How the heck do people my age and younger afford to buy houses?!

5k from a 25k wage (tax not taken into account) is a 5th of a salary-quite a lot. Whereas I could rent and not be given the millstone of a mortgage. But if you want to own a home (eventually) I guess then go for it

£5k over a reasonable timespan of 5 years to save for a deposit is £1k a year, 1/25th of a salary - not a lot at all..

Well yeah but what with inflation etc house prices go up in 5 years. 5years is a bit too long imo to save for a deposit,

I mean what if you suddenly couldn't work due to ill health/redundancy etc?

And what if that happened after you purchased a house?

Well yeah, pretty much why I would be reluctant to commit to a mortgage, say you were self-employed? How would that work. The mortgage companies/banks don't accomodate for poor earnings, cos ofc you're not on a fixed income.

5% deposit on £200k house is only £10k. Split between 2 people is £5k each... how anyone can't afford to save that while employed is beyond me.

In London, £200K is the deposit.

OP is not in London.

OK, but the thread seems to be about the subject generally and lots of areas are being discussed. I was also exaggerating for effect. Seriously though, it's clear there's a huge difference between getting / saving to buy a place in the North or places like Scotland or Wales than there is across South East England, or the lower half of England generally. I just felt that was a point worth making. It's terribly hard for people even with good jobs to save enough to buy a place in London now unless they have substantial family financial support.

Frankly; if you're making less than £50k in London you ought to just take a £20k pay cut and move elsewhere.

I live in the South East, plenty of houses around here for under £200k.

Where are you in the SE out of interest? There's really nothing in London for that, well, maybe tiny flats in well-out places.

Berkshire

OK, had a look at it on Rightmove - it's definitely cheaper in places like Bracknell, Slough, etc, than it is in London.

I would guess that property there will go up when Crossrail goes live, if not sooner. That's if the downward effects of Brexit don't cancel it out.

There's this awesome invention called a mortgage

It's cheaper anywhere other than London.

It's already only 30 minutes to get to Paddington from Reading, I cant see crossrail having too much of an effect.

Regardless; my point is that there are places in the South East which can be easily afforded by first time buyers.

Yes, provided they can save up the £20K deposit and the £1.4K stamp duty, plus moving costs. Not inconceivable for many, agreed, but still quite a hill to climb even for a couple with both in work at average salaries.

Yes, they can reduce their lifestyles a lot to save for it, but for people with children especially that can be tough. Also the £200K places you are talking about are frequently quite small flats with 1 bedroom.

Call it £25k all in? So £12.5k each over 5 years.. Just over £200 a month.

Average salary is what, £23k for a graduate? That's over £1500 per month salary after student loan deductions. £200 out of £1500 is not quite a hill to climb.




If you choose to have children at a young age and before purchasing a house then that is (in the overwhelming majority of cases) your own choice. Just as if I chose to spend £500 a month on booze instead of a house deposit, I'd only have myself to blame.

Aren't you worried about buying at the top of the market? I've heard a lot of people say that they expect prices outside London to go down, and that was before Brexit!

But not everyone can live at home. I certainly won't be able to. It doesn't matter how frugal you are, if half your income is spent on rent every month then you're unlikely to be able to save a big enough deposit to buy. And of course, the longer it takes you to save, the more expensive houses become.

Yes, in my circumstance, living at home made things exceptionally easy. However,

My cousin works in London and lives in Hammersmith, pays around £550/pm including bills for a single bedroom. He has around 35k savings now without parental help after just 2 years of working. 2 of my tenants in Bristol also just submitted their notices to me (after 2 years of renting from me at £480/pm incl. bills) to buy their own homes. All of these people are aged 23-25 and earn no less than 1.7k/pm. Which I believe is easily achievable for a graduate / junior working in the south. My point is, room sharing with inclusive bills needn't cost half your income each month and usually have plenty left over for saving.