The rise of the 40 year mortgage

Conrad

Just got my first Iphone, a 5c. £100 up front and £16.99 pm, 500 mins of free calls. Was an EE upgrade.


Never going back to Samsung or HTC, the Iphone is far better designed and more intuitive.


Chinese are good bolting schit together but their ability to design and have empathy for their end users needs has a way to go. Obedient parrot fashion education has it's drawbacks.

Conrad

Jon_B wrote: »

Regarding FTB'ers going straight to forever homes. I think this is largely driven by the fact that most have spent a long time building a deposit that by the time they buy they may be married and/or have kids so skip the traditional FTB house


.

My first place was a 3 bed, my second place a 5 bed and I'm still there 14 years later.
My thinking was to avoid the hassle and costs of more regular moves.


The Managers in the FS firm I used to work for all had this 'get the biggest place you can' mentality.

Graham_Devon

wotsthat wrote: »

Anyone with an item from this list and complaing they can't afford to buy because of when they were born probably needs to give themselves a shake.

Oh come on. Like having an Iphone is going to make a jot of difference to the affordability of a house.

You can pick up an iphone on contract, brand new today with no upfront cost at £25 per month.

Now you may think that's £300 a year.

However, most will still need a phone of some sort. The cheapest android equivalent is around £17.50 a month (for an equivalent contract).

So by not having an iphone you have saved yourself £7.50 a month. Or, £90 a year.

Hardly going to make a dent is it.

I'm fully aware and buy into getting value for money and not wasting money. But the way you guys go on about these iphones is ridiculous. Granted, £90 is £90. But you are talking in terms of this hindering the ability to buy a house....and at that point it gets ridiculous. Houses themselves are probably increasing £90 every couple of days, and you believe saving that much in a year is going to help?

lisyloo

Like having an Iphone is going to make a jot of difference to the affordability of a house.

I agree with you, but making a sweeping generalisation there are people who live below their means and beileve in deferred gratification and people who don't and belive in more immediate gratification.

I myself have a donated (out of contract) iphone 3 with giffgaff SIM having only recently upgraded from a 2G phone (when it broke).
I also have a 17 year old car.

People with iphone contracts when they could make do with a £15 2G phone from tescos also tend to have a similar attitude to sky, gyms, holidays, even their lunch.

That is of course a sweeping generalisation, but it's not all about he iphone, it's about the attitude to living below your means and what sacrifices you are going to make e.g. taking a lunchbox rather than buying a fancy sandwich and frothy coffee every day.

If you're talking gyms, cars, sky, clothes, eating out etc. then it does all add up.

I don't personally live like a hermit, but then I'm not actively trying to buy a house and actually I do believe in balance myself, however if one is trying to get on the housing ladder then it has almost NEVER been easy and people have always done stuff like cycling and taking a lunchbox.

ukcarper

You can get a perfectly good android phone for £10 a month.

Graham_Devon

ukcarper wrote: »

You can get a perfectly good android phone for £10 a month.

You can get perfectly good lots of stuff for lower costs. Why buy a ford focus when you can buy a Dacia Sandero?

However, it's difficult to quantify in these discussions. If people are looking at an Iphone you have to compare the equivalent, not just the cheapest.

No business would look at their IT and say "why are we spendiong £600 on each computer - look, you can get a perfectly good one from ebuyer for £150". It's the whole package you need to look at.

I detest Apple, for example, but I still have an Ipad (I didn't buy it mind). Reason? The software is linked to several other Apple devices. Sure, we could have picked up an android tablet for £49, but it would have been pointless.

wymondham

jay213 wrote: »

No, I think you will find it has more to do with when you were born. If you was buying your first house now and was doing the same job as you were doing x years ago when you bought, you probably couldn't afford the same house you bought, regardless if you had an iPhone or not (that statement may not be true for you, but is true for a lot of house owners from the eighties, nineties e.g. butcher, 1 salary, 3x income prices and mortgages existed in that time frame, not today).

An one off iPhone is nothing in the grand scheme of things, that 500 quid ain't going to affect your ability to get a 250k mortgage. I have no idea how old you are but I'm sure that there was technology that existed in your days that didn't exist in your parents days.

I do think this is true. I couldn't afford my house now on my wages now, as houses have gone up silly amounts in recent years...

ukcarper

Graham_Devon wrote: »

You can get perfectly good lots of stuff for lower costs. Why buy a ford focus when you can buy a Dacia Sandero?

However, it's difficult to quantify in these discussions. If people are looking at an Iphone you have to compare the equivalent, not just the cheapest.

No business would look at their IT and say "why are we spendiong £600 on each computer - look, you can get a perfectly good one from ebuyer for £150". It's the whole package you need to look at.

I detest Apple, for example, but I still have an Ipad (I didn't buy it mind). Reason? The software is linked to several other Apple devices. Sure, we could have picked up an android tablet for £49, but it would have been pointless.

I've got a Moto E and it's perfectly adequate. I think you are disproving your own argument if you buy an IPhone purely to link in with other Apple devices you are spending more money than is necessary.
In ans to your first sentence because you can't afford a Focus.

Graham_Devon

ukcarper wrote: »

I've got a Moto E and it's perfectly adequate. I think you are disproving your own argument if you buy an IPhone purely to link in with other Apple devices you are spending more money than is necessary.
In ans to your first sentence because you can't afford a Focus.

For your usage.

I have a Moto G (the Moto E just had too many drawbacks for me personally, no flash, no front facing camera, no 4G at the time, none removable battery) so I'm on the same page, but I don't pretend it's an iphone equivalent. I can't, for example, connect up to my works servers on it - I can on an Iphone.

A 1 bed flat would most likely be perfectly adequate for you too, but you don't choose to live in one, you choose to live in a 4 bed house and pay the extra costs associated.

ukcarper

wymondham wrote: »

I do think this is true. I couldn't afford my house now on my wages now, as houses have gone up silly amounts in recent years...

Surely that depends on when you bought your house, prices were cheap for most of the 90s but at times they have been more expensive and you can borrow more now.
I must admit where I am prices have increased dramatically over the last year or so making it extremely difficult to buy, but I'm not sure that's true every where.