Buying a house while single?

Alan2020 · 19 December 2018 at 12:08PM

Yes it’s better to buy.

I bought when single with circa £18K deposit and 5years later was married and sold and took away circa £100K out of the property. I did a lot of work on it and cannot see why you can’t do the same.
Also what if you just don’t meet the right person for another 20 years??

We tend to meet people similar to us, my OH had her own property too.

moneyistooshorttomention · 19 December 2018 at 2:05PM

I've not forgotten a male work colleague of mine and he was quite openly saying "I had my own house - so I wasn't even going to date a woman that didn't have her own house":eek::eek:

I could understand why he said that - ie in case she decided to break up with him subsequently and grab half his house and there would be no chance to "even the odds out" because she'd not got one.

But it did strike me as very unromantic and he might well be missing out on some very nice women.

But I've spent a large part of a lifetime watching "who gets together with who" and there is quite a large element of "birds of a feather flocking together" going on in our society.

Does make me wonder where love comes into it - as just who are all these people that, very conveniently, fall in love with someone else in the same "flock of birds" and vice-versa?:cool:

pollyanna24 · 19 December 2018 at 2:14PM

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Woman in my 60's here - and I always assumed I'd "meet someone and then buy the house just before marriage with them".

I never did. But I had a chance at last (only through sheer good luck) to buy in my 30's and I promptly grabbed it fast with both hands before it vanished on me.

That was the correct thing to do and thank goodness I did take that chance - as it would certainly have vanished not long afterwards (just as I suspected it would).

Don't put yourself at risk of "settling for Mr Second Best or, worse, Mr Downright Disastrous" just in order to be able to manage to buy a house. I've seen it happen...:eek:

As for the idea of having children before getting married and/or buying a house:eek::eek::eek:. It makes much the best sense all round (including being fair to those children) to do it in the traditional order of:
- get married and buy a house
then
- have the children (if you want them) once those things are safely established

My mind always boggles at anyone having children without being married to the father of them first (sometimes not even living together). It also boggles at the thought of having children without having a house of one's own to house them in - :eek:to the thought of dragging children round from rented house and school to different-rented-house-and-different-school etc etc.

You've got the chance to buy = grab for it and be thankful imo. You do not want to risk losing that chance.

Just because you marry someone doesn't mean that everything will be hunky dory forever.

I didn't marry the father of my children, but when he left, I kept the house (he didn't do me any favours, it was a case of buying him out - first my brother came on the mortgage and eventually I bought my brother out).

I don't think it would have made any difference if we had been married, except that he couldn't have forced me to sell the house, but I prefer my way as I am digging away the mortgage instead of co owning it with my ex until the children are 18.

Now I am in the fortunate position of my house being mine and no one elses and even though I am single, I don't have the worry of my biological clock ticking away.

Having said the above, we first bought when we were 21, so we did own the house before having chlidren, but these days, I wouldn't say it's a necessity, otherwise there'll be no more children!

Exodi · 19 December 2018 at 4:52PM

I don't want to be a Killjoy Kevin but I just wanted to make sure you've properly checked your plans - naturally, almost everyone would prefer to own a house over renting!

You're looking at houses and aiming for a 25% deposit, very sensible, a 75% LTV will give you good interest rates! Have you checked if banks would lend you the remaining balance? A good rule of thumb is banks will usually lend you up to 4.5x your annual gross income. This is often the bottleneck for why people don't buy a house on their own as often as you'd expect. I've seen a lot of poeple on here expecting that banks would lend them £200,000+ for a nice 3 bed semi, whilst they are earning £18,000 a year. I think this is one of the biggest reasons people buy together.

Hopefully you're not one of these people and I haven't just shattered your dreams!

All depends where you live I guess, being from the South East, i'd be lucky to share a skip with someone for 100k.

strawberries1 · 19 December 2018 at 5:06PM

Save up and when you have enough for a 75% or 65% LTV buy.
However, don't take a long fixed term.
I took a 5yr fixed and I'm now in a relationship which will want to progress next year; yet my fixed term has over 4yrs left.

MysteryMe · 19 December 2018 at 9:22PM

Single men and women are buying properties every day of the week, there are more people living alone then ever before.

If you can afford to buy then do so if you wish but I agree it is sensible to save as much as you can whilst you are in the favourable position you are in. It is your decision to make, there is no compulsion to wait until X set of circumstances occur in your life.

ricky_v · 19 December 2018 at 10:35PM

Anna786 wrote: »

Is it a good idea to buy a house whilst you are still single? It seems the usual pattern majority follow is to find a partner, have children, marry and then look to buy a house.

I bought when 22 and single and now at 29 I'm "mortgage neutral" (i.e I can pay off the mortgage in full), but since certain bank accounts pay out a higher rate in interest, the rate is fixed (ERC apply), and I can more or less cope with the £127/month repayments, I'm currently in no rush to clear it. I might clear it when the fix ends when I'm 32 but I'll see what the mortgage rates are like then.

Marriage, joint mortgages and the eventual row about buying each other out and visiting the kids can kiss my a$$:rotfl:

Get depositing into that LISA, get your own place and eventually with careful spending you won't be in hock to partner/employer. Good luck!:)