How do people end up living in a £1 million house?

[shortsaint]

As I do my nightly peruse (daydreaming) on Rightmove (most expensive first) I am wondering how people end up living in a million plus property?

I do not live in the south east or Home Counties, just an ordinary Midlands town. I consider myself fortunate as we come to the last couple of years of the mortgage. We probably have the lowest value house of my friends, with an above average joint income, 2 kids, both work f/t. We have had 2 houses in 20 odd years so haven't followed the property ladder, had no inheritances or windfalls. Is that what it is?

@mewkins I still couldn't afford to move to the Home Counties in 2019. Not that I want to, but I can't. I can't afford a car or two sets of commuter fares but I can afford a mortgage on a London flat. Probably can afford a small house in a less desirable part of London- my friend is buying a house in Romford for the same price as my flat in z3 north london.

There's a lot of stealth bragging going on. I do not think living in a £1m is to be admired. I more think it's bloody outrageous. Fake money. Where will your kids live?

My DH is one of the kids. His mum let us live in her 750k house for 3 years for free (she knew that she had it lucky!). It enabled us to buy a bigger flat than the one she bought in 1989. We will never buy a house though, probably just a bigger flat if we are lucky and prudent and earn more! And to be fair, my DH's mum only bought a house because it was in a very bad state of disrepair and there were flats in more desirable neighbourhoods that were the same price. It is also smaller than some of the larger 3 bed flats I have seen.

Almost all the native londoners I know lived with parents for a long time.

My house in London is worth over £1 million. But most people on mumsnet would look doen on it and I suspect the OP’s house is nicer and bigger! It’s a very small mid terrace with a tiny garden. Nothing special. I am lucky to have it and would not be able to buy it now.

I don't know anyone if my age (late 50s so an absolute boomer) who feels smug and happy about house prices being the way they are. All my friends have children ranging in age from mid teens to 30s. We are all worried about housing for them, along with stagnating salaries and longer working hours. To say everyone living in a million pound house is a smug git is very narrow and actually rather ignorant.

Luck mainly I think? We bought our house in 1995 for 100k had it valued recently and it's now worth 750-800k, we're in the South East,

I did indeed ask the question and you have given me the answers. Thank you.

However there's a lot of London here. I am not interested in that particular bubble and I do not envy you either (I love visiting, do not want to live there).

I suppose in the Midlands the bubble graduates outwards. As it does around large cities.

BTW I had friends who bought in London post graduation, early 90s for affordable flats and houses (around £50k mark) - I'm not that old! I do worry about children and their capacity to buy a house without inheritances or gifts. The same kids who have graduate taxes. We can't all be bankers.

Oh and the comment earlier about the 9 million people paying the majority of tax on behalf of us serfs north of Watford. Hmmm 🤔

I am enjoying reading the thread even if I am getting a bit shirty 🤣

You could have bloody said you didn't want responses from London - but there are also those of us that live in the home counties that work in London - it's hard to separate us out - maybe you should draw a map of the areas you'd like to communicate with

As 1 million pound houses are nothing at all unusual in London and parts of the south east, perhaps you could have made that clear in your OP.

My 1 million pound house is mid terrace has 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom and no downstairs loo. Sorry I don't count in the conversation.

I think it's a bit shit calling it "fake money." It's obviously not that fake and not everyone actually has a massive mortgage to fund their £1m home!

With regards to your question "where will your children live?" My answer is "wherever they choose"
Our daughters will have the choice to live where they choose with whom they choose. I would imagine they will sell the family home and hopefully we will have given them enough of a financial education that it won't be blown or wasted but will provide stability and opportunities for them, alongside whatever their earning potential is in their chosen career.

@logoutnow

You could have bloody said you didn't want responses from London - but there are also those of us that live in the home counties that work in London - it's hard to separate us out - maybe you should draw a map of the areas you'd like to communicate with

And people who gain housing wealth in London and the South East don’t always stay there… I know a few people who have moved back closer to where they grew up and worked in Birmingham/Leeds / other Midlands and Northern cities while comfortably buying a house that would have been well out of reach in London.

There's a lot of stealth bragging going on. I do not think living in a £1m is to be admired. I more think it's bloody outrageous. Fake money. Where will your kids live?

Erm, you asked. Why on earth is it “bloody outrageous”??!!

I do love it though op…

Op,,,,,I dream of living in a million pound house, with a large garden and beams, I peruse right move daily, and I long for it, how did you do it
Mn,,,,this is how I did it,
Op, you’re a bunch of bragging fuckers, boasting about your fake money houses, and will someone please think of the children!!

🤣🤣🤣

By climbing the ladder having started before the year 2000.

My parents bought their house for £40k in the mid 80's, it's now worth £750k. The house I'm buying was purchased for £10k in the mid 70's and is selling for similar.

A friend of mine bought her first flat in 1995 for £80k, made several moves, jumped a few rungs when she got married, and purchased a couple more with her DH, now their property portfolio is circa £3m.

If I'd made better choices with my first property, and hadn't had a relationship breakdown, I too would be living in a £1m property. Note that in London, this could be represented by a basic semi or terraced house!

It's a combination of timing, good salaries (ideally x 2), and a healthy dose of luck.

Our house is worth quite a bit over 1 million now. In the SE. We bought it 16 years ago, so less than 1 million then.

No help from parents. We are both academics. We get a little extra money from consulting etc but not mega bucks. I've always worked, almost always full time.

The main thing is that my husband is 60 and first bought a little house in Oxford in 1994 (about the time I met him) for 67k. We've traded up since, benefiting from rapid house price growth in the area.

OK I didn't expect it to go this way, but between the misunderstandings re London you have answered the questions.

All very reasonable answers - some right time right place, some good salaries, improvements, and a massive amount of luck with the market and interest rates etc.

And I'm allowed to daydream aren't I? I did explain in a later response that I consider myself fortunate to have a roof over my head and stability. I duly promise to NEVER peruse Rightmove again 😉

A combo for me - bought in 2006 and benefitted from some uplifts but also have a massive mortgage (about £500k).

Luck for us - moved abroad and part of DH’s new job was shares in the relatively new tech company, they bought back the shares which gave us a decent deposit ($400K) to buy a house in our area but prices since then have sky rocketed which means when we sell and move back to the U.K. we’ll be able to afford something over £1M - with a very healthy deposit though because after being away for a decade we’ll have no credit history and will struggle to get a mortgage

Meanwhile in the rest of the country....

We bought a 3 bed detached house in 2003 for £153k and sold it in 2018 for £165k. That's not as bad as the person who bought it as a new build in 1920 for £890 and sold it in 1947 for £900. Just because London prices have been crazy in the last 20+ years doesn't mean they will always be.

@JaninaDuszejko

Meanwhile in the rest of the country....

We bought a 3 bed detached house in 2003 for £153k and sold it in 2018 for £165k. That's not as bad as the person who bought it as a new build in 1920 for £890 and sold it in 1947 for £900. Just because London prices have been crazy in the last 20+ years doesn't mean they will always be.

You're right, they have to stop somewhere!

I know one person that does. They got on the property ladder at 21 with help from family and just traded up every few years. They're mid forties now. Good for them; I didn't give a shit about the property ladder when I was that young.

We did it the traditional way. Started out with a tiny flat, then to a two bedroom terrace, then to a four bedroom estate house, now to a five bedroom rural house, all in South East.

No help or inheritance, just took time. Each and every time we bought at our absolute max, with max mortgage, banking on job progression, and pay rises.

Notable though, was that from flat to terrace, we made no money, and from terrace to first house, we lost money, and in that time interest rates were at one point 15%, so not all the plain sailing people seem to think it was. Some scary times for us along the way too.

In London I'd say it's easy. Our 1st house 100k increase within 4y. Current home 400k increase. My parents live in ex council house bought for 30k, worth in excess of 700k.

We could sell our two rentals and add our home and some savings to the fund and just about buy a £1 million pound house outright but the house we have is beautiful and we'd rather have the income from the other properties.
We've only had mediocre jobs, just invested at the right time in a good area.

@JaninaDuszejko

Meanwhile in the rest of the country....

We bought a 3 bed detached house in 2003 for £153k and sold it in 2018 for £165k. That's not as bad as the person who bought it as a new build in 1920 for £890 and sold it in 1947 for £900. Just because London prices have been crazy in the last 20+ years doesn't mean they will always be.

Not necessarily representative of ‘the rest of the country’.

I bought a house in a nice but fairly unremarkable city in 2006 for £380k and sold it in 2018 for £725k, having done minimal routine updating ‘work’ to it (new kitchen and bathroom).