Could you afford to buy property now, if starting over?

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Say you were born 15-30 years after you really were and we’re starting out in your grad job. Could you afford to buy, if on the level salary your job paid when you bought first time? If so, where are you?

What do you expect future generations to do?

they could well have been in the workplace for 8-10 years

Nope. My DM worked as a junior secretary from 15 till she gave up work on marrying my DF aged 20. My DF didn't start work till after technical college aged around 20. There was not much in the way of "career progression" in his line of work.

My parents were very much the norm where I grew up.

Actually when we bought our house in the 80s a lot of people weren’t graduates as they started work when leaving school and it was quite common to do an apprenticeship or to to get qualifications while working. Neither myself or DH went to a University full time as people do nowadays, DH did a Masters while working on day release so was earning a full time salary while learning. A lot of people that bought houses then didn’t go to university.

All of you saying you could afford it, would you be able to save the deposit required?

We'd have needed £6k as a deposit rather than the £3k we actually put down and would probably have taken us an extra year to save it.

Young people have little to no chance of owning own property in Berkshire

Is that really the case? Surely there are parts of Berkshire, just like there are parts of say Cheshire / Northumberland / lots of counties around the country where expensive parts will invariably be out of reach of most first time buyers / young people. The difference may be slightly more exaggerated in say Berkshire or London, but isn't it a question of whether people now would be prepared to live in the less desirable locations to get a foot on the property ladder?

I bought my first house for about 3 times my salary in around 2001. Buying the same house now would cost 10 times the salary for a similar job. I have absolutely no idea how my kids are going to get on the housing ladder..

In 1995 DH and I bought a house for £114K in South London. It was a fairly standard 3-bed victorian terrace, very similar to the one that the Outnumbered family own. That was around 2.5 times our joint salaries. That same house last sold in 2013 for £997K and the Zoopla current valuation (which can be fairly off the mark admittedly) is £1.2m. So we definitely wouldn't be able to buy it if we were a young couple now.

I bought in 1995 with an ex. We were fresh out of school, in first jobs and earning less than 20k between us. We bought a 2 bed flat a short commute into London for 35k with a 5% deposit. It had been repossessed and gutted which is why we could afford it. It's worth about 250k now so completely out of reach for people in the position we were in.

The difference may be slightly more exaggerated in say Berkshire or London, but isn't it a question of whether people now would be prepared to live in the less desirable locations to get a foot on the property ladder?

I would say the opposite with regard to London. There are so many areas I would not have considered renting or buying in during the 90s that are now considered "gentrified". For some areas there has been significant investment and redevelopment. However in others the extent of the investment does not go beyond the overinflated house prices.

We bought in London in 1997 for £105k, with a £10k deposit. My salary at the time was £40k so was Dh’s so we could have done it on one salary. It’s worth about £400k now.