Private investors to help 1st time buyer &TheHouseCrowd

AdrianC

I'm sceptical, too.

Two people working full time at minimum wage would see a household income of over £29,000 before tax. After tax, that would be around £2,200 per month.

jondav - would you consider putting some figures up, together with a rough part of the country?

ReadingTim

jondav wrote: »

How do you know that? How do you know that they can afford to move at all - that in itself is very expensive.

Our situation (and I guess plenty of others too) is as follows:

The area that we live in is one of the cheapest in the country.
We both have full time jobs that pay a good salary compared to the average in this area.
We live in the smallest flat that we can manage with.
We are metered for water to save money.
Heating is off between March and November, whatever the weather - we wrap up instead.
We have a small amount of debt (less than £2k) that we are trying to clear.
We have no savings.
We do not smoke or drink.

Can you advise me what you would suggest we do to "move to a cheaper area to save money"?

I am really not being argumentative, but life is not always that straight forward.

The sad fact of the matter is that home ownership is increasingly becoming the preserve of the wealthy, and for some people, no matter how hard they work or save, they will never be able to afford to buy and own their own house. Whilst everyone has a right to shelter, they don't have the right to own it - just access to it.

Furthermore, mass home ownership is a relatively new phenomenon, as this page illustrates: 100 years ago, 76% of the population rented privately. Obviously, 'home ownership returning to Victorian levels', has a very negative connotation as it goes against the idea of social and economic progress, but I can't help wondering if this reversion to the historical mean illustrates how, like many things associated with the post-war welfare state, it simply hasn't proved sustainable in the long term, especially in an demographically-changing global world.

Sorry if this sounds pessamistic, but I can't see any circumstances where we'd return to the golden age of property ownership of the 1950s - 1970s. Inevitably therefore, some will be left behind.

AdrianC

Of course, "return to Victorian levels" is a heck of a long way off... We're currently at 1980s levels, after the all-time peak of 2001.

From that page :


That also shows just how recent an innovation social rent was, too.

AdrianC

jondav wrote: »

Why? To give these desperate vultures even more to feed on? Nah, I'm ok thanks.

Then my scepticism remains.

Simple incontrovertible fact: Two people working full time (37.5hrs/wk) at minimum wage will earn 11% more than the national average household income.

sparky130a

jondav wrote: »

To be frank I don't give a flying !!!! what you believe.....how's that?

And thank you for shoving the fact that your life is all cushty down my throat.

Typical response from users of this site though - judgemental and holier than thou. Can't wait until your smugness comes back to bite you.....and that day will come.

I'm out.

Goodo.

Out of what? Work? Well as you yourself point out there was no point to that anyway.

Anyway, moving on...

Red-Squirrel_2

AdrianC wrote: »

Then you need to increase your income.

You say you work for the NHS full time - but it must be a very entry-level position. Can you not increase your skills and go for promotion?

On that salary, the OP is likely a qualified health care professional such as a nurse, physio, radiographer or midwife. Degree level roles, very highly skilled and huge levels of responsibility.

After several years experience and a promotion to a specialist nurse role, I still only earn £27k. The NHS is not a high pay environment for the vast vast majority of its staff, despite their skill and talent.

AdrianC

Red-Squirrel wrote: »

On that salary, the OP is likely a qualified health care professional such as a nurse, physio, radiographer or midwife. Degree level roles, very highly skilled and huge levels of responsibility.

Looking at the OP's other posts, she started a degree with an NHS bursary in 2011, so she's only a couple of years into her career. I was assuming a much more mature career.

She's also house-hunting for a two-bed house in Leeds, so theres definitely a route to more feasible ownership simply by lowering her sights a bit...

mightykate

Hi interesting points
Thank you for taking the time although a shame that things have to become a bit heated when it was a innocent attempt at gaining more knowledge
A) I am a qualified Occupational Therapist band 5, I don't want to change jobs I love my job, it pays what it pays. I retrained in my 40's so no I can't just go for a higher promotion and not sure I want to
I don't want to particularly move to another part of the country....it is not so simple as this, I live in Leeds which is @up north@
C) I live in a tiny 2 bed back to back, rent is #600 (pound sign not working!!!) a month bills and council tax extra. I live with my partner but he just set up a business this year since Jan so his income will not be taken into account.

It is what it is....

AdrianC

mightykate wrote: »

A) I am a qualified Occupational Therapist band 5, I don't want to change jobs I love my job, it pays what it pays. I retrained in my 40's so no I can't just go for a higher promotion and not sure I want to

OK, fair enough - Band 5 is the entry level, though, which is to be expected at the start of your career. If you're not willing to go for promotion to higher bands by specialising, you're going to have to accept that not increasing your income is part of that decision.

I don't want to particularly move to another part of the country....it is not so simple as this, I live in Leeds which is @up north@

Indeed. Given the prices you said, I'm sure I wasn't alone in assuming you were somewhere much more expensive. Leeds has a range of properties MUCH cheaper than the £175k you're looking at.

C) I live in a tiny 2 bed back to back, rent is #600 (pound sign not working!!!) a month bills and council tax extra.

And on that amount of rent, you're already struggling to save. Increase that by nearly 2/3, as even the best rate repayment mortgage would for the amount you want to borrow, and you're simply not going to be able to afford that. Which is why they won't lend you that much.

I live with my partner but he just set up a business this year since Jan so his income will not be taken into account.

And that would have been part of his decision to take the bold financial step to go self-employed. Good luck to him. Once he's built his business up, and got three years accounts behind him, you may well be in a better position. But, of course, 25 years time is starting to get to retirement age, so that's going to be a large part of any future lending decision.

It is what it is....

It is. But you CAN change it...

Money_saving_maniac

mightykate wrote: »

Hi interesting points
Thank you for taking the time although a shame that things have to become a bit heated when it was a innocent attempt at gaining more knowledge
A) I am a qualified Occupational Therapist band 5, I don't want to change jobs I love my job, it pays what it pays. I retrained in my 40's so no I can't just go for a higher promotion and not sure I want to
I don't want to particularly move to another part of the country....it is not so simple as this, I live in Leeds which is @up north@
C) I live in a tiny 2 bed back to back, rent is #600 (pound sign not working!!!) a month bills and council tax extra. I live with my partner but he just set up a business this year since Jan so his income will not be taken into account.

It is what it is....

Please feel free to tell me to keep my beak out but this is my opinion based on my experience.

I too bought very late, after I was 40, and partners income not taken into account. With hindsight my advice to you for what it's worth is this: buy somewhere that you can sell again, so pick a 2 bed flat in a decent area. If you can't afford that, get a 1 bed flat in a decent area.

Buy as soon as you can. Positively plan to move in 5 or 6 years as soon as your other halfs business has taken off or he has gone back into employment. Overpay your mortgage with every penny you have.

I didn't do this, I bought the house and garden I wanted in an area that I didn't want, because I didn't really think about the future thoroughly. And I had no solid plan to move, just 'eventually'
Now I'm trying to move but not a lot of years left till retirement, which gives us a problem now because although my other half now earns decent money, we have a huge gap to fill between what we could sell for and what we could buy for. I would have been much better off in every single way putting up with a flat for a few years as a stopgap.

We did get part way through buying last year but it all fell over when my buyer pulled out.