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.

I'm 20 and my parter is 21 we have been saving for years hopefully will be buying this year we also have a one year old xx

I bought my first home in 1997. I was 26 and single. I moved in the weekend Princess Diana died and I am still here. Maida Vale mews home bought on a self-certification mortgage until I re-mortgaged with a high street bank in 1999.

Too early I regret it. All my peers have travelled and I haven't been outside Europe. I have paid everything on my own. Would not do it if I had my time again.

I was 27ish, before that I'd been to uni then travelled. Wish I'd done that for a few more years before buying a house. I'm 49 now.

24, mid 2000s, outer London. We found the cheapest nastiest flat in a good area and spent most weekends peeling off small amounts of woodchip. I wasn't ready to commit before that so timing was right. They were dishing out mortgages left right and centre, we were made to feel like we'd be left behind if we didn't buy then. It's now about £150k more than what we paid for it. Most people we know outside London bought around the same time as us. Most people we know in London refused to entertain such low living standards/just 1 bed/living further out than zone 2. So they hung around waiting for a property crash and ended up paying more.

I was 20 when I first bought with my DP at the time. It was another 15 years or so before I bought again (but single) and it was right for me then. I had moved around a lot for work and it was better to rent then because I didn't know where my career would take me. Once I did, I did overtime like a demon and bought a place.

Met now DH and just as we were about to sell both our flats, the market nose-dived. It's worked out OK though, we rent them out and live in our own house. I don't regret how it's turned out. Both places worth a lot more now and we look at it as a long term investment and have great tenants.

Do I wish I'd done things differently? Of course! There is a bit of me that would have liked to spend years travelling more than I did and seeing stuff. But I played with the cards dealt to me at me at the time and I'm not going to fret over what might have been. :)

I was 18... Signed my mortgage agreement on my birthday... Had a lot of help (DM paied the deposit) wish I had left it longer I couldn't afford to live independently and wasn't old enough to know what I was doing got into a lot of debt but looking back now I am debt free and mortgage free (when DF died I used my inheritance to buy a new 3 bed and sold my house to clear the debt...) so it all worked out ok

23. Rented for a couple of years whilst saving up for a deposit. Just before we bought house prices crashed and we got a bargain so the right time for us.

I was 26, and DH 23. We bought almost at the top of the market though, so didn't make any money on it really (especially for what we spent doing it up) when we sold earlier this year, but it was meant as a home rather than an investment. In the process of buying another house now, which hopefully will be the forever house, all being well.

As I mentioned upthread we bought in 2003, we got a 100% mortgage and there is no way we would have been able to buy otherwise. Thank goodness 100% mortgages were still around then! We bought our forever house in 2006 (and due to the house increase and a CI payout we were able to put down just over a third deposit). We now have about 65% equity in the property and our mortgage (including an overpayment every month), is less than it would cost to rent a much smaller property.

I really feel for people trying to get on the property ladder nowadays, it must be nigh on impossible.

Am 43 and hoping to buy next year

Do I wish I had done it before? Maybe........but had never been able to save for a deposit til a few years ago. No family help and 2 DDs so it's quite tough.

I was 26, in 2012, when we bought our first home.

I do wish I'd bought earlier, straight after graduation (2006) - it was the era of 100% mortgages and I was living in London so I'd have made money on it. But I sensibly considered it a big risk as all the financial rags were predicting a drop and that would have meant negative equity - as it ultimately did for so many people outside London.

22

I was 18 - found the house when I was 17 and 10 months - had to wait to put the paperwork in !
Was £25,000 !! ( I'm 48 now )
Glad I bought that early ! As the prices soon started to zoom up !

.... my mortgage adviser didn't give me a plaster cast of anything!! ( re an AIBU thread !)

Wow, a lot of people here bought really young. I bought in London at 33. I spent my 20s travelling and renting with friends/ex-boyfriend around the city, getting to know different areas. I loved it. It all informed the choice of where to buy when I finally did that with my OH. I could have made a lot of money buying earlier, yes, but there is no amount that would make up for not having had those years travelling and living without commitments. Mind you, rent was more affordable and from the sound of thing landlords nicer back then.

I still managed a year living and working abroad and over a year travelling and a college course before buying.

I was 26 and I have no regrets at all I did it as soon as I could.

I bought my flat aged 28 in 1995 for £55,500. My parents kindly helped me with the deposit of £5,000. I sold the flat 4 years later for £75,000. I used the profit to fund the deposit for a bigger 3 bedroom property which I bought with DH for £155,000. We have since done a loft conversion and added a kitchen extension which we funded by adding them to our offset mortgage. We still have £100,000 to pay off on the mortgage but the house pre-Brexit is/was worth about £700,000. We should be able to pay this off soon (inheritance) but our plan was to down-size if we couldn't pay it off at the end of the term.

I waited until I was 37 and bought my dream place. Before that
I travelled and saved. While I was doing that others had bought less
desirable/smaller/much bigger places so the latter struggled and had
nothing but the house. So I am pleased I can still downsize if I want
later in life as well.

22. Never considered doing it earlier. It was 8 months before we married and as soon as we'd saved the required deposit. Only regret was that we didn't buy in London or as close to it as we could afford. We just bought in our local area with an easy commute to work and it meant we could afford a little house rather than a grotty flat. It was 38 years ago so we would have made a pretty penny over the years if we had opted for London not local.

17, my Mum had to counter-sign the papers. I was only a few weeks of 18 though but the exchange date was fixed because the people selling were needing to get the funds for their new house. So, couldn't have done it earlier and wouldn't have done it later.

Sounds young to me now that I have a 16 year old!

25 on my own. Those three years living back at home with my parents were not the easiest! An ex-council house. I remember a friend at my house warming saying 'when I get a house it will be a proper one' and I felt really snubbed but not defensive as I was happy with my decision. It worked out in the end, I couldn't have afforded were I live now without that first step. Ended up staying there 18 months, spent every weekend refurbishing it (wish I still had that energy) and sold it for 50% more than I paid for it.

I was 31, we bought it last year after 15 years of renting and saving for the deposit. (And a wedding and 2 children)

We were both 26 - a lovely 1-bed in London 14 years ago. Doubled its value, sold it and moved to the Shires with a £100K deposit. Now just about to buy our forever home which is scarily expensive and we can only do it cos half is deposit from house sale. It's big enough for DCs to stay for a long time as God knows when they'll be able to buy. Inheritance will probably be how the mortgage gets paid off.

25. DH had loads of investments that he cashed in some of for the deposit.

If we'd played the game differently we could have made a fortune, got a bigger house, talked about figures, whatever, but we bought a house where the price of mortgage repayments still allowed us to travel, go out, live our lives. We had to remind ourselves to keep that attitude when buying this house (maybe the 'forever' home MN loves) and I am so thankful we did.

I was 21 and a half (!) and (now) Dh was 18 when we got our first mortgage

My Dad didn't speak to me for 2 years or visit the property at all. Thought I was making a mistake.

He now trusts me so much that we invested in a BTL together a decade ago & it's still going strong.

I regret not partying, my body is shot from all the hours I've chosen to work. Financially even now we have been priced out of our area despite having a LOT of equity.