How do people afford £1m+ houses on here?

[Hellodotcom]

For those who bought their house for £1m+, how did you afford it? Where do you live? I live in a terraced house in Newcastle with DH. We only spent £180k on it!

50% of the properties in London are flats.

I think the average london flat is around 450-500k, so on the basis, most of the transactions in London are flats. I bought a flat in zone 3 london for 400k but I have a friend who bought a house in romford for around the same price bracket.

@hurtyb True but that doesn't automatically stop those who earn a lot in London. Am assuming that already, fewer people buy 1m houses who haven't made money on their flats since 2016. In practice, will some areas stagnate but not fall i.e. desirable ones because people buying there have the 150-200k household income and those where the squeeze and interest rate rise will force prices down. Gaps between areas likely widen. Eventually more and more people will benefit from their parents....so prices won't go up and might not fall everywhere in places like London either

There are still some houses in London for 500k - I would consider this a fairly normal suburb

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/122784680#/?channel=RES_BUY

But I agree on 200k

@4897980h8h of course not but historically so much growth has been driven by equity gains. There aren't enough people earning 200k to buy all the million pound plus houses. Plus cost of living is unlikely to come back down.

I think we will see long term stagnation with lots stuck on the ladder, tbh the stamp duty pause helped lots of people I know move up the ladder.

The inheritance thing is interesting, obviously it's unfair that it's getting to the stage that you need to inherit to buy so will there be wealth taxes. There an economic theory that when the "boomers" die there will be a latge supply

large supply of family homes which will depress prices. I'm not sure if I believe that though. However there is the issue of the ageing population & the NHS & social care needs far more money, I don't think they can target income much more. Plus so many people are relying on their house to fund retirement, equity release is an ever growing market but I really don't see huge growth.

If interest rates hit 5% that will surely make a big difference in terms of how much people want to & can borrow?

Those that inherit property and money from parents that die would mostly far rather have their parent back. I know I would.

who would disagree with that @caringcarer but realistically I know my parents won't live forever & I'm fully aware that plenty of people lose a parent/s & don't inherit anything.

You have got to keep moving.

Way back in 1990 we bought our first house in a rough area for £20k. It was proper grotty but we made it nice and sold it a year later for £40k.

Had we stayed there - the house next door but one sold last year for £106k. So not gone up much in value at all since we moved. The area is even worse now so staying put would have been the worst mistake of our lives.

We got out while we could. And we just kept moving. Never staying long enough to get settled. Always buying the worst house on the street and making it into the best.

We haven’t gone up much in house size but we’ve moved massively upwards in value in due to area. The house we currently live in is tiny. But it’s on a very desirable road in a very desirable village. We will double it in size and if DH has his way we will be moving again. It will be worth around the million mark. I’m not so keen - for the first time ever I actually love the house I’m in.

You have got to keep moving.

But stamp duty & moving costs makes that pretty prohibitive these days.

Bought a 2 bed flat age 25 for £150k
Bought a 4 bed semi age 29 for £380k (got married)
Bought a detached 6 bed age 37 for £700k
3 years later it's worth £1m

OP’s question is ‘how did you buy a £1m house?’ not ‘what did you do to your house to now make it £1m?’. Buying in 1990 and ‘we couldn’t afford to buy it now’ is not good advice for today.

I live in a house that’s very close to £1m (DH and I bought it for £955k a year ago). We have a lot to do around the house which still isn’t complete as I sit in my living room that’s half finished…

We had a lot of parental help. I work in Finance which is ridiculously stressful at times but also pays well!

I don’t live in London but live in a leafy suburb of the West Midlands!

Ok but it’s not what she asked is it? You’ve never bought a six figure house, she didn’t ask what your house is worth, was It just really important to you that you told people what your house was worth if someone paid that, and the fact it wasn’t the question or what the thread was about irrelevant?

Look back in time. Ultimately prices only go in one direction & that's up.

Of course they would but parents have to die at some point, so would you rather have parents that left you nothing? I've lost both my (adored) parents and consider myself lucky that they left me and my siblings enough money to skip a couple of rungs on the housing ladder. I know plenty of people whose parents left them a couple of thousand pounds, or nothing at all. So not quite sure what point you are trying to make here with such a sanctimonious comment?

They're old and they bought their first houses for £5.60.

The point is that she could now buy a £1m house if she sold hers.

First two properties doubled in value in five years which enabled us to buy a seven figure house that needed a lot of work. It's just about doubled in value but over ten years.

Mortgage is interest only backed by ISA investments and costs less than the monthly energy direct debit, which is mad.

How do people still not understand how people buy £1m houses?!

anyone who bought a house in London or SE (and plenty of other areas) over 10 years ago, let alone 20+, has made a load of money on their house. which enables them to buy a £1m house.
also - some people are rich.
also - inheritance.
the end.

Didn't buy our house, we built it ourselves (well, we employed a builder to do it but to our plans.) Valued at around £1.4m now. Cost about £650k to build using a section of land from our old property so no land costs.

Financed it by the sale of our old house for £1m. Though we bought our first property in the mid 90s for £100k with a 95% mortgage in SW London. Traded up over the years with a combination of property price rises and salary increases. Then going the self build route and being fortunate enough to have a property with a large garden to build on enabled us to make another fairly big jump up the ladder .

We have been very fortunate. No way could we get a mortgage for a £1.4m property on our salaries if we were starting out now.

Not £1m but over £800k.

• made some money on a tiny flat in a part of London that unexpectedly gentrified (sold it when got married and put the windfall into house with husband)
• husband lost three close family members within a few years and inherited quite a lot (he's the last one standing)
• large mortgage too

It's only a semi, ffs. That's London.

Obviously a range of reasons.

our current house: 580k
currently overpaying mortgage on it by £1100 a month extra.
equity from it in 2026 will be approx £300k
That will go in as deposit on next and final move. Our joint household income of £130k will lead to a mortgage totalling a purchase prices of £1 million.

Bought £250k house in West London in 2005. Spent £150k adding loft and kitchen extension.
Now worth around £650k but might be more.
Planning to buy next house in same area around the 1 million mark.

Combined salaries come to around £200k. No help from families or inheritances (thankfully). Mortgage paid off about 5 yrs ago on existing property. Only one DC aged 13 and no debts.

We are savers by nature as neither of us came from money. For next property, likely to have another mortgage of £100k or so.

You don’t get an awful lot for £1 million where we are but hoping to buy a detached house.

I have no idea 😔we have a 1960s 2 bed house in Scotland. Previous owners paid £210k in 2011. Sold to us for £160k. It's worth around £110k now. We're not in negative equity but it's still pretty horrible.