First time buyers with budgets over £1 million

[Zimmertel]

How common is this in London?

Dd says that due to the price of property in central and inner London, a number of her work
colleagues are first time buyers looking at properties over £1mil. She’s looking at flats around £600k, which is the average house price there.

Her best friend is in finance, aged 26, earning near £200k a year before tax. The best friend’s partner is 28 and earns about the same if not more. They just bought a two bed in Zone 1 for £1.3mil. Their first home.

How common is this in London?

I live in London and this certainly isn’t common in my world. I know a couple of people in finance but they aren’t on that much. I don’t think I know anyone earning 100k.

I would say not that common. There aren't loads of 26 yrs olds on 200k for one. FTBs in London do tend to be older & with good jobs. I like in SW London & the people buying the 1m plus homes tend to be 2nd steppers, with good jobs, family money & a ton of equity.

There will be thousands of people earning this much at a similar age,

I really don't think there are thousands of 20 something yr olds earning 200k even in London.

I don't know anyone in London who bought a £1m house as their first buy. I know a lot of people who bought at that sort of value for their second purchase.

Also I think the days of borrowing 5.5 x your salary or more &/or interest only or part & part in order to afford the big house are over for a bit with the way the economy is going.

Definitely not common. Earning 200k+ between two people, help from parents, equity in house, buy a 1m+ house is definitely a lot more common.

A lot of people in London have equity - anyone who bought 10+ years ago, especially. It will be interesting to see how this might change, as the rises even over the last 5 years have been far lower.

Yes, I think it will be alot harder to build equity now particularity in expensive areas.

and in my area of London it really slowed post Brexit with only the stamp duty pause boosting it.

some up and coming suburbs still room to grow but can't imagine established areas where terraces are 1+ will see anywhere the same level of growth over next 5/10 years.

also in finance and certainly not on anything near that - but some of my clients are in their mid to late 20's working in finance (investment research / fund management) and they earn in this region if not more when you include bonuses and are looking for their first homes soon. so defo not unheard of not common.

Quite a few of my friends are now buying their second home for £1m+ in London (or moving out to Surrey or Bucks) aged early to mid 30s.
None were in a position to do so in their mid 20s.
Lots of Oxbridge graduates working in finance & Law.

A friends daughter just bought her first London flat for £590k. I'm sure her parents are contributing a bit but not a 10% deposit or anything like that. Flat needs work too. If she was buying with a partner presumably they could afford close to £1m if he earned similar.
Most people who live near me (terraced houses around £950-£1.3m) are young families, so not first timers but more likely having sold two flats to buy a house. But I am amazed at how many young couples can rent for £2500-3500/month, and a friend just signed a lease with her husband for £5,500/month!!! Early 30s!

£200k at 26 in finance? She must be very talented. Dp is 27 and has always worked in finance in London (inc Big Four) and is on less than half that.

I live in London though and most of my mates earn £30k to £70k in our late 20s. I don't know anyone on £200k yet.

I do know lots of people affording flats costing £400k to £700k thanks to a combination of family helping, being fairly well paid and saving hard. Anyone affording £1m+ in my circles would be getting significant family help with that (lots do).

‘Finance’ is really rather broad. An accountant won’t be earning that until they are a partner at a Big 4 firm, which takes about 15-20 years from joining as a grad, depending on various factors.

Investment bankers can be on considerably more than £200k by 30 (including bonuses), and it’s not crazy for corporate law either. Then you have Private Equity, hedge funds and so on. If you are two earners on £100k it’s likely you could afford a £1m house given mortgage multiple of 4-5 (or even 5.5 in some places where salaries are over £100k).

When these people are in their thirties, if they haven’t left their profession, their salaries will multiply several times and many would clear 7 figures before they are 40. So if these people have rented to that point then it’s easy to get a £1m plus house as a first time buyer, or much more of course.

Not the people I know in London 😂 we bought a 2-bed flat in zone 3 south London for £275k-our maximum budget! You don’t have to spend £1m. London is a big place…

Yep, I was going to say exactly this. Our first home in late 20s was about 700k and only after selling that can we afford the 1 million mark. Late 20s making 200k seems like a big over exaggeration.

I thought it was 4 times your salary? This is all we could borrow.

I’m mid 40’s and earn around 225k. I’m not in finance and also not in London or the SE.

My family and friends have absolutely no idea I earn that much. They know I have a good job but probably think I’m on something like 100k.

I never discuss my salary with anyone aside from my DP.

I see what a lot of people earn and I think a lot of people would be shocked at how high some earnings are, particularly in financial services - not necessarily ‘finance’ though.

I say ‘earnings’ as a £1m a year for 5 years signing bonus in stock, at Meta, or £600k + £1.4m in stock, high street bank. £1.5m profit share as a consultant.

From what I see lawyers are not the big earners generally, unless very senior. Yes to some of the US firms, but even magic circle, isn’t anything compared to some Financial services, tech, accounting, consulting roles, unless you make partner.

26 on 200k, def top drawer, but not unheard of. I’d be surprised if it was all cash though.

Not in my circle, in London! Our first time buyer flat was £275k in zone 3.

I think this poster was describing themself and their husband ....

Yep.

we run in good/okay circles most couples are in million ish bracket up to about 2-2.5m and the only people who did this were my DH (he “enjoyed” the benefits of my deposit…. On his own he’d have been looking at a one bed in zone 4)
so did two friends of ours. The husband works for his father property development company renovating high end central properties.
they lived in various ones for free for years and were gifted / given about £1m towards their family home in Hampstead which is now worth about £2m -alright for some hey 😅

our “fanciest” friends worked their way up from a fairly grim 1 bed in Canada Water and they worked for JP Morgan!

ZOMBIE THREAD.
Didn't the warning in the reply box give you a clue? Where do you think these people are that you are replying to? Sitting in stasis waiting for your great insight of a fucking pointless stealth brag??

Urgh, didn’t think to check when joining.

You could validate the question by asking yourself How many £1M FTB flats are on the market, and are they mainly owned by 26 year olds? My suspicion would be that a claim by a DD of "everyone has a £1M FTB flat" is a bit like when my DD was 5 and told me "everyone has an Xbox and stays up to midnight playing Call of Duty"