Property ladder - what is your experience?

[Snog]

Here's mine
Age 28 - one bed, bought as a single person
Age 31 - two bed, with DH and pregnant
Age 48 - four bed house

All in the same area. Expect that we will downsize in a few years time to help fund retirement.

2 bed with DP age 22
Then married and 2xDC
Moved to 3 bed age 31
Extended to four bed age 40
Paid off mortgage age 50
Never moving again I don’t think.
I love my home.

Age 27-2 bed house with DH. No plans to move as we didn't want DC.
Age 37-4 bed 1/2 mile away with DH as we had DS.
Unless we manage to move to live by the sea, that's it for us.

Age 25 - 2 bed semi detached house (small but roomy enough for DS &I) as a single mum

Age 30 - 4 bed Victorian end of Terrace with DH

Hoping we won't move again until the kids are grown up! We knew the instant we walked into our current home it was our forever family home.

Age 21, 2008, bought a 2 bed flat for £100k with ExH.

Age 25 bought out ExH.

Age 31 redesigned the floor plan so the same flat is now 3 beds.

Looking to be mortgage free by 40.

Age 29 3 bed semi in a gritty area for £140k. Renovated it. Got married and had a DC.

Age 33 4 bed detached with DH for £415k. Frightening mortgage.

The bank would lend enough to move again but I don't want to be stuck in my high pressure job until I'm 65. We will probably extend the ground floor.

Age 30 - 2 bed Victorian terrace in mediocre town
Age 35 - large 3 bed cottage in beautiful village, where we intend to stay while our children grow-up

Aged 17 bought flat with bf for 18k
aged 20 split and used £1k equity as deposit on a 1 bed flat for £18,250
Sold it 2 yes later for £42,000 (!)
Aged 24 bought tiny 2 bed starter for £60k with mortgage fixed rate at 11%. Interest rates rose to 15% so we got a good deal.
Aged 25 Relocated with work , sold house at a loss at £45k, bought 3 bed semi in new town for £72k
Divorced and took over the mortgage and got a lodger
Aged 32 Sold for 96k and bought a totally dilapidated 2 bed flat in London for £160k
Spent 2 years of slog with new baby and new DP to renovate.

Oops.
Aged 37 gave birth to my baby boy in the bedroom ❤️
Aged 40 bought a 3 bed for 430k (sold the flat for £330k!). Another doerupper.
It's now a 4 bed valued at over a million (utter madness) and we are about to extend as we tried to move for some more room but couldn't find anything suitable.

Love London. Don't plan to move . But the kids will probably be her forever as they can't afford to move out

Short ladder so far. In fact, still on the first step..

Age 32 bought first house (which we're in the process of trying to sell), with DP- 3 bed semi in practical location. Train station, good schools etc, but soleless estate (230k)

Now age 35 and looking at 3/4 bed semi or detached houses in nicer, villagey areas for 350k. Less practical for commute, but willing to sacrifice that for the village life.

We plan to move up a step again once DD finishes school (another 5 years)

24- bought 2bed bungalow with then DP
25-split up with DP, no equality in property, he took it over and I sofa surfed/rented
30- Married, managed to get on London property ladder by skin of our teeth and mega cut backs/saving
38- Sold London property, relocated oop north, bought 5bed outright with London profit
42- Rented out 5bed and mortgaged it BTL to buy 4bed in nearby village also with small mortgage repayment.

Still in village, considering selling 5bed. Either way looking to buy property to flip.

21-bought new 2 bed terrace by myself
29-3 bed semi with husband
34-4 bed detached with husband
40-divorced, rented property from brother in interim
42-bought 3 bed cottage with new DH - mortgage free, we put in equal amounts - did loads, bought extra land, put in parking
60+buying 4 bed det (mortgage free) to slightly downshift, smaller garden, more modern, and this will liquidate some funds too

Age 27 bought one bed flat on my own.
Age 31 bought 3 bed maisonette on my own.
Age 32 moved to other side of country to buy 2 bed terraced cottage, on my own.
Age 42 bought 3 bed semi with my now h. Had it extended so now a 4 bed semi.

Age 25 bought 3 bed terrace with DH £110,00

the crash happened and we went straight into negative equity and sold for a small loss

Age 35 bought 4 bed terrace with DH £170,000

Could only afford a sideways move now

Age 24 bought 2 bed terrace by myself, though my now dh moved in with me as we'd just got together.

Age 26 bought 3 bed terrace with dh. Had 4 kids ( dc3 ended up being twins) Outgrew house.

Age 36 bought 3 bed semi with potential to extend with dh.

Age 41 extended said semi so it's now 5 bed. Love it here. Hopefully never moving again!

I feel very lucky we were able to get on the housing ladder relatively easily( first deposit was £4K). It's much much harder now.

In Southern East Midlands.

Age 31 - 2 bed semi repo which needed a lot of cosmetic work
Aged 33 - 4 bed detached which needed a little more work, new kitchen and full cosmetic refresh
Aged 39 - about to exchange on a wonderful, spacious, unusual 1950s 4 bed detached which is empty and unloved but I’m very excited about getting going on updating!

Short ladder for me to so far.

Age 26: bought 2 Bed Detached Coach house with other half as FTB.
Age 30: bought 4 Bed Detached house.

I am in South East of England (currently in Fordingbridge, Hampshire as of March this year).

I don't plan to move for quite some time, as it is only me and my partner it will take a while to outgrow the place.

1.Age 23 bought 2 bed mid townhouse for £40k.

1. Age 25 sold above house, got married, bought 3 bed detached with DH for £57k
2. Age 31 - sold house 2, bought new build 4 bed detached .
3. Age 34 sold house 3 moved into bigger new build 4 bed detached
4. Age 42 sold house 4 moved into massive 4 bed detached in dream village.
5. Age 45 - marriage broke down, moved into town based 4 bed detached( with 3 x teens )similar to house 3 in size. Didn't want a house this big but Ex made me buy it and, in fairness, has paid the mortgage ever since.
6. Age 50 - going on the market next month to sell house 6 and buy small 4 bed house to see me through until now adult kids get their own places.

Blimey I've moved a lot!!!!

2006 - 32 years old - 5 months pg - bought 4 bed detached with DH. (It seemed massive back then. We had nothing when we moved in but a couple of suitcases)

2018 - 44 years old - 2 kids - bought a much bigger 4 bed detached with DH in the same area. Much bigger than the previous house.

Not planning on going anywhere else due to having to take out a 22 year mortgage.

Age 25 bought 1 bed flat, v scruffy. Gained value while I had it
....anything with H1 irrelevant....
Age 30, 2 up 2 down. Dropped almost a third in value.
Age 37, large 4 bed terrace due to children. Gained value
Age 53, downsized to 3 bed terrace with garden (same cost as sale)
Might move again when the garden gets too much

All bought and paid for by me.

25 (2000) - 2 bedrooms semi detached in London Greenwich
31 (2006) - 4 bedrooms in West Berkshire, still got 10 years mortgage to go but over paying recently so hopefully paid off soon!

Aged 25 bought 3 bed semi with dp (now dh) for £74k. Had dd the. Fell pg with twins so bought a 4 bed detached aged 35 for £225k. No plans to move but we are considering a loft conversion.

Age 29 - Bought 3 bed semi ex-LA house with DH. Still living here with DH and DD(age 2) six years later. It has everything we need including a good school just down the road and family short walk from us.

We once in a while look at other houses in the area on the nicer roads (meaning not ex-LA rds) but either they are too small or those with space cost an extra minimum of £250k more than our current house. We can't justify that just for the nicer road.

So all in all, I don't see us moving anytime soon or even staying here for the foreseeable future. I would like a 4th bedroom but mindful of extending and the cost that goes with it as there will be ceiling price on our road hence the regular checking on what else is knocking around us on the market.

Age 22 bought 2 bed terrace in rough area of a large city. (Mid nineties)

Age 27 bought 4 bedroom semi in a village with my then partner.

Age 31 relationship ended, sold house and rented.

Age 33 bought 4 bedroom detached rural house with new partner.

Age 35 decided I hated the country and we moved to 4 bedroom terrace in a city.

Now mid forties, 2 kids and plan to stay here forever!

Age 22 bought 1 bed detached bungalow in SE with soon to be DH
24 2 bed semi (never to be repeated, only detached from now on)
27 4 bed detached in same general area but cheaper part
32 moved north 3 bed detached bungalow with big garden in good area
46 moved to Spain bought old cortijo to renovate
48 bought an off plan villa as investment and sold immediately on completion
51 renovated, read virtually rebuilt, then moved into 5 bed cortijo with swimming pool
54 moved back to UK for numerous reasons.
Rented for 7 months then bought and did up a 2 bed detached bungalow in a nice area.

Not sure we'll ever move again as this place is perfect for the future except I miss the sea.

29 bought 2-bed (Zone 2) London flat. Rent-a-room flatmate in second room until...
32 moved abroad, rented out flat. Lived in rented accommodation as expat for 9 years.
40 bought 4 bed farmhouse project with land in an AONB about 4 hours from London. My wife moved back to the UK.
41 I returned to the UK and now weekly commute between farmhouse and London flat having ended tenancy.
47 No plans to move until I retire or Brexit fallout causes us to leave the country again.