Is there any hope?

BitterAndTwisted

Happy-Days wrote: »

I personally don't think you are saving enough at present. Without a student loan, that is £2,180 per month.

Actually, it's just shy of £2195 a month

You save £1k per month, spend £400 on other bills. Where does the other £600-£800 go?

Good question. If someone really was utterly determined to have a home of their own they wouldn't be spunking that much a month on entertainment or whatever it might be. It's never been easy for a single person to be able to afford to buy on their own and sacrifices need to be made. No pain, no gain.

PoisonIvy

There are plenty of one bed flats in London for under £250k if you look further afield than the posher & trendier areas. We're buying one in SE London zone 2 for well under this, and it's a decent size period property. You can get a 2 bed with a good size garden in an area like Walthamstow, Stratford or Leyton for less than £200k.

Sure, I'd love to buy where I'm currently living (zone 2 east) but it's just not realistic. We've taken a longer-term view, compromised and chosen a fixer-upper in an area that's on the up, so hopefully somewhere down the line the value will increase. But even if it doesn't, it's still a place we're happy to call home for the next several years or until we're ready to move a bit further out.

allthingsmustpass

No, there's no hope.

You should have had the sense to have been born earlier like those clever boomers.


More seriously, give some real thought to emigrating, you've a lifetime of being farmed here to look forward to im afraid.

Sorry.

cleas001

Happy-Days wrote: »

I personally don't think you are saving enough at present. Without a student loan, that is £2,180 per month. With a sl, it is £2,030. You save £1k per month, spend £400 on other bills. Where does the other £600-£800 go?

I think you are spot on for saving a deposit while staying at home, but I think it should be treated like the hassle it probably is. E.g. Save £1,400-£1,500 per month, maybe get another job, just work your but off and save hard for a year or 2 so you can get out as quickly as possible.

Don't forget, it isn't just the deposit, there will be other fees as well - mortgage fee, solicitors, survey etc. So you don't just need the deposit cash. Buying a place ain't cheap.

I don't have an sl - however I am putting approx £200 of my pay (before I see it) into a pension plan each month. So get about £1890 per month in atcual take home pay.

Then £200 on rent, another £100 on petrol and £100 on other bills - that leaves me with £1490. Minus the £1000 I save thats £490 per month... and atcually now that you've pointed it out I'm not quite sure how I manage to spend all this. I guess I'm doing £150 on clothes, £200 on nights out and eathing out... On top of this I also keep a little by for car insurance and other bits and bobs that may come up (birthday presents, christmas etc).

Now that this has been pointed out it might be worth me keeping an eye on my expendture I'm sure I could cut back at least another £100 a month without really missing it!

cafenervosa_2

cleas001 wrote: »

Thanks... everything seems so unreachable, I'm 25 I don't want to be living at home forever!

I know I could look to mve further away but that means I'm away from family and friends and also future job opportunities.
Sometimes makes me want to give up saving for a deposit - why save for so long to live in a horrid pokey flat when I could rent a nice big apartment and enjoy myself with holidays etc. I know a house gives you security (and deep down thats what I really want!) but I have to ask myself is it worth it?

It's a tough one and your right when you say that everything seems so unreachable.

I would advise on asking yourself what you really want, if you really want this flat its worth on trying to make it happen, but just the fact that you said yourself 'horrid & pokey', the answer here no its not worth it.

Don't give up saving and always have hope that something will happen in the future that will make it worth it. I know its hard to see the light sometimes in life but you just have to keep believing, at the end of the day the more money you have will give you more options in the long run, so its worth it to keep saving and keep that hope alive that something good will happen.

jozbo

I'd agree that the 'pokey flat' thing is not a goer.

Bear in mind though that you are in a fortunate position to be able to live with parents while you save - if you didn't have this option there really wouldn't be a hope of doing anything other than rent for the long term.

Are you planning to buy alone (sorry didn't see mention of a partner or friend above)? Because for many that is the best way to buy.

girl_withno_name

jozbo wrote: »

Are you planning to buy alone (sorry didn't see mention of a partner or friend above)? Because for many that is the best way to buy.

It sounds like from the below:

cleas001 wrote: »

Thanks for the advise!
I guess I'll have to look at this as a much longer term target - quite a few years of saving and hopefully by that time a partner to help me out!
thanks

jozbo

PoisonIvy wrote: »

You can get a 2 bed with a good size garden in an area like Walthamstow, Stratford or Leyton for less than £200k.

We are (hopefully) getting a 3 bed maisonette (with garden) in one of those areas for just shy of £180k. It's a doer upper, but means we get much more for our money and it's a longer term bet.

OP, we've been looking to buy for years in London and I've gradually had to scale down ambitions to be much more realistic. Unfortunately there really are few options for housing for our generation and it sounds like if there's no pressure for you to move out right now your best bet is to continue saving and keep an eye out for like-minded friends/potential partners who you can club together with to buy!