How did you manage to buy your house?

perfectspiral

The long, old fashioned boring way.


3 years, saved every penny, no holidays for several years, shopped in Lidl/Aldi, iPhone 5S, worked hard to increase income via a promotion, drive a Dacia not a Beamer, and a monthly budget target to save a set amount, no credit, it was a bore at times, but I'm happy to finally own a home in my early 30s.

moneyistooshorttomention

I think it would be useful if posters here put roughly what their salary is/was and what the house cost them.

Very much so - re putting what the house cost them and what they got for that. Also some indication what money went out on rent whilst they were trying to save.

It's not clear otherwise whether someone is on a reasonable salary/in an area where house prices are pretty affordable on the one hand. The other alternative being poor salary/dear housing. Could be two people who are very similar circumstances of themselves - but two very different outcomes (even though they're both trying as hard as each other) iyswim.

Waterlily24

My husband was in the building trade a shopfitter. When we bought our house in 1968 it was quite hard for hourly paid people to get mortgages especially if you were in the building trade. My hubby (then my fiance) was on £40 a week and our monthly repayments were £40. Our mortgage was £5,300 over 25 years.

I worked in the building society we got our mortgage from and in those days women couldn't have a staff mortgage (4%) until they were 24 for men it was 21. I think the normal mortgage was around 6% then.

Forgot to say the property was in North West Kent on the borders of Surrey and London so quite an expensive area.

In those days they didn't take ladies earnings into account for the mortgage.

datlex

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

I think it would be useful if posters here put roughly what their salary is/was and what the house cost them.

Very much so - re putting what the house cost them and what they got for that. Also some indication what money went out on rent whilst they were trying to save.

It's not clear otherwise whether someone is on a reasonable salary/in an area where house prices are pretty affordable on the one hand. The other alternative being poor salary/dear housing. Could be two people who are very similar circumstances of themselves - but two very different outcomes (even though they're both trying as hard as each other) iyswim.

Good point. Here salary £20-25K, Property 90K (2 bed bungalow). Deposit £9k. Rent was £71 a week from a housing association. Most I could have got on a mortgage was £112k (from AIPs prior to mortgage. There were actually 3 bedroom houses going for less than I paid nearby in the housing association area with lots of families living. I chose to buy a property in a better location for me, nearer to shops,church,dearly beloved, quiet neighbours.

FTBuyerGlasgow

Bought in 2013 after both of us saving for a year whilst living with respective parents.

Age: 26 & 22
Joint Income £42k
Deposit 5%
House Price £120k for a nice, local two bed semi in Glasgow

Since then I've doubled my income through gaining qualifications. We've been on holidays most years and had a pretty big wedding this year. We've got a small amount of Credit Card debt but that's now getting paid off as we do up the parts of the house we didn't have time/money for until now.

Our fixed rate deal is coming to an end which we'll fix for 5 years to make sure we ride the incoming Brexit storm, then we'll decide if we are upsizing or extending.

Buying a house really is the best financial decision we ever made.

Novice_investor101

I've been financially independent from my parents since I was 18, I started saving what I could after finishing uni at 24. Worked my way up to the national average wage but could have saved more if I'd been wiser. When I bought at 31 (a mid terrace , 2up/2down house for £100k) I had £50k in savings but £25k came from inheritance & £12k from an injury claim after a serious accident at work. These two lump sums meant I could afford to put down a 25% deposit & have £15k to pay for work needed on the house & still have £10k left for an emergency fund.

I could possibly have bought with my own £13k of savings with a 5% deposit, but I'd have struggled financially after & the monthly mortgage payments would have been higher.

It still feels like a good decision not to have bought a bigger house using the whole £50k as a deposit as now I'm quite comfortable at age 36 with a 40% LTV (house value has gone up by £35k) as mortgage is £328 a month, bills are comfortable & I have more disposable income than ever before. Before buying rent was costing £475pm.

speakingofart

Just me, slightly over average income, no parents living so no bank of mum and dad and no inheritances either. Haven't been given a penny towards it, bar my H2B bonus, and I complete on my first flat next friday. Really wish there was a magic formula, but I'm afraid it's just saving like mad, saying no to things I really wanted to do and being very boring for a few years.

Firmly believe it shouldn't be as difficult as it is without a rich family behind you though!!

claire111

1984 age 20. Boyfriend and I got 2.5 x joint income mortgage of £30k. We earned about £6k each. He was a delivery driver and I was an admin clerk and we borrowed the £500 deposit from family. It was a 1 bed 14 year old purpose built flat in south Croydon. We both ran second hand cars which were old and frequently breaking down and we ate a lot of plain mince and rice. No meals out or holidays for us ! We always knew were very lucky to get on the ladder when we did as within months the property was way out of our price range. We struggled with interest rates rising from 10 to 15% and lived very frugally for many years. My daughter of a similar age complains she will never be able to buy but she lives a very different much more extravagant life than we did back then.

humptydumptybits

I was 19 and it was a wreck, my mother cried when she saw it. It was 1972 and I had been saving in a building society account for 4 years. My husband was 23.


Thinking about it I was 19 but it was 1973, my birthday is late in the year.

hjghg5

2003, I was 25 and had just had a substantial payrise from (IIRC) £17500 to about £30000. I had been living at home for a few years and had some savings, but was planning to save for a house for a little longer. However, my parents decided to emigrate, meaning I had to buy earlier than I intended to - so I ended up relying on BOMAD - they sold their house and let me use some of the proceeds to buy my house. House was £169,000, I took out a mortgage for £100,000 and they made up the deficit. It ended up being a nicer house than I would have probably ended up with if I'd bought a year or two later without help, and I still live here today (and my mortgage is *still* £100,000 - it's gone up and down over the year as I've paid it off and then taken more out for renovations, but I remortgaged on Friday for the amount I originally borrowed. The LTV is much lower now though).

When I came to remortgage after 7 or 8 years my sister was looking to buy a house and my salary had increased (plus I'd built up some equity) so I took out a bigger mortgage to pay my parents off and gave the money to my sister. No idea if she's paid them back yet!