What chance does a twenty something year old have in the South? Anyone else in a similar boat?

tommysaver

To cut a long story short.

I've recently done some quick maths, and well, I'm extremely depressed by it. I'm no millennial moaner, but I simply need to express the issue to someone and see what anyone else is planning on doing? Because all I'm doing at the moment is existing, and delaying my life if anything.. feels a bit odd to make minimal progress.

I think I earn a fairly good wage for my age, let's just say its around £30k which is near enough the average, right?

I live in the South East, AHHHHH I hear you sneer! - there's your problem, the location..

Quite right. I was born here, as was my family, and so most of my life, is here. (Bucks)

You can buy a rather plain, nothing special to look at, terraced house with no garage and tiny garden for approx £350k here.

You can also get a small semi absolute POS in a disgusting area which hardly even resembles a home for £300k

Flats again are minimum £260 - £300k

Now, just to put that into perspective,

That means that even a properly 'rubbish' house and I mean rubbish, in a dive of an area is 10 TIMES my salary, and I wouldn't even want to consider it from the start...

Something better is more like 12 to 14 TIMES my salary, and obviously there are many earning less.

As I have grown up, the 2009 crash was when I was 15/16 - A.K.A in no position to buy a house then, and subsequently, interest rates on savings have been pretty awful growing up too. Nothing like getting the best of both worlds, eh? Still at least wages are doing well and brexit is going seamlessly. (Facepalm)


I'm fortunate enough, as are nearly all of my friends, to be living with my parents - I pay them a rent, but no where near as much as the average place here. So, at least I can save each month. Herein lies the issue, not enough!

I saw another article where the older generations actually blamed our generation and housing problems on drinking coffee out..! Let me say no amount of coffee is going to make a difference here!

I've lived a fairly sheltered / limited life always happy and thinking that saving was always the best thing to do, now, I feel the opposite as I should have just gone mental and had some good holidays. I've had about 2 proper holidays I've paid for in 6 years.

For example, lets in theory say I've managed to save nearly £1k a month for 5 years

Which going on a recent BBC article on young people and their savings would put me in the top 10%, probably 5% of savers for 22-29 year olds.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45744552

(What on earth is everyone else going to do?)

and I could probably get a mortgage for what, 4 times a salary? 30k x 4 = £120k

Plus in theory a deposit of say £50k = £170k a.k.a enough to buy you nothing.

Not really interested in the help to buy options especially at such an interesting time due to brexit. I don't like the idea of them and some people become trapped.

To me, it seems the only viable option is to move 100+ miles away at the minimum, and start a new career - which has many problems in itself and doesn't sound great to be honest. (My line of work isn't easily transferable...)

Guess I'll just carry on as normal and pretend I'm making progress, then. :rotfl:

Or.. am I all wrong? Are you in your 20's and live in the South? What have you done / are you doing?

Rant and thoughts over! Cheers all. Sometimes it's good to brain dump..

:beer:

lippy1923

I'm around the same age as you, still in my 20's. Difference is I purchased my house in 2010 when house prices were still low (lol) from the crash. And I did it with my now husband. Twice the income was a game changer as we could borrow more.


Was probably the best decision we made to buy young as my house has increased in value buy around £100k according to some recent valuations we have had. We wouldn't have been able to afford it in 2018 though even on both our salaries at the time, we would have been priced out. It was just luck of timing the housing market, nothing more.


You have done well to save what you have on your own, so keep going. Can you find someone to buy with you?

ruperts

There seems to be plenty of perfectly fine terraces for sale in Luton for less than £200k with some quite a bit cheaper, and that was just the first place I looked.

tommysaver

I don't mean to be rude, but Luton is probably one of the worst towns to live in the UK.

Also, I don't really see that as a viable place to live - it's not really a family home, is it?

I probably do need to lower any expectations I have, but there becomes a point where I'm just point blank not even interested..

tommysaver

lippy1923 wrote: »

I'm around the same age as you, still in my 20's. Difference is I purchased my house in 2010 when house prices were still low (lol) from the crash. And I did it with my now husband. Twice the income was a game changer as we could borrow more.


Was probably the best decision we made to buy young as my house has increased in value buy around £100k according to some recent valuations we have had. We wouldn't have been able to afford it in 2018 though even on both our salaries at the time, we would have been priced out. It was just luck of timing the housing market, nothing more.


You have done well to save what you have on your own, so keep going. Can you find someone to buy with you?

If you are a similar age to me how on earth did you manage that in 2010!? I was 18!

Born at the wrong time I think, I've got 2 mates (1 is 8 years older than me, the other 14 years) that purchased in 09/10 and both of their property's have nearly doubled now. Weird to think I likely won't get that luxury?

Thanks for the insight!

lippy1923

I had just turned 20 when I brought the house. Me and DH didn't go to uni so got full time jobs straight away from school at 18.

2 years of saving over £1k a month each. Commission and bonus's all went towards the deposit. I remember 6% ISA rates around 2008/2009 so that also helped. Lived rent free with parents for those 2 years of saving.
Mortgage was within affordability due to lower house prices.

tommysaver

lippy1923 wrote: »

I had just turned 20 when I brought the house. Me and DH didn't go to uni so got full time jobs straight away from school at 18.

2 years of saving over £1k a month each. Commission and bonus's all went towards the deposit. I remember 6% ISA rates around 2008/2009 so that also helped. Lived rent free with parents for those 2 years of saving.
Mortgage was within adorability due to lower house prices.

That's amazing, you couldn't have done anything better with the money. I'm jealous!

lippy1923

Living with parents really is the best opportunity to save as much as you can. Very unlikely to ever be able to save that amount anywhere else.

Maybe post an SOA somewhere for others to help identify areas of waste. On £30k that's around £1900ish a month I think. So what are you spending nearly half your income on? (I know your post was hypothetical so might not actually reflect your figures, but worth considering a review of your spending to see what you could cut back on)

ruperts

tommysaver wrote: »

I don't mean to be rude, but Luton is probably one of the worst towns to live in the UK.

Also, I don't really see that as a viable place to live - it's not really a family home, is it?

I probably do need to lower any expectations I have, but there becomes a point where I'm just point blank not even interested..

I'm sure many people's first houses were in areas they might have preferred to avoid. But those are the kind of sacrifices that often need to be made to get on the ladder. I'm sure there's pockets of Luton that are just fine anyway.

You didn't mention having a family in your first post. Ordinarily a family would have two earners, and that would increase your options. If it's just you then you don't need a family home yet. Besides, many families get by perfectly well in terraced houses.

CavendishWobble

Tommy, I am in my late 20s and in a similar situation to yourself and unfortunately things are not great for our age group but just means we have to work harder to get what we want. But we can get there.

I have three sets of friends:
Group 1: "House prices are too much il never get a deposit so il just wait for bank of mum and dad"
Group 2: "House prices are too much, i cant get a deposit (no bank of mum and dad) so i give up and feel sorry for myself"
Group 3: "Its going to be real tough but i really want this so i am going to work harder"

You want to be in group 3

firebubble

I'm sure many people's first houses were in areas they might have preferred to avoid. But those are the kind of sacrifices that often need to be made to get on the ladder. I'm sure there's pockets of Luton that are just fine anyway.

This is it what I did - looked for areas which were nicer than the prices suggested, often where the reputation of the area is that it is the "worst", as you put it.

Rundown areas with good transport links (currently, or being developed), period homes (particularly periods which aren't that fashionable now, eg thirties or sixties rather than Victorian, Georgian etc), which are probably smaller than you'd choose, but you're not going to be there forever. Areas where if you knew nothing about it, it may be scruffy but it's got all the elements of a nice place to live. Sure, they may be poundshops now, but if they were coffeeshops? Places often very close to somewhere deemed "nice", but which have reputations, often not really deserved for any real reason other than personal prejudice. Look ahead - for regeneration plans, new buildings, changes to the area which are going to make it better, and therefore will pull property prices up. Be prepared to renovate it yourself (ie you actually pick up tools, not hand over the keys to a builder which will often make renovations too expensive).

That's how you do it.