How do buy a house in London. Just, how?

[Shinebright21]

Married, two kids, mid thirties, husband is not a first time buyer but I would be.

How? It seems absolutely impossible, and house prices are through the roof.

Anyone successfully done it? How did you work?

@titchy no i'm aware of that. Nearly everyone I know has moved for schools, we are moving for secondary soon, although not to a shit hole! I think it's unusual to stay in the starter home pre dc for the whole school years. Obviously when you are moving you still have dependents & often childcare costs so it still affects affordability. I know lots of people with dc buying later & skipping the first/flat stage.

This. It is still possible to get a nice two bed flat in the Boroughs of Bexley and Bromley for around £300K or less (obviously still a huge amount of money). Some overground trains only take 14 mins to LB (for eg from New Eltham). Not fashionable but close to more happening areas and can still enjoy central London easily.

My friends either work in finance or have family money. Inequality is insane here.

Build up equity how? The flat is 450k. You buy. You save another say £40k more in 5 years.

Oh, but now the small two bedroom
House is 750k.... and you can't get a mortgage for that.

You wait 10 years saving £80k.

But now the small two bedroom house is £900k.

You do places up, extend, refurb - that increases your flat by more than the market, get promoted, earn more, get a higher mortgage so you can afford to buy a bigger place that you do up, extend, refurb etc.

it only works like that if someone is buying their first property at like 24 so room for career growth etc. Most ftbs today are older & have to already be earning well to get on the housing ladder. Renovations are expensive unless you are handy & so is moving with stamp duty costs etc.

We bought a house in the Morden/Sutton area. It's 50/50 social housing and private ownership. The cars are either brand new or old bangers. Houses are either falling apart or being done up to the nines.

It was a shock to move here after renting in Teddington for ages but it was important for us to buy a house.

We are now used to it and go out to eat/walk in Wimbledon and I commute in to London on the tube. We've renovated the house over the past few years and it now feels like home.

There are still houses here for £350-500k which is just about affordable for London.

PM if you want the exact location and a tour/coffee

Most people I know including me moved out of London to buy a house.

You buy some combination of maisonette / doer-upper / ex-local authority / on the outskirts of London - where you can still get a 3 bed property with a garden for less than 500k.

Not v helpful but you have to think at 16/17 what job you need for the life you want
Is Uni really going to help you with that or just land you debt?

@MumofSpud
I think you will find the high earners with flats snd houses have mostly been to university. They have gone through grad recruitment and are professionals. My DD took 7 years to fully qualify for her job. She’s paid off her loan. It’s been totally worth it and all her high earning friends have done exactly the same. If you want to be in a more expensive central area, then family money or a high income or two high incomes gets you what you want. Otherwise it’s look in a cheaper area. Plenty do.

Grandparents snd families help out a lot! Better that then pay loads of inheritance tax!

Just to echo that the 'ladder' has been broken here in the last ten years at least. I don't know anyone who has bought and sold a property expect for divorce. Those stuck in a 1 bed are still there. Prices have more than doubled in our area, though 2 bed flats are coming down a bit due to oversupply.

Which is why it is much easier to do it before you have kids!

i mean london or anywhere else - I couldn't have bought a house now my daughter is here! We now have a childcare bill of 1600£ a month - before we were saving that 1600£ into our deposit fund!

Virtually everyone I know has done it, so whilst I accept if you haven’t been able to then that’s your valid experience, it isn’t true for everyone.

I’m 35. Over the past decade I’ve bought fixer uppers in increasingly nice parts of London - I started with a one bedroom ex council flat in Woolwich - and built equity that way. The current small two bedroom house I live in didn’t cost anywhere near the £750k you’ve stated, so perhaps that’s what’s holding many would-be buyers back, they’re not prepared to consider more affordable areas. I’ve also increased my salary through taking increasingly senior roles. And no, not possible for everyone, but it isn’t unrealistic if you’re a couple both working in decent jobs.

Simple.

Invent a time machine. Go back in time. And buy a house for £3.50 like the boomers did.

Then come back to present day and tell us all that it's our fault we can't afford anything.

You're welcome.

Gen X erasure is real!!

@TizerorFizz Ya I agree, I meant think carefully about the subject you do at Uni.
I did a subject at Uni that I just enjoyed - no thought of what to do after (30 years ago!) and drummed into my DS to think ahead!
At least he listened and bought his first place at 21 (no bank of mum and dad!) with his girlfriend- outer London

The advantages of buying a sh**hole as soon as you graduate aren't just that it goes up in value it's that you are making mortgage repayments which reduced the amount outstanding. With no dependents you can pay an extra 10% a year, saving tens of thousands in interest. Then there's the ability to increase the value through improvement. Turn a one bed into 2, extend into a loft, etc.

Then if you are still child free you can move up to a 2 bed where you can rent out your spare room for a tax free £9k pa and use this to overpay the mortgage again.

Your parents die and you have a 100k deposit for a house on the outskirts. That's it.

It’s very hard now. There are some affordable flats and small houses on the outskirts, depending on what you view as ‘affordable’. I suppose I mean within reach of a couple both earning decent wages, possibly with savings or equity from a flat.

The younger couples I know who have bought family homes in the last few years in London have had to compromise massively on either size or location.

e.g.

wanted a 3 bed house in Walthamstow/Leyton, but have got a 3 bed flat in a LJ ex-council block in Chingford.

e.g. moved from north London to the Essex borders, Havering borough, to get a small 3 bed terrace they wanted

There is no point looking back. It’s not just ‘boomers’ who had it very different. I’m 45, and in my adult life I’ve seen prices go crazy. We bought a 4 bed semi in a decent suburb of London for 500k when my kids were small (2007). It was a stretch, but on two professional salaries and with equity from DH’s flat it was do-able. Houses on our street start at a million for a 3 bed terrace now. Our house is worth about 1.25 mil. That’s not achievable for most people. London is nuts.

If I were young now, I’d leave London. As much as I love it here, I’d have to make a life elsewhere as it just wouldn’t be affordable.

@MumofSpud
I agree. University and subject really matter. Also a career plan and back up if that doesn’t work. DDs was a high risk strategy snd she’s done it. Even if we hadn’t helped, she could have bought something in London. The bigger issue for her was location as she travels out of London a lot and must be at her destinations by 9, or before. So not getting the 6am train into central London for onward travel was a massive issue snd that’s why we chipped in.

Your parents die and you have a 100k deposit for a house on the outskirts. That's it.

except for those whose parents can't leave them much.

At least he listened and bought his first place at 21 (no bank of mum and dad!) with his girlfriend- outer London

How did he save a deposit whilst paying rent when fresh out of uni?

We were in your exact situation. 2 kids, i was first time buyer, partner already owned a house. Only way we coudl do it was to remortgage to a let to buy on his house to release a bit of equity to allow us to pay the stamp duty