Feeling Defeated

lucasite

Hi all,
was hoping to get some opinions from anyone.

My wife and I live in a rented flat in south london. we both work. we have the usual small credit card bills to pay, a car loan. No real savings to brag about.

But everytime we get in the mood to research buying a mortgate, we just seem to give up. It just seems so impossible.

For instance:

Looking at an interest only (5%) mortgage of £150k, thats £625 a month(slightly less than we pay rent now)
According to BBC Homes and Property, there's no way we'd get a house for £150k in London. A terraced house in Merton will cost av. £270,983

So we could consider moving away. But it seems we'd have to move out deep into the country maybe even down to the coast, Worthing, before house prices drop down to reasonable amounts.

But before we can even consider that, Im assuming we'd fail to even get a big enough mortgage!

Our annual income = approx £32k

I read that the lending amount is normally around 3 times that.

So potentially we can borrow £96k (call it 100k)
That'll buy me shed I think!

Is anyone else suffering the same deflated feeling??

Any response gratefully appreciated.


Luco

halloweenqueen_2

Is there any shared ownership houses available locally?
Have you thought of commuting from a much cheaper area further out?
Try the rightmove website, you can put in the area and up to so many miles around and a maximum price.
Maybe you could have a look at the rail system and see where you could get to in a certain time and what the prices are at these locations, of course you have to allow for the commuting costs but it may get you on the housing ladder unless you want to relocate completely. Norfolk is quite popular with Londoners as it doesn't take long to get back to London and is a reasonably priced area. Several London friends of ours have relocated there.

aloiseb

I know how you feel!
Especially depressing when many of your friends who are in more highly paid jobs start to buy really nice, large houses....I think we were lucky to get on the ladder when we did.

You coudl try waiting a year or 18 months - some say there will be a decrease in house prices soon, althoguh most seem to think it won't be on the scale of the big one in the early 1990s (when mortagage tax relief was done away with, suddenly nobody wanted to buy any more, having rushed to get on the property ladder while they could still get the relief....so the bottom dropped out of prices)
Nest year home buyers packs come in, so it could be that a lot of people coudl try to sell up before that happens...making prices fall?????
See that housepricecrash website (there's a thread about it on this forum somewhere) to make you feel better!

F_T_Buyer

lucasite wrote:

Hi all,
was hoping to get some opinions from anyone.

My wife and I live in a rented flat in south london. we both work. we have the usual small credit card bills to pay, a car loan. No real savings to brag about.

But everytime we get in the mood to research buying a mortgate, we just seem to give up. It just seems so impossible.

For instance:

Looking at an interest only (5%) mortgage of £150k, thats £625 a month(slightly less than we pay rent now)
According to BBC Homes and Property, there's no way we'd get a house for £150k in London. A terraced house in Merton will cost av. £270,983

So we could consider moving away. But it seems we'd have to move out deep into the country maybe even down to the coast, Worthing, before house prices drop down to reasonable amounts.

But before we can even consider that, Im assuming we'd fail to even get a big enough mortgage!

Our annual income = approx £32k

I read that the lending amount is normally around 3 times that.

So potentially we can borrow £96k (call it 100k)
That'll buy me shed I think!

Is anyone else suffering the same deflated feeling??

Any response gratefully appreciated.


Luco

How much is the flat worth that you rent now? Would it be cheaper to buy that flat or rent it (i.e. is it worth more than £150k)?

Astaroth

It isnt much fun is it but then you are looking to live in the most expensive part of the country and you are looking at a house rather than a flat.

You dont need to move that far out to start getting much more reasonable priced (in comparison to central london) properties. Unfortunately your salaries just dont appear to be sufficient to be a FTB in the area you are (I was in the same possition up until 2 years ago but now I have finally saved up enough for a decent deposit and in the process of getting around to looking)

lynzpower

Do completely agree with Astaroth on this one.

1. Do you need a house? There are plenty of flats around the 100k mark, I know, Ive been looking at them. Someone I know got a 1 bed flat in Wood green for 105 recently.
2. You are looking in thew "wrong" areas. Ive seen rather a lot of houses of the 2/3 bed variety on rightmove in barking & dagenham, other east london locations
3. you could move out of london, to places like Luton, Medway towns, where there are still properties you will be able to afford with a relitavly short commute.
4. Shared ownership of course is an option for you, and there are stacks of them on rightmove or speak to your local authority.

[Deleted User]

A relative of mine earns less than the OP and has just managed to buy his first home but he had to look outside of London. It is tiny, just 2 very small bedooms and a galley kitchen etc but you wouldn`t believe the pride they have in owning their own home after renting for 8 years. It can be done