we did, as there's absolutely no way we'd be able to now.

I was 18. Used inheratance to get onto the property ladder.... Glad I did it when I was young as if made me grown up. Saving everything I can now to make sure my kids are as fortunate as I was at such a young age. Only regret is not knowing enough about the property market when I first bought

We were in our third home by the time we became 30. we were lucky to make quite a bit of money out of the two previous sales due to good refurbishments and a rise in property prices.

You can be reckless when it comes to buying and selling houses, but once you have children, the house becomes a home and therefore part of the family

DH and I were 24 & 26. A long time ago. We sold a 4 bed inner London house in 1989 for what we thought was a huge amount of money!
We moved to a midland city where our house slowly increased in price, but life has been happy.

I'm about to buy my first house age 29 and OH bought his first flat age 32. Sign of the times

28 we had tried at 20 but we were buying in Scotland and sealed bids. Gorgeous cottage with beautiful views over the bay. I cried when we didn't get it. They beat us by £180 and I became great friends with them later on. It was hard to buy in that village and lots of houses were passed down or sold privately with a hand shake.
My eldest son proudly bought his at 21 and he is still living there and past half way with his low mortgage while his friends are just buying and looking at at least triple. His house is worth four times what he paid for it. Second son was 23 and the others haven't started yet. Two and 3 live together and 4 is sharing student house still.
I' m surprised so many started so young actually.

I was almost 32 and couldn't have bought sooner, no regrets.
I'm very debt adverse & boyfriend had to talk long & hard to persuade me.
We were mortgage free within 5 yrs :).

I was 33/DH 35. I think that was the right time for us as we needed various non-financial things sorting out before committing to a mortgage. We're in London and it was about the average age for FTBs we know here. Financially we could have bought sooner, as we had a 40% deposit by the time we did buy (all from earnings, no help from parents).

21 - 9 years ago.

Now have a rental from H's first property. Sold mine and bought our family home.

Very average salaries for London so no regrets as we couldn't afford now. Prices are too high, not sure how FTB's manage - I just about and that was because 100% mortgage!!

Bought our first house in December, I'm 40 so obviously wish I could have done it sooner but circumstances didn't allow. Better late than never though.

2012 - I had just turned 22, DH (then DP) was 28. Was 7mo pregnant with #1 when we moved in. We bought our house for a good price and did it up much nicer, sold a few months ago with a 20% price increase. Equity from that, plus substantial pay rise for DH in the intervening years, has allowed us to buy in the south (not London or Home Counties, but not far off), even though I'm now a SAHM. We do have a fairly hefty mortgage though! Hoping to overpay & get it down as much as poss in the next few years, and paid off ASAP - if either of us inherit or anything like that (possible but not expected/imminent) it will all go into the house.

This is a really interesting thread about the culturally differences between Ireland and the U.K. I have never ever heard of someone under the age of 25 buying and a house the idea of someone under 20 buying seems crazy (no offence meant). Most Irish kids don't even do their leaving cert till they're 18 and start college/trades/1-year post leaving cert courses. Though I remember meeting a Liverpudlian couple while travelling on my mid twenties and they had bought in their late teens as a couple. I genuinely do not believe an Irish bank would entertain the idea. I felt it was such a grown up thing to do as teenagers and tied them to each other in quite an unhealthy way.
Sorry for rambling; I've just found his thread fascinating.
Anyway I bought at 33 after renting for 12 years with my husband.
We couldn't have don't it sooner as childcare costs and getting married ate all our spare money and buying in Dublin is dear

Bought our first house at 26 at the time DH was in the military..amongst his close workmates many were buying houses but it wasn't generally a thing people did due to moving around..we didnt want to be coming out of the Forces with no house to go to like so many, though he came slightly early anyway.

Next house at 33 in 1998..it was £160,00 which seemed like a huge amount at the time but was managable and is now paid off.

I think we did what we did at the right time