FTBs buying v expensive houses

Heth_2

We're first time buyers and buying our new (hopefully!) house for 145,500. We have been saving up for more than a year, and are putting down a 25% deposit. We've been "lucky" in a sense as 25k of that came from my husbands grandfather dying, the rest is part wedding gifts from my parents, grandmothers and the rest saved up over the past year. We've saved by renting somewhere cheap and fally apart. Got a joint income of 33k so will have a pretty big mortgage going out, but are going to fix for 5 years so we can budget more easily. I'm currently doing a phd so when i finish i should be earning alot more.

beckstrous

I think it depends on age a bit, doesn't it?

We are first-time buyers too. My boyfriend is 30 and I will be 30 next month. We don't earn megabucks but our joint income is just under £60k and we have a good deposit, so we are looking to spend about £175-180k. Some lenders would be prepared to lend us just over £200k but we only want to borrow what we can afford to pay off each month AND be able to save & live at the same time.

We are in the South East, looking for a 2-bed house, and whilst I do think our budget will find us something eventually, property is really expensive around here.

claz

i find this thread really interesting as my partner and i are both first time buyers and looking at completing next week

unfortunately we seem to of gone about buying the property in sort of a ramshackle way as we just decided one day that we liked it so we'd move out of rented accomadation, as a result we only had a small deposit and just engouh to cover solicitors fees and stamp duty etc

i am 19 and my partner is 27 (doesn't act it though) and we are both very lucky that we have got good jobs with excellent prospects and we currntly have a joint income of £47k but we are both still in training and the only other debts we have is a loan for the car, initally we were offered £150,000 but the property we liked we got for £135,000 so it was uneccessary to borrow that much

most of my friends can't even think about renting round here as the prices are so expensive, even though we are up north a one bedroomed studio flat in york (which is near us) is £650!!! per month, out mortgage will be £750 so we decided we may as well buy

good luck to all those other ftb out there, if we did it you can

Joannaclaire

We're ftbs in our 30s and living in greater London. We're managing to buy (although just got gazumped so that's a whole other story) as we have had a very frugal lifestyle for the past five-six years(no wide screen telly, no buying CDs or DVDs, no trendy furniture - all cast offs/second hand, not fancy clothes, no going out to pubs etc, and we have no debts either) and so have saved up a (small) fortune over the years.We also moved out of central London a few years ago, as rents are cheaper further out, so we pay at least £200-300 less a month that we would be in central London for a similar flat.

Also we are very fortunate in that we're getting help from my inlaws (early inheritance), all of which means we can now afford to buy a 3-bed house.

Mumstheword

I really feel for FTBs now, and worry how the situation will be when my own kids are ready for houses. I can see us having to downsize and give some help!!
When we first bought, about 16 years ago, we thought we were being OTT borrowing just over £40k!!
With a lot of saving and moving around (renovation project helping big time, but really disruptive), we kept the mortgage at the same level and moved to a better area to a reasonably sized family house. This house is worth 3 times what we paid almost 6 years ago, and without having made that move when we did, we certainly wouldnt be able to afford it now.

For us, timing was crucial. We had intended to stay in the renovation property longer to save up (no mortgage on that one), but got really fed up of living there.


If the market is on the up, then getting in early is crucial, as we did with this house.
However, we've also seen the other side. We bought our first house for £42k just before a huge price slump (very early 90s), and sold it eventually for £26k. The main problem with that one was location, which stopped it recovering from the slump.

paulb567

We're FTBs and just bought our first house this week for £192000. We've been extremely lucky in that we received £30000 from a combination of parents, grandparents, inheritence, etc. I've also had (and still having) a good year financially with my work.

It did (and still does) worry me borrowing this much though. Over the past few months I must have created 20 or so different spreadsheets calculating income and outgoings and all difference kinds of situations that might arise in the future. In the end I'm confident we can keep up the mortgage repayments and maintain some kind of life without too many problems.

AceCobra

Hello,

Having been reading these boards for the guts of a year now it still amazes me how FTB’s buy in the London area. I know wages are higher to reflect this, but are they that much higher?

My Fiancée and I both earn around £20k basic. We are both professionals and that is considered a fairly good wage (around here). We recently bought our first home in a village 15 minutes from Belfast city centre. For a 3 bed, 2 reception, double garaged detached house we paid £110k. This has us paying a mortgage of just under £600 pounds. Now when I see people in a similar situation to me having property double that amount for half the size? What is wrong with the world? What’s more than that is the lack of movement in the property prices in England. House prices in our area went up by 20 percent last year.

Just rambling… Martin.

jockettuk

my partner moved out of central london and moved to aylesbury which meant he could afford a decent house and one that i would move into with him .. no way was i moving to london and no way was i bringing my daughter to live in london.. aylesbury is near but far enough away for him to continue working in london but give us a country feel..

tomstickland

Well, I've been out looking at some houses today and I've been a bit shocked at how little I can buy for the money.

What bothers me is that there are 100s of people saving like mad to be able to afford a house, and this must mean that FTB's in the last few years have put a greater proportion of their income towards mortgages. It is possible, but just think how much harder it is compared with someone who bought 4 years earlier and might be paying £300 less per month for the same house.

suki1964

AceCobra wrote:

Hello,

Having been reading these boards for the guts of a year now it still amazes me how FTB’s buy in the London area. I know wages are higher to reflect this, but are they that much higher?

My Fiancée and I both earn around £20k basic. We are both professionals and that is considered a fairly good wage (around here). We recently bought our first home in a village 15 minutes from Belfast city centre. For a 3 bed, 2 reception, double garaged detached house we paid £110k. This has us paying a mortgage of just under £600 pounds. Now when I see people in a similar situation to me having property double that amount for half the size? What is wrong with the world? What’s more than that is the lack of movement in the property prices in England. House prices in our area went up by 20 percent last year.

Just rambling… Martin.

Its not just FTBs in london. We have a tiny terrace which we bought on a shared ownership. So although we have seen an increase this end of the market, the houses next step up have also increased considerably. To get the three bedroom semi in this or the surrounding areas, we would be needing a mortgage of at least £200k.

Hence we have bought your side of the water - Ballymoney