FTB house prices!

brandonwilliams1995

I have just purchased a property in the South East as FTB using Nationwide Helping Hands Scheme which is 5.5% salary. We wouldnt have been able to do it without this. Have a look to see if you meet the criteria, a mortgage advisor would know about this scheme, its worth speaking to one if you haven't already. 'Nationwide Helping Hand'

[Deleted User]

dinkylink said:

first_time_stressed_buyer said:

[Deleted User] said:

first_time_stressed_buyer said:

Thanks all for your comments!! To try and answer as much as I can:

- I'm in the North West and already looking as far and wide as I can for something to crop up within a reasonable commute. I am willing to compromise. 
- I am unable to buy with someone else. 
- I  a skilled worker and love my job, I have a good wage working for a good company. I am not willing to leave it. I have looked at other companies in the area just to see if I could negotiate a pay rise... I'm already being paid more!
- I have looked at shared ownership, there is currently not much available other than 25% share plus the rent, I would be paying more out than I currently am in rent! (so much for affordable housing) 
- help to buy looked promising but again, not much currently available and again, do not seem to feel very affordable!
- I have family willing to help, we have looked at family deposit mortgages to top up the difference but after speaking with lenders it doesn't seem to increase the price I can buy for 😔.

Thanks all for the input though! 

I hear the same story over and over again.

You identified the issue with shared ownership. There were some okay schemes in the past, but these days they are mostly a very bad idea because you end up paying out a hell of a lot of money, stretched to your limit (which makes affordability checks harder to pass anyway) and if interest rates rise of the value of the property decreases (unlikely but possible) you could be in a real mess.

What kind of job do you have? One possibility is to work from home permanently, or at least most of the time. My brother does 1 day in the office every fortnight, and it's a 2 hour commute each way. Means you can live in an area with low wages and low house prices. Of course it needs to have good internet connectivity for many jobs, and such areas tend not to be very nice.

I wish working from home were an option 😔 I'm a tree surgeon so unfortunately, there isn't much scope to work from home 😅😅😅  I appreciate your comments though 😊

Have you thought about going solo with your work? I appreciate you might need a bit of capital to sort the equipment etc initially, but I have a self-employed tree surgeon friend who earns ridiculously good money

Being self employed makes it even harder to get a mortgage.