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

ruggedtoast

I see this thread has just reverted back to the standard forum paradigm of people who bought houses on one salary and did very nicely thereafter from a rising economic tide lifting all boats, dictating that no one should expect to buy a house on one salary or expect a rising tide to lift all boats.

PasturesNew

The_White_Horse wrote: »

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

Say a couple, both at £70k
Previous house to sell that they bought for £100k and is now worth £400k.

£300k equity ...... £140kx4=£560k

Total budget £860k - and that's before BOMAD or an inheritance/other.

Cornucopia

ruggedtoast wrote: »

I see this thread has just reverted back to the standard forum paradigm of people who bought houses on one salary and did very nicely thereafter from a rising economic tide lifting all boats, dictating that no one should expect to buy a house on one salary or expect a rising tide to lift all boats.

Not really. There are a number of different views here, including my own that there is property available at a reasonable price in the London area, and there are plenty of more affordable areas than London.

The issue is that (a) not everyone shares the view that housing is prohibitively expensive (a view backed up by the fact that it is still selling, and (b) even if the housing market has risen in some areas beyond what is reasonable, the ONLY thing that would really make a significant difference is the building of many new homes.

setmefree2

The_White_Horse wrote: »

Do you live in London? I have massively expensive commutes AND i have to run a car as well.

I do indeed live in London. I doubt you have to run a car and I doubt your oyster travel card is that expensive compared to season ticket for rail travel from the Home Counties.

setmefree2

ruggedtoast wrote: »

I see this thread has just reverted back to the standard forum paradigm of people who bought houses on one salary and did very nicely thereafter from a rising economic tide lifting all boats, dictating that no one should expect to buy a house on one salary or expect a rising tide to lift all boats.

Actually, the first property we bought in London was a one bedroom flat which we bought in 1987 for £50k and sold in 1993 for £500 less than we paid ie £49,500. We bought it on 2 salaries.

Thereafter, we bought 2 ruins - "the worst houses in the best streets" as they say.
The house we bought in 1993 was a real wreck and we had 2 babies at the time. We didn't have the money to do it up - so we found the money as we went along (new roof, kitchen, bathroom, fireplaces, decor, garden, etc).

The second house was even worse - everything - electrics, central heating, plastering, extension, loft conversion, etc,etc - however, we borrowed the money up front and we had everything done in a year.
Thereafter, we set about clearing our mortgage. Which we did last year - 15 years early.

I really do think that we have made our own luck. And I'm more than happy to help our kids get lucky too if they so wish.
Or they can sit around on their hands all day complaining that life is unfair. 'tis up to them.

AlexMac

silvercar wrote: »

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

Yup! £10k for my 4-bed terraced wreck in Brixton in 1975. So all you need is a time machine (altho' if I had one I'd swap it for less creaky knees...

Conrad

ruggedtoast wrote: »

dictating that no one should expect to buy a house on one salary

How can the Universe provide anything other than reality?

I'd like to walk in fields and never hear a car nor jet, but such a desire is no longer realistic. It's called life.

jimibaboza

setmefree2 wrote: »

Actually, the first property we bought in London was a one bedroom flat which we bought in 1987 for £50k and sold in 1993 for £500 less than we paid ie £49,500. We bought it on 2 salaries.

Thereafter, we bought 2 ruins - "the worst houses in the best streets" as they say.
The house we bought in 1993 was a real wreck and we had 2 babies at the time. We didn't have the money to do it up - so we found the money as we went along (new roof, kitchen, bathroom, fireplaces, decor, garden, etc).

The second house was even worse - everything - electrics, central heating, plastering, extension, loft conversion, etc,etc - however, we borrowed the money up front and we had everything done in a year.
Thereafter, we set about clearing our mortgage. Which we did last year - 15 years early.

I really do think that we have made our own luck. And I'm more than happy to help our kids get lucky too if they so wish.
Or they can sit around on their hands all day complaining that life is unfair. 'tis up to them.

How would you have gotten on if you were forced to pay a landlord 50%+ of your income because you could not afford that one bed flat? Or if a cash rich landlord gazumped you in the purchase of those "ruins" (and you didn't have the deposit anyway because you could not save due to the rent being so high).

Cornucopia

I never rented a flat in my 20s. I went straight from college to buying a flat.

setmefree2

jimibaboza wrote: »

How would you have gotten on if you were forced to pay a landlord 50%+ of your income because you could not afford that one bed flat? Or if a cash rich landlord gazumped you in the purchase of those "ruins" (and you didn't have the deposit anyway because you could not save due to the rent being so high).

After graduating in 1983 I lived in rented accommodation. I don't remember what percentage of my income went on rent, but since I had only just graduated I doubt I was earning that much. Some of the accommodation I lived in was crummy - the water in the bog used to freeze in the winter in one place. In another place I had no fridge so used to leave my milk in cold water in the sink. I lived without "stuff" even a TV (I had a radio) for years. I bought some clothes from charity shops (some new) and books from 2nd hand shops. I always used public transport. I was MSE before MSE even existed :-) Yet, I was living with other young people and we had a laugh - some of the best years of my life. While renting me and OH saved up a deposit.

When we first moved into our flat in 1987 we had no furniture. Our bed was a double lilo and our sofa was 2 bean bags. My Dad gave us a small TV as a wedding gift. A friend's parents gave us a very old 1960s cooker. We did buy a fridge however. Eventually, we bought a sofa and some Ikea furniture. Without a doubt some of the best years of my life.

We bought ruin number 1 in 1993 when nobody else was buying. There was no competion. Since, we had made no money on our first property we saved our deposit and our moving costs whilst living in our first flat. We had no money for anything immediately so lived with the worlds horriblest kitchen & bathroom, the world's oldest carpets (thread bare in places), no real furniture and chip papered walls We had 2 babies. We did up the house over time as we saved up the money. Some of the happiest days of my life.

We bought ruin no 2 in 2002. We were constantly being gazumped (even 2 months after the sale had been agreed). We were at our limit and could offer no more. But we got lucky, our seller stuck with us. If our seller had not stuck with us and had gone with the higher offers we would have simply bought another house. We borrowed the money up front to do up this house and it took a year.

It never crossed our minds that we wouldn't buy a place to live. It never crossed our minds that we couldn't save for deposits - we just did it. I guess it was our number one priority.