How the hell is someone form a poor background ever going to own a house ?

dont get a house in a dangerous area

There are two pretty good viable ways..

1) Buy a 2 bed apartment to start with instead of a house, a quick check shows that I can be in Leeds City Center for about 150k if I sacrifice size.

2) Buy in the north. Merseyside-Greater Manchester-West/South Yorkshire-Nottingham contain five of the ten largest cities in the UK, are all within 90 miles of each other and are not the jobless deprived areas some in the south believe. Average prices in all these counties are around 150-200k.

If your in the south and whining you won’t find much sympathy, you have chosen to continue living in an area with vastly inflated house prices and that much that can’t be found up north.

If you're willing to live in like zones 4-6, the house prices are so much cheaper. Like a 2 bed, may go for 200,000 - 250,000 for a bigger semi. There might be a longer commute and stuff but you'd have your own place and everything. And this is in nice-ish areas like Chigwell.

Saving money tip: try going without debit/credit card/cashless payments. Commit to using cash only. See if it changes your spending habit. Writing all your spending down daily will also help.

Earn above the average wage and buy with a partner (you probably don't really need 3 bedrooms). If owning an expensive house is your goal, you need to get a career with good salary advancement, or your own business.

Wouldn't it be better to use a credit card to pay for things (obviously only buying what you could afford in cash) and the repay in full at the end of the month

Care to back that up with a link?
Cheapest two bed semi in Chigwell I see is £375k.... £325k for an end terrace....

Sure.
At 250k (Not in Chigwell) - https://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/52228711?search_identifier=b3a894757933af0d7c05664d96c3ceb1
This is a bit more than 250k though, https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-76246963.html. But I think if you negotiate, you usually get a better price

Neither of those are semis.....?

Edit
Actually none of the others are either....

How on earth do you live for a year just on student loan....?

The same way you did the 3 years before?

Why would your expenses suddenly shoot up. If you're from a poor family you'll get like 8.5k which is more than enough.

Because you're paying a full year of rent and much less able to work on the side?

Student houses are typically rented out for the full academic year afaik, and why would you need to work when you get 8.5k? Easily enough....

1. Sort out your figures - average house price is £233K and median full time salary is £30K/year. That narrows the gap significantly.

2. Live at home or house share until you can afford to buy - this will lower your cost of living significantly compared to "moving out" or renting on your own, increasing your ability to save.

3. Buy a more modest property - there are properties all over the country to fit pretty much every budget, you just need to compromise on location, size or the amount of work/decoration they need. For example, I chose a slightly more expensive property in a nicer area, closer to work, however at the time I could have easily bought a substantially cheaper property that was slightly further from work and slightly smaller (eg; 2 vs 3 bed).

4. Owning a house is a luxury and a massive responsibility, it's not a right and it doesn't suit everybody. Some are better off renting than owning, and where renting makes far more financial sense. I don't 100% agree with renting all the time - at times it has suited my circumstances, at times buying has benefitted me more.

5. There is more to life than buying a house - you need to take a long, hard look at your self-worth/life-goals/aspirations/career plan. I like owning a house however it doesn't matter that much in the grand scheme of things (eg; fulfilling career, skill progression, financial progression, a fulfilling relationship).

If you focus on a job or career path that is in demand, and you really apply yourself to it, you will do fine and in time will be able to buy a home. Where? How? What size/condition? Impossible to say but it will happen, regardless of property or wage inflation.


I don't 100% agree with this.

While house prices in the SE are higher, so is the average wage. Again, if you're willing to work hard and compromise on size/location/condition it is doable.

I moved to the Midlands for work, and an added perk was that house prices are cheaper. If I was a first time buyer again, granted, it's very unlikely that I would have been able to afford an equivalent sized property in a comparable location in the SE, but I would have still been in a position to buy.

---

Some of the greatest obstacles to home ownership I see are excessive consumption and lifestyle inflation.

I bought a house a lot earlier than my peers not because I earn significantly more than them but because I consistently spent a lot less than them across all areas and saved the difference.

Where I was renting a small 1 bed flat in a reasonable part of town, they would be renting a whole house.
When I was driving a cheap, 5+ year old car (that I bought with cash), they were driving an expensive new car on finance.
When I was using a cheap smartphone that I'd had for a couple of years, they had the latest iPhone.
Where I might have one budget holiday a year, they would have multiple holidays and weekend breaks.
When I get I pay rise, I increase my savings and pension contributions slightly, they will have already spent it on a new phone/holiday/TV/clothes/watch/etc.
When I eventually bought a house I made do with what furniture I had and basic redecoration until I had enough money saved up, they rushed out to newly furnish and decorate the whole house with money they didn't have.