How does anyone get onto the property market??

FCRangers

I'm looking for a mortgage for something around the 150k mark. I earn 29k and my girlfriend earns about 8k (we've just had a little girl), we are currently looking for a house around 165k and putting 30k deposit down. We're only about 10% of the way there and got a good 2 - 3 years of hard saving.

tyler80

In a country where there are no rules on minimum bedroom sizes it's not as simple as saying children can share you don't need a 3 bed. A traditional two up two down is far larger than a modern two bed. We looked at one when we were renting that had a master that was 10 x 8 and a second bedroom that was 6 x 8!

I'm always surprised how many people on a money saving site seem to think that the problem with the current housing market is people wanting it all rather than houses being overpriced. I think wanting a secure roof over your head before you're 30 is perfectly reasonable and in this country a secure roof means buying or a council tenancy. Private rental is not secure in this country. Questions on this board are testament to that

puddy

2 children sharing a small bedroom with bunk beds is perfectly feasible up to the age of about 8ish or so

pimento

BeardedWonder wrote: »

Kids aren't something you can always plan though!

Yes, they are.

We didn't have our son (singular) until I was 31 and my husband 36.

Choices.

Starbrite

puddy wrote: »

2 children sharing a small bedroom with bunk beds is perfectly feasible up to the age of about 8ish or so

I shared with my Brother until I was 10 when we moved to a 3 bed, and his disabled! (Spine a bifida) we are still alive to tell the tale and my mum shared a room with her 3 sisters until she moved out!!!

tyler80

Well the window arrangement in the place we looked at would have precluded bunkbeds.

I don't have kids, I shared a room until I was 18, so I've no particular axe to grind. But the idea of buying small and moving up the ladder only really works in times of rising prices and when you can get on the first rung before you're 30 and stay in that house long enough to acquire more equity. Buying a house that's going to be too small in 3/4 years time is madness in the current climate imo.

puddy

in the example i provided, bunk beds would work perfectly in either room, its ground floor so no struggling with the buggy and well within a reasonable price range. someone else on here has already confirmed that its not an awful area

so it is affordable for them to buy their own home, of a reasonable size for their needs, on their wages with their deposit

it is not affordable for them to buy a bigger property than that

shortchanged_2

pimento wrote: »

Yes, they are.

We didn't have our son (singular) until I was 31 and my husband 36.

Choices.

Do you realise that NO contraceptive is 100% effective. Therefore it is possible to have an accidental pregnancy even if a couple are taking all the relevant precautions.

Yes obviously the chances are very slim but it is possible none the less.

Caveat_Mortgagor

To get back to the OP, avoiding big cities certainly helps.

The city where we currently live has 2 Unis (Ive witnessed student numbers grow steadily and far ahead of new house building over the last 20 years!) and was deluged with economic migrants when the barriers opened in 2004.

A run down terrace on a main road that woud rent to a family for less than £500 can be let to 4 students for £300 each ie £1200.

Students and economic migrants have simultaneously driven down the standards of letting properties and driven up the purchase price for buyers; landlords (especially of the slum variety) can justify paying the purchase prices because they still make a killing - especially with low interest rates..

So, the opportunities presented to buy-to-let landlords have massively distorted the housing market in this city.

A change in circumstance at work has allowed us to look at anywhere in a 30 mile area. We are looking at the market towns and rural areas that have neither a wealth of low skilled minimum wage jobs nor a uni. Its amazing how much nicer, more characterful houses set in open countryside are markedly cheaper than run down terraced houses on main roads in the city.

So, if you want to buy, avoid the market distortions.

pimento

shortchanged wrote: »

Do you realise that NO contraceptive is 100% effective. Therefore it is possible to have an accidental pregnancy even if a couple are taking all the relevant precautions.

Yes obviously the chances are very slim but it is possible none the less.

You still have choices, even then.