Bank of Mum and Dad

tukka123

This seems to be the only way to buy a house.

I am 25 and have a reasonable job with steady pay which Itry to save as much as possible towards a deposit for a first house with mygirlfriend. We currently live just outside London on the tube line so our rent fora one bed flat we have is £950 per month (Nothing cheaper for less within a decent distance from a tube or train line intoLondon). We pay in total around £1400 per month in rent and bills. We have searchedfor the best rental price and switched all our bills to the best dealsincluding cash back credit cards for shopping along with club cards anddiscounts etc.

We are still a long way from a first home as we will needaround 10k plus. We have looked at part buy part rent flats but we are lookingto start a family and the ones we have found don’t really suit our needsalthough if we could find a 2 or 3 bed flat with access to a private or communalgarden we would take a look.

However we are very happy with our life style and are workinghard to save for a home and we understand it may take a few years before wehave the funds to buy a place.

BUT… I swear that I actually know of no one in my circle offriends or online that haven’t had a huge helping hand from the bank of mum anddad.

Example, a guy I know earns around the 20 to 22k a year andis out every weekend and has no savings accounts. He has no interest in savingand only cared about going on holiday and drinking at weekends. He has just beengiven 60k by his parents and has put a chunk of it down for a deposit on a flat,which I am made up for him. I’m not jealous but I don’t think I have seen anyonethat has saved for a place without help from their parents or grandparents. I’mstarting to wonder if I will ever have enough to get on the ladder without the finicalsupport of someone else.

So my question is has anyone managed to buy a place in thepast 5 years on an average paid job and without getting money from relatives?Would be reassuring to hear others stories.

chelseablue

I've done it

I bought my 2 bedroom flat in August 2010, so 3 years next month.

I didnt receive a penny from any relatives, although I lived at the family home with my Mum, Dad and brother so only had to pay £150 a month rent

As well as my full time job I took on a second job to save up more money (I still have the second job now)

Where abouts are you? I dont live near a tube line but the train to Paddinton only takes 20 minutes from my local station

ognum

A quick google on the average age for home buying and it tells me the average age for buying a house now is 35 so at 25 you have 10 years to save a deposit.

You are also trying to buy in the most expensive place in the uk. I note you say you are satisfied with your lifestyle. I remember when I was saving the deposit for my first home we had no holidays for 4 years at all, no meals out, no trips to the pub. I was far from satisfied with my lifestyle, we received no help to buy but them I am a boomer so I had it easy didn't I.

Well done on thinking for the future and not having children until you are in a position to house them. Good luck with saving.

Cycrow

£950 for rent outside london seems like a lot.

when you say outside, do you mean like zone 2, or somewhere in zone 6?

BitterAndTwisted

Saving for a deposit is harder if you've not got a fair amount of savings under your belts by the time you've left home and gone into rented accommodation.

Saving for a deposit and becoming a family and consequently losing one income is often not compatible with saving for a deposit. Therefore I would rethink your plans to have a child until you have a home of your own.

If you're utterly determined to be a home-owner it might be necessary to make some sacrifices in order to achieve it. Sometimes the sort of sacrifices required are to move to a cheaper area, move into shared accommodation or cut every last penny of discretionary spends, get a part-time job or get qualifications in order to earn a better salary and improve future prospects. Sometimes all of them.

It's never been easy for young people to buy, most especially in the South East where prices are so high, but some do and it's those who are prepared to make the necessary sacrifices and keep their eyes on the far-horizon who achieve it.

[Deleted User]

You said in another topic that you're saving roughly £500 per month at the moment, that means you'll need to save for just over a year and a half to purchase a house. The biggest purchase of your life and you only need to save for a year and a half!

House prices are definitely going up and it's definitely becoming more difficult for people to purchase their first home, however the biggest problem is the desire for instant gratification. Saving for a year and a half is absolutely nothing, you should expect to live for another 50 or 60 years, a year and a half is less than 3% of your remaining life!

"I'm starting to wonder if I will ever have enough to get on the ladder without the financial support of someone else." you're starting to wonder that because it's going to take you less than 2 years to save for a deposit?

chelseablue

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Saving for a deposit is harder if you've not got a fair amount of savings under your belts by the time you've left home and gone into rented accommodation.

Saving for a deposit and becoming a family and consequently losing one income is often not compatible with saving for a deposit. Therefore I would rethink your plans to have a child until you have a home of your own.

If you're utterly determined to be a home-owner it might be necessary to make some sacrifices in order to achieve it. Sometimes the sort of sacrifices required are to move to a cheaper area, move into shared accommodation or cut every last penny of discretionary spends, get a part-time job or get qualifications in order to earn a better salary and improve future prospects. Sometimes all of them.

It's never been easy for young people to buy, most especially in the South East where prices are so high, but some do and it's those who are prepared to make the necessary sacrifices and keep their eyes on the far-horizon who achieve it.

This ↑↑
Nice to see some sensible advice on the interent

BitterAndTwisted

Live on one salary and bank the other one. It should only take a year to save ten grand.

Silver_Lining_3

No help from parents. I started saving at 18/19 when I got my first job. Have always paid rent of t least 300pm, often more. Never earnt a lot, was on 26k for two years, but mostly between 17-22. I've lways put away as much as I can and now around 34k. For example I take home 1400pm now, pay 460 in rent and bills, save 600 and live off the remainder for food, clothes and fun.

I'm buying on my own so will need about 55k with the small mortgage I'll get so saving a lot longer than you. I'm 26 now so it's been 7 years. Even put myself through uni, I worked so still saved but admittedly have a student loan too now.

benson1980

I bought our first house when I was 29 (four years ago). This was with money saved by myself and my other half. However this was a 18k deposit on a 120k house so a bit different to London prices. Just sold it for 150k and upsizing now, having saved another 30k over the last four years to put down as a lump sum. We don't get paid megabucks by any stretch (in fact for two of these years my other half was studying), and as other people have said this was achieved by being frugal- no new mobile phone deals, shopping in Aldi, no finance for anything, diy'ing as much as possible, cheap holidays. So it was doable for us although I appreciate this might be a different kettle of fish to London

tukka123

Thanks for the feedback. I live in the Ruislip area which is zone 5 so £199. Yes the rent is high but when we moved in a year ago. I spent months looking in different areas to suit our needs and budget. We viewed many places and for anything under £900 we found to be miles from the station and or a total dump and I mean a TOTAL dump. To be fair we could maybe save a little more but we are in a 2 year old flat and the property is fantastic for heating and maintaining. Our heating bill are actually a lot lower than we had budgeted and compared to friends in similar properties. I have changed all the light bulbs with energy ones so the flats bills don't cost us as much as we had expected.


I am from a small village outside reading and the travel time was 2 hours from door to door and the cost has just gone up to £450 a month. My girlfriend is from Essex and we both want to live fairly central to both our home towns for family.

We are financially secure (As much as possible anyway) and I have no debt other than MSE 0% credit cards which we use and abuse the banks . My girlfriend has little debt from her uni days which is controlled with a few years left.

As for life style we go out for a date night meal once a month (Discount tokens form MSE ps don't tell the gf lol) We have one holiday a year using last min deals. I know we could cut this out but we do feel we need a week away once a year due to our work industry and it is well researched and costs are kept to a min. We do weekly shops using the MSE challenge and we only buy what we need and keep the cost to a min.

Our options for moving are north of the M25 or in the Hillingdon area which is where we are now. And I know we could go further out but we work long hours in the week which would mean we would not be home until past 8pm and when we do have a family I don't want to spend my time away form them in the week on a train.

Also thinking of the area for schools in the future etc.....

Well I think that's a bout it....