How can people afford to rent?

PPPv2

Me and my girlfriend are currently living at her mum's. It's ok but I don't have no space, currently got most of my clothes in my car along with few other bits. Been to look at a couple of places that we can afford but don't earn the 30x times rent in wages. So they don't even consider us. I early with my part time contract £7k. Girlfriend with her part time is£9k. She has very limited of over time. Yet with me I'm expected to do more hours. I Do like £12-14k a year. We both looking for different work as we are not in our chosen fields but took jobs to find work. So how do people get on the rent? Annoying thing is on a £200000 mortgage we wouldn't be paying what we would be paying in rent in a month. Not really sure why I typed the above

austonic

Whereabouts in there country are you trying to rent?

Are the part-time jobs permanent and fixed hours contracts (maybe with additional hours/overtime now and then, but not zero hours contracts)? Have you had the jobs for at least six months?

Have you and your partner got good credit records? Have your current accounts been in the black for last three months?

Are you looking to rent a whole property or a decent sized room in a shared house?

Are you in a position to buy?

Hopefully these questions will give you some clues as to how some people are able to rent. Clearly though bottom line is enough income to afford the rent when insufficient deposit and security to get a mortgage. Frustrating.

[Deleted User]

I'm afraid this is nothing new. In the 80's I had a low paying full time job, so had an evening job as well.., so I could afford to rent a room/pay fares (no bills) and eat (the part time job). I didn't rent expensive rooms either.

I'm afraid if you don't have a high hourly rate, you have to find a way to increase the hours if you can. I always had more than one job when I was single and didn't have children.

Lioness_Twinkletoes

PPPv2 wrote: »

Me and my girlfriend are currently living at her mum's. It's ok but I don't have no space, currently got most of my clothes in my car along with few other bits. Been to look at a couple of places that we can afford but don't earn the 30x times rent in wages. So they don't even consider us. I early with my part time contract £7k. Girlfriend with her part time is£9k. She has very limited of over time. Yet with me I'm expected to do more hours. I Do like £12-14k a year. We both looking for different work as we are not in our chosen fields but took jobs to find work. So how do people get on the rent? Annoying thing is on a £200000 mortgage we wouldn't be paying what we would be paying in rent in a month. Not really sure why I typed the above

Generally, people work full time and save hard for a deposit and associated costs. Then, they rent according to their budget so will often start renting in a house share. Sacrifices are made in respect of socialising and buying nice things so that saving can continue. Some lucky souls get to live at home with Mum & Dad and save even more while enjoying all the luxuries of a comfortable home life.

Then, hopefully, you get a better paid job and either stay in the house share/family home and continue to save for a home of your own or decide to stick with renting and move on up to a rented flat/house that you don't have to share. While you are doing all this you are, of course, managing your credit file and ensuring you're building an excellent credit history for the time you can afford a mortgage.

Of course you are going to struggle on part time wages. You both need to get full time jobs and save hard. You certainly need to put all idea of a mortgage out of your head for now!

antilles

Having been in a similar situation, the solution for me was:

- Skip the renting option entirely.
- Save as much disposable income as possible in order to get a large deposit
- Buy a run down house in a not great area (away from where I lived)
- Stay with parents while we did up the run down house in the evenings and weekends
- Move into the done up house for a while
- Keep saving up dispoable income for another bigger deposit
- Sell on and use the money made from doing up the house (supplemented with more savings) to buy another run down house in the better area
- Repeat the process until you have a good house in a decent area

Hard work yes and means spending a lot of your time decorating but a very good way to get a good house in a good area.

marksoton

PPPv2 wrote: »

Me and my girlfriend are currently living at her mum's. It's ok but I don't have no space, currently got most of my clothes in my car along with few other bits. Been to look at a couple of places that we can afford but don't earn the 30x times rent in wages. So they don't even consider us. I early with my part time contract £7k. Girlfriend with her part time is£9k. She has very limited of over time. Yet with me I'm expected to do more hours. I Do like £12-14k a year. We both looking for different work as we are not in our chosen fields but took jobs to find work. So how do people get on the rent? Annoying thing is on a £200000 mortgage we wouldn't be paying what we would be paying in rent in a month. Not really sure why I typed the above

You both need full time jobs. Until then you're gonna be stuffed frankly.

Bvv

My boyfriend and I rented a place when our combined income was about £22k (about £20k after tax), so not much different to yours when factoring in your over time.

You say they don't even consider you because you're not earning enough. To me it seems you have 3 options:
- find better paid work (easier said than done perhaps)
- look at cheaper properties (don't know if that is possible in your area). The first place we rented was a small bedroom flat, in a slightly run down (but not terrible) part of town. We couldn't imagine ourselves living there forever, but it was fine for the year we were there. During that year our financial situation improved so we moved to a nicer flat after that.
- try to rent through a private landlord rather than agency. Every place I have rented has been through a private landlord and I have found they generally don't apply the same strict rules as an agency does. There are lots of horror stories about finding a place to rent on Gumtree, but it's always worked well for me.

ST1991

What deposit are you basing the 'on a £200K mortgage our payments would be less'?

Our rent was £650 (in Bristol) for a nice new-build 2bed flat with private parking, but it was small...

We bought a house that needs a lot of work but is livable for £175k with a 5% deposit and our mortgage payments are £720. Plus, we no longer live in a nice new insulated flat where heating wasn't required (bills are more) and we need to keep money to one side for emergency repairs.

It is doable!

AnotherJoe

marksoton wrote: »

You both need full time jobs. Until then you're gonna be stuffed frankly.

This. You both have poorly paying part time jobs. You need to work on changing that.

Might not be what you want to hear, might be difficult, but thats the issue.

fairy_lights

PPPv2 wrote: »

So how do people get on the rent?

They work full time. Is that not an option for either of you in your current jobs?
Would renting a room in a shared house be something you would consider?

cloo

I think unless you're working full time, you should go for a shared house. If you really want to save and don't mind not having a lounge, maybe find a share where the lounge is used as a bedroom.