First time buyers in London

TerryTibbs05

My partner and I are currently looking for our first property to purchase after renting in London (fulham) for over 2 years now.

We are both young professionals (26 yrs old) and we earn a combined annual salary of £84k.

We've been looking at properties in and around london and find that most decent properties are £300k plus. We have a decent deposit of 35k but we are finding that we are being out priced of the market.

We have tried government initiatives such as shared ownership and home buy, but have been turned down due to our combined salary (criteria for such schemes is £60k).

We are seriously coming to the conclusion that we are being out priced of the market and will be impossible to buy our first home in or near london.

Whilst applying for the government schemes, they look very nice on the outside i.e. "we will pay/match your deposit", "you can buy x% and the government will pay the rest" etc the schemes are not actually geared for people in my situation i.e. what i am finding is that preference is given to people who live in a certain boroughs of london and have ten children and are immigrants!

Meaning that there is this grey area for people like me who almost earn too much but not enough to buy a first home in london.

Are many other people finding this? as reading this back if i lived up north i would certainly get a very good property with the money i have saved and also a good mortgage deal - am i facing the reality of london housing? Looking at the manifestos of the all 3 major parties, it doesnt look like they've even identified this as a issue let alone look to address it

wessexw

I'm also a FTB in London and to be honest for London, a 35k deposit isn't that great. I'm in the market for a roughly 250k property and it was always my goal to have 50k saved for a deposit and yes it took me many years but I did it in the end! You have a good combined salary between the two of you so maybe you could hold off for another year or two and save like the dickens in that time?

Also out of all of my friends who are all professionals on decent salaries, none of us managed to be able to buy a property in London until our very late 20s/early 30s. I know you might be impatient to get on the property ladder but London is a different kettle of fish as you've said so I think that realistically you need to save for another few years.

lynzpower

I ahve to agree.

Dont try to make out you are hard done by as you dont have children or an immigrant.

Youve been turned down for these schemes as you earn too much. These are for LOW INCOME people. You are clearly not on a low income!!!

On a salry of 80k a year you sohuld be saving minimum half of that every year. To be fair if we were earning that I know we woulld save at least 50k as thats the ratio we save at.

Dont blame others for the fact you havent saved!!!

Ps there is plenty of stuff for sale under 200k, maybe you are looking in the nicer/ more expensive areas like fulham!?!?

TerryTibbs05

I thought in 2 yrs 35k isnt bad at my age after student debts etc, but there you go...

In reality, we will be calling on our parents help to get a decent deposit and may have to make sacrifices in terms of property and location i.e. we're looking for a 2 bed with outdoor space but could sacrifice the out door space etc.

I think its just annoying that house prices continue to grow in london and it is dramatically different to the rest of the country. I maybe being too ambitious at 26 to buy based on the average age of a FTB (particularly in london)

robin_banks

Think yourself lucky you're earning £84k between you, few in London will be, couple that with being able to call on bank of mum and dad.

And you still have the temerity to moan.

wessexw

Well yes 35k after 2 years is good! So after another 2 years you can have a total of 70 or 80k and then be in a much better position. At the moment property in London isn't going up by much, I just got an offer accepted on a nice 1 bed property for 10k less than asking price as the market is slow at the moment and there were no other offers. I was priced out of my first choice areas that i wanted to live in but then I discovered other areas close by where you got a lot more for your money and I ended up going there instead.

sooz

robin_banks wrote: »

Think yourself lucky you're earning £84k between you, few in London will be, couple that with being able to call on bank of mum and dad.

And you still have the temerity to moan.

Perhaps the real moan is, that unlike many of their friends, mum & dad won't actually buy them their first place in Fulham outright.

They might be forced to look....ummm............south of the river:eek:

mufi

TerryTibbs05 wrote: »

We are seriously coming to the conclusion that we are being out priced of the market and will be impossible to buy our first home in or near london.

'twas ever thus: I was born and bred in a decent area of London. In 1973, I looked around, discovered that I could not afford anything whatsoever anywhere pleasant, and got out; so did everyone else I knew. Never regretted it.

Regrettably, two of the areas I turned my nose up at were Notting Hill and Islington:eek:.

kmmr

I think the area is the key. There are plenty of places in London for less than £300k, just not in Fulham.

I live in West London, but first bought a small place in east london where I lived for 3 years. I developed more equity, and was then able to buy a 1 bed place in west london, that I am converting to 2 bed. It's just a slow process...

sooz

Too right. Notting Hill was very scummy then.
And their idea of regeneration around then was Westway & the Trellick Tower.

Eric1

TerryTibbs05 wrote: »

I thought in 2 yrs 35k isnt bad at my age after student debts etc, but there you go...

Good, but not good enough.
With your salary, a 10% deposit doesn't seem a good idea at all.
Bite the bullet, save more and get a better mortgage rate next year, and plan for unexpected expenses such as lost fees if your first attempt to buy fails through.