How will people afford houses in London without help?

[profen]

Let's ignore people with family already in London, or those with the bank of mum and dad.

How can two young professionals even begin to think of buying a house in a decent area of London?

Just looked at fairly boring but nice 3bed terrace houses in Fulham are looking for £1.5mil.

Think of two lawyers or bankers, on £100k a year, or more. They'd still be nearing 35+ when they could consider buying.

That's not even thinking about "normal" people! Even grotty flats are £500k+

You buy grotty flats, or houses in less nice / convenient areas of London. It’s not impossible but it is tough.

Well they don't buy in Fulham for starters. There are lots of perfectly lovely areas where you can get a starter property for much, much less than that.

I just bought a normal 3 bed house in zone 3 for 475... admittedly not a nice area but you can still get a grotty flat around here for 250 ish. I guess the answer is by compromising on something or several things depending on your circumstances.

London is expensive but cities aren't really for houses. Particularly more central areas. Flats are far more practical, better for the environment and land use. Want a three-bed house; that's what the suburbs are for.

Fulham is the main problem with your search. Hugely expensive. Even twenty years ago when I moved to London nobody could dream of buying in Fulham without the bank of mum and dad.

Shared ownership flats are very common now and a good way to get the first foot on the London ladder.

They don't buy houses in Fulham!

They start out in places like Croydon or New Malden (if SW). They buy a flat or a 2 bed terrace.

We bought our first house in Wimbledon aged 26 (2 bed terrace). If we were starting out now we'd probably delay until 30 and buy further out. We'd also delay having children until mid 30s (had first DC at 28).

They probably won’t.
But they will also command big salaries which will allow big mortgages.
I think we will see much more lending that requires people to move/downsize in their 50/60s to pay off.

They don't buy in Fulham!

They can't. Houses in central London are places where foreign money is parked or where old people live. Inner London, you get the odd banker family whose granny died at the right time.

You need 100k apiece for some shared ownership schemes, incidentally.

By the way, Croydon isn't in London, it's a great big town south of London. And not cheap either.

@Supersimpkin - it's the London Borough of Croydon (see Wikipedia) so I'd say it counts as London.

Ok. Spot the lifelong South Londoner - that bit's not really my manor. It boasts an enormous Primark, however, so it can't be that bad.

By the way, Croydon isn't in London, it's a great big town south of London.

Poor Croydon. It's a London Borough but the cool Londoners don't want it. It's in Surrey but the Home Countries pony set look down on it. And it's been refused city status. #teamCroydon

They could buy this.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-57361296.html

Croydon is OK. They love their skyline and there are lots of nice bits. Good links to London and easy to use scape to the country. The Fulham refugees could buy themselves a nice house there.

That said my DF grew up there and escaped to the Midlands😉

They use right to buy and buy a share and rent a share

😁 Parts of Crystal Palace are in LB of Croydon, and they're definitely London. I'm a purist and would usually say that it needs a London postcode - but if you're looking at boroughs, then Croydon is London. As is Bromley.

Also #teamCroydon. And it may not be that cheap but it's also not that expensive compared to other London Boroughs. And the public transport is excellent, to be fair.

But yeah, no one buys in Fulham.

They don’t! I live in Shoreditch and i could never afford a house, so i have bought a nice flat in victoria chambers instead.

...and this in Croydon
www.onthemarket.com/details/5040814/

Most people live putsode London and commute surely if you can't afford to love there ? Or get a job and house somewhere else if you aren't earning enough .

My friend's son and partner recently bought a nice flat, 2 bed, just off Notting Hill & not too far from the underground station for under £500K. They're both on good salaries and rented cheaply then saved saved saved a massive 25% deposit in a couple of years. They don't have cars, haven't done expensive/foreign holidays, and do everything on a tight budget, they're not eating out every night, no buying Costa every day etc. Plan is to save save save and pay the mortgage off early, both are expecting bonuses/reviews/promotion.

They will live in outer zones and commute many hours per day and their life (like mine) will not be great given the ridiculous commute costs.

I couldn’t afford to move to London in 1989 as the wages I could earn were not enough to live ther, over the years I would have liked to have moved there but it’s always been too expensive. My family couldn’t afford to help me, my career prospects woyld have been better than my home town but it has always been beyond my means.

You either sacrifice space or location. If you compromise to zone 6, Surrey, Kent then you'll be able to halve that 1.5million (3x joint Salary = £600,000 mortgage) but if you have to be central then you need a smaller property in a much grottier area than Fulham. I'd imagine Made in Chelsea youngsters to live in that kind of property.

Simple... you buy a 1 bed flat in zone 4-6 in London, then work your way up the ladder every couple of years....in order to save the initial deposit required you save save save, incl not renting where you'd like....