Novice FTB feeling low

jyonda

We too are stuck renting but our rent is 1100pcm for a 3 bed semi in Surrey! Even then it is still cheaper than what the mortgage interest alone would be without paying any capital, maintenance or a borrowed 10% deposit back. In short it's not the right time to buy and I personally am MUCH happier now that I have come to accept this. I have wasted untold hours of my life over the last 3 years researching property prices, renovation costs, buying at auction, Shared ownership and anything else I could think of. Whenever I thought I had found a way to make it work the goalposts shifted another 20,000 and I was back to square one. And now prices are so ludicrously high I don't have to worry about it any more.
Like you we have 2 young children and need x amount of space because we know people with 1 child who bought a 1 bed maisonette which they could afford and now it is far too small for them. And like you we need to live near family but when they are a bit older, maybe school age I would like to move us to the coast somewhere and use my London wage to buy somewhere decent then get a job locally. Maybe even a change of career if necessary. My profession is based mostly in London but is gradually moving outside London as prices are too high for business even.
The problem with London is that it is truely a world city and lots of companies have their European operations based there which puts a lot of pressure on the prices of fairly moderate housing not just the high end. The amount of students, new career starters and migrant workers puts a lot of pressure on the low end. So if you were born in London you are not only competing on a local level for housing and jobs you are competing nationally and internationally too. Take for instance the last area we lived in was New Malden in zone 4 which has the largest Korean community in Europe outside of Korea. If you grew up in New Malden you are now competing with international Korean businesses looking to house their staff overseas. How can a postman or a bus driver compete against a Multi-national business?
Eventually London will become a victim of it's own success as prices rise businesses will move out and already in my company the process of 'regionalisation' has begun as the savings of centralising no longer exist (in London).

Shared ownership (for us) was a waste of time too as the properties we were offered were all one and 2 bed flats or the biggest was a 2 bed house with tiny bedrooms. This type of housing is fine if you're renting it dirt cheap off the council but when you start paying an inflated market rate for just half of it then I think it's a non starter IMHO. The main problem is that if you want to move then you need to sell to a smaller market and then any increase in value is only 50% too. The types of property are generally not that desirable outside of a rising market and I have read of people stuck with 50% of a small, poorly located flat which they could not sell when the last bubble burst. Now you might think that if the other 50% plummets in value then that would be a good time to buy it and own 100% but often a downturn in the housing market goes hand in hand with unemployment, high interest rates and tighter lending criteria.
So in summary, stop worrying about it, save and see what happens when the kids are a bit older and in the mean time enjoy your time with them. Just remember that buying property is all about timing and buying the wrong thing now could take another ten years to get rid off. Scarey! Much better to wait until the economic situation is right for buying the propery you actually want to live in. Even if that means moving area etc. and having saved cash in the bank is ALWAYS helpful.

Best of luck

Tiger_greeneyes

I moved out of London years ago because I had no life (couldn't afford one!). Every penny I earned went to pay my (4x) mortgage, bills and travel costs. I couldn't afford to go out - not even once a month, so I collected credit cards so I could have the odd luxury (older and wiser now). I don't smoke or drink or have an expensive gadget habit - my tv is almost 20 years old. I got further and further into debt just to survive and have a life - and didn't have room to swing a cat.

Eventually I had a lightbulb moment - I realised that life actually did exist outside London and I moved out One more month would have meant facing horrors like repossession, ccj's and bailiffs. All for the sake of placing so much importance in the 'convenient' lifestyle. My situation made me think outside the box - I've bought a house by the sea, got my mortgage down to £150 per month, paid off all my cards and built my life here. My house is huge (7 bedrooms) so I see my family and friends very regularly - it's only two hours by car. Some of my family are even beginning to look at the house prices here - they're now in the same position that I was in - no room for the kids, can't afford a bigger place without a massive increase in the mortgage - which would cripple them even if the interest rates stayed the same...

As far as I'm concerned, living in London or being able to commute to London really isn't as important as getting the most out of the only life I'll ever have.