3x income

MrsE_2

pawpurrs wrote: »

Rubbish that village is 20 minutes to Tunbridge wells, I have been inside it, and its not half bad, look the arguement was there was no where in the south east that you could buy for under xx all I am saying is that is rubbish, there are other properties in the villages at under that too. If your earning minimum wages then it has allways been the case that you couldnt afford to buy.

Plus it needs total modernisation, when estate agents say that, they mean it!

How many people could take that one?

Is it listed too?

I think it was, double the do-up costs:eek:

Georgie4

mitchaa wrote: »

Hit the nail on the head.

I think its peoples expectations that are perhaps set far too high

And everyone is forgetting that even 10 years ago it was pretty rare to buy a house without having a deposit of some kind

whathavewedone

Lostinrates, sorry for delay in replying, computer was down for over 24 hours.

Although they have 3 kids now they'd like a fourth. The house in question was easily affordable as it was a 3rd time buy. They made money on their first flat in east london bought in the early noughties and then made 75k on their 2 bed house in chislehurst - they sold that for 275k and bought the house in Hastings for 225k (it did need a lot of doing up as the last owner lived their 90 years - so hideous swirly carpets but on the plus side all the original features were intact. They have stripped the wallpaper and floorboards themselves and are gradually getting it done. It looks really good.

TBH in Hastings I don't think there is a huge difference between 4 and 5 bedroom Victorian houses. This is their dream house and they can afford it so what's the problem? Their mortgage is under 100k and they are only 30 so in ten years time she will be back at work and he will be earning more anyway.

As for having at least one extra bedroom that they don't need, you would be amazed the amount of "stuff" that you accumulate with one child never mind 3. An extra bedroom is very handy - anyway, as I say, they'd like a fourth.

No idea how much the house is worth now - I don't know how much Hastings has gone down - maybe the house is worth 200k now? I don't think they care as it's the house they're going to bring their children up in.

It wouldn't be for me as I'd be concerned about the quality of the schools round there but horses for courses. The children (pre school age currently) love being by the beach and there is a lot for them to do.

It's as Cleaver says - you have an ambition you have to look at how you can achieve it - earn more, move further out, live in area with crap schools - give up.

lostinrates

Thirs time purchase sub thirty years old...wow. I'd hate that!

whathavewedone

Even if you had 3 kids? You'd rather rent and possibly have to move every 6-12 months?

lostinrates

whathavewedone wrote: »

Even if you had 3 kids? You'd rather rent and possibly have to move every 6-12 months?

Well...its difficult...I would never choose to have three kids! But what I'd rather see is secure tenancies for those who can't afford to buy something thats right for them for more than 3-4 years, and persoanlly, I think for many, many people, first homes shouldn't be one bed flats, but more two beds (could have a lodger/sharer in before meeting a partner).

I'm also,probably unpopularly, not of the opinion that all children need their own bedrooms more than parents need to be within comfortable levels of debt.

IO do agree, there is nothing what so ever wrong with doing what you can afford to, in fact, thats the position we are heading towards: but I was considering that you had mentioned there was some financial pressure in forming my thoughts of your very interesting example. Its also hard to guage what 'financial pressure' might be. being prudent with shopping for the last week of the month might be seen as some as ''difficult afordabilty'' while putting shopping on credit cards and not paying off in full is not recognised by others as being indicative of potential problems with affordability in the future. I fall somewhere between the two extremes. I think if I had a family I'd be more conservative with my views on our affordabilty, not less.

A constant theme of my posting is a lament about the insecurity of tenants in UK. I agree that to buy in a similar situation would be my preference, but I'd probably opt for a three bed and some sharing, or a four bed and a slightly smaller debt IF I had moved with the affordability isue you mentioned in mind.