i live in the suburbs of London. How do people afford houses?

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

ringo_24601 wrote: »

And their key trick was to buy a house 20 years ago

20 years from now people will be saying the same thing.

Prices always go up over the long term in an inflationary monetary system.

silvercar

Hamish and Ringo are spot on. The trick is to buy early, buy young & buy together.

The_White_Horse

so basically, all these 35 yr olds bought when they were 15 and are now rolling in it. I see.

pinkteapot

If they're people you know, what sorts of jobs are they in?

The_White_Horse

they are in well paid jobs - but not THAT well paid. somewhere between £50k to £100k. no more.

The_White_Horse

Triffid wrote: »

I live in London too and work in public services and see the same behaviour. I also see so many people of equivalent class/income level driving around in flash cars. I think it can only be explained by one thing. I'm taxed PAYE and can't cheat the system.....however many of my neighbours are self employed business/trades 'entrepreneurs' who often get paid 'cash in hand'......obviously in order to help the customer so they don't have to pay VAT on the job;)

yes, i would say that a fair few of them "employ" the wife and claim the VAT back on everything - business related or not. pay themselves the minimum possible. take dividends.

it's ridiculous people can get away with this. if you run a company and the turnover is say, £80k, then every penny that goes to the employee/shareholder should be taxed as PAYE. anything left in, must be genuinely left in and any shenanigans should result in prison. someone running their own company invoicing £80k should pay exactly the same tax as someone earning £80k on PAYE

andrewf75

big mortgage, big deposit, help from parents
maybe they are on more? I know quite a few people in London on similar salaries and most live in 500k homes rather than 800k ones

SailorSam

I know when i watch some of these 'house in the country' type of programmes i'm amazed at the price of houses they're looking at. Sometimes they're only young couples. I can't help but compare it to here where you'd have a big choice of starter homes for less than £100k. I know earning are probably higher down south but is it really worth that difference.

RevolvingDoor

SailorSam wrote: »

I know when i watch some of these 'house in the country' type of programmes i'm amazed at the price of houses they're looking at. Sometimes they're only young couples. I can't help but compare it to here where you'd have a big choice of starter homes for less than £100k. I know earning are probably higher down south but is it really worth that difference.

Those people always make me feel very annoyed and very jealous.:p

The_White_Horse

a house on a road near me has just been put up at £850k. it is utter madness. you can live in a better area for that much. I had an estate agent contact me after sending me a house spec for £630k. No house has sold on that road for more £420k ever - some are quite recent sales.

He said "do you want to view it". I said "no". He said "why not?". I said "because it is massively overpriced".

He said "the vendors will be willing to accept a substantial discount on the asking price".

what is wrong with people.