First-time Buyer Woes - Light at the Ed of the Tunnel?

Lala2015

Hi everyone!

I hope everyone is having a good mid-week!

I have come here looking for a bit of advice and for your opinions please!

I've been renting for just over a year (across two separate flats).
I'm in the process of renewing my tenancy for another 6 months, as I will shortly be starting a new job and want to be settled before I even attempt to apply for a mortgage. I also don't want to be constricted if I somehow manage to find a property I like.

However, I'm getting rather disheartened!
I would be a sole applicant, living in the SE (surrey). I will be on 29k per annum (which has the likely potential to rise steadily), I have no debt, an almost perfect credit-rating & I will have no other 'debt'/commitments if I got a mortgage; other than petrol (£90.00 per month), my phone bundle (£12.00 per month), utilities and £100.00 per month on my food spend.
Savings are ad-hoc and are calculated after this amount.

I've seen a few starter homes nearby to my current flat and within a commutable distance to work, one bedrooms mostly, for £200 - 215,000.
My deposit will be £30k by the end of January and my aim is to build this to £40k as quickly as I can (as I only want to be renting for another year, max).

I'm finding although I'm saving hard, have a good deposit and have actively saved and worked very hard to never default and I am working towards a great credit rating - no bank is willing to lend more than just over £100,000.

Has any FTB (or otherwise), been in this situation, or could anyone offer their own story?
I know my sole application is not helping, but there must be people in the SE that can get onto the ladder?

Thanks everyone, I look forward to your replies

ACG

I think getting more than £100k should be possible however I think you would be looking at around £120-130k. If you can not up your deposit by more than I think £200k is going to be a stretch too far.

Lala2015

ACG wrote: »

I think getting more than £100k should be possible however I think you would be looking at around £120-130k. If you can not up your deposit by more than I think £200k is going to be a stretch too far.

I am trying to increase my deposit as fast as a I can. When you're paying £895.00 a month rent, utilities and food alone, it's difficult!:eek:
I don't want to be renting for much longer but I don't have the luxury of living with family, rent free.
I save every penny I possibly can but it can only be so much.

I understand the thought and the affordability process, but buying as a single applicant seems so out of reach.
Sometimes I feel like I should have done what other people my age have done and not saved, gone out every weekend and thrown my money away on alcohol and nights out, spend thousands on credit cards and found some bloke and just shacked up with them!
Seemed to work for them

It's so frustrating for a single person in the SE!

libf

Have you considered HelpToBuy Equity Loan on a new build property? I'm also a single applicant and being able to borrow 20% on the equity loan as well as ~4.5x my salary was what made the different between being able to afford a 3 bed house and a 2 bed flat. It does mean another few years of saving to be able to pay the equity loan off eventually, but I'll have been in the house 5 years sooner.

Lala2015

libf wrote: »

Have you considered HelpToBuy Equity Loan on a new build property? I'm also a single applicant and being able to borrow 20% on the equity loan as well as ~4.5x my salary was what made the different between being able to afford a 3 bed house and a 2 bed flat. It does mean another few years of saving to be able to pay the equity loan off eventually, but I'll have been in the house 5 years sooner.

Thanks Libf, I have applied for that scheme and been accepted! There just aren't any HelptoBuy properties in the near vicinity to me yet!

ACG

Move to a cheaper part of the country? I did all of that (except shack up with a bloke as, erm, men are not really my thing).

Can you buy a cheap doer upper place?

libf

Lala2015 wrote: »

Thanks Libf, I have applied for that scheme and been accepted! There just aren't any HelptoBuy properties in the near vicinity to me yet!

Should add that I'm also moving from Oxford (hellishly expensive) to Northamptonshire where property is cheaper. I looked at other places in Oxfordshire too, but change in postcode made a lot of difference. My commute will still be the same though, just south instead of north.

Lala2015

ACG wrote: »

Move to a cheaper part of the country? I did all of that (except shack up with a bloke as, erm, men are not really my thing).

Can you buy a cheap doer upper place?

libf wrote: »

Should add that I'm also moving from Oxford (hellishly expensive) to Northamptonshire where property is cheaper. I looked at other places in Oxfordshire too, but change in postcode made a lot of difference. My commute will still be the same though, just south instead of north.

Thanks both! I am keeping my eye out for properties slightly further out.
I'm extremely lucky, my new job is (at most), a half hour commute from home.

I don't really want to move anywhere that involves more than a 40 minute commute excluding traffic due to the nature of my job (I will be office based, but will have two working from home days, where if need be, I will have to be at the office in a flash).
Noted, that limits me, but as long as I'm in that sort of radius of my new job, I'm not at all fussed - it's just finding somewhere that is the problem!

looknohands

£160k mortgage for one person on £29k does seem a lot, repayments would be around £700 a month over 30 years, so you're looking at £1k with bills + food on top. You can fix for a couple of years which helps and as your salary would increase and your repayments would decrease you'd become more comfortable but I would realistically think about the affordability impact on yourself before seeing what a lender thinks. Bad when you think that someone on average UK wage can't afford the average UK house though!

ACG

Just had another thought on this, if you have a guaranteed pay scale increase (like doctors do for example) then you may be able to look at guarantor mortgages.

Lala2015

looknohands wrote: »

£160k mortgage for one person on £29k does seem a lot, repayments would be around £700 a month over 30 years, so you're looking at £1k with bills + food on top. You can fix for a couple of years which helps and as your salary would increase and your repayments would decrease you'd become more comfortable but I would realistically think about the affordability impact on yourself before seeing what a lender thinks. Bad when you think that someone on average UK wage can't afford the average UK house though!

Thanks looknohands!
I currently have outgoings of £1,300.00 all in all for rent, utilities and food/petrol so I know it can be done.
It's so frustrating when people are willing to charge thousands per month in rent but when you want to actually buy your first home (which is usually cheaper in terms of the monthly expenses), you can't get onto the ladder