House buying

[SheStoodInTheStorm]

DH and I are in our 30s. We've rented since we were 18. We have no family able to help us money-wise. DH had a lot of debt at one point due to self-employment and bad money management skills, but he's sorted that now. I have been seriously ill so getting a mortgage isn't as straightforward as it should be.

We so desperately want our own home. If we end up having to re-rent somewhere we'd need about £2k to cover deposits, upfront rent fees etc.

But how do we save such a large amount of money for a deposit? Friends who own houses have all had familial input/inheritance/handouts etc. My parents still rent a council house.

Just feeling quite low about this at the moment. Please be gentle.

Sorry to hear you’ve been unwell- I hope your health improves. Here’s how we did it.

Open an ISA for first time buyers. You can either get a help to buy ISA or a LISA, if I remember correctly the LISA gives a better return. You need to max this out every year to see the biggest benefit when you purchase.

Set a budget, see how much you can afford to save each month and if you aren’t happy with that amount see where you can scale back spending. That doesn’t mean you need to reign in your life style but could just mean getting a haircut with a groupon voucher as opposed going to your normal salon, same for meals out etc. You could also do things like change electricity etc provider to save cash. Check out MSE for more advice.

Keep saving and see a mortgage advisor, preferably independent, who will be able to help you choose the best mortgage for you. Don’t forget to save for solicitors/moving.

Would also help to decide whether you would have a house that needed work or not. Also consider the fact you aren’t married, the best legal protection comes from marriage.

Thank you. Three years clear but I believe no-one will consider me until at least 5 years.

Thanks for the isa til, in sure I read that they weren't as straightforward as they should be. I will look into them again.

Have discussed with DH tonight about upping savings.

We are married.

Are you in an expensive part of the country? Is a move feasible? My partner and I were in the same position - we were able to save but would never have been able to keep pace with the rising prices in the city we were in. Rent was becoming more and more expensive too.

We moved to a cheaper city where we could still get good jobs and bought there (he in early, me in mid thirties). It was the only way we could do it.

We also had a help to buy ISA, though not for very long. It contributed 1k of our 18k deposit, which wasn’t bad.

You may not need a huge amount - we bought our first flat with £9k, which was a 7% deposit - we paid higher interest rates for the first couple of years until our loan-to-value ratio improved, and then our payments reduced.

You could also look at shared ownership, eg. if you bought 50% of a £300k house, you may only need 5% of the part you are buying eg. £7.5k.

We lived in a shared house to save the deposit, as DP was retraining and not working for a while, and I was on £21k. I checked all our bills were on the cheapest deals, ordered things like cat food and litter in bulk (a pain to store but worked out much cheaper than buying small bags every fortnight), and put any overtime payments straight into savings. I saved about £500 by paying for an annual travel-card on a 0% credit card; I paid it off monthly, and built my credit rating at the same time.
I also found little savings through the month helped me to boost my savings, so if I saved £10 on my food shop through using vouchers or a deal, I would move that £10 into my saving account.

Good luck!