what to do!

CHARDONNAY_3

I don't mean to sound rude, but it doesn't seem like you have thought this through. Your partner doesn't want to buy a place but you expect him to buy one in his name only. Surely he would be mental to do that.

I currently rent a 1 bed flat from a HA in what is not the nicest areas. I would love to move somewhere bigger and better but I can't afford to -
Plus I appreciate that I don't have the stress and huge expense of a mortgage and if anything goes wrong at my property I don't have to fix it.

Those are the things you should appreciate instead of chasing the elusive dream of owning your own home. If you aren't already satisfied with your life, bricks and mortar aren't gonna be the answer you are looking for.

SquatNow

You go buy a house, it sounds like a great idea!

(Can I have your council house please???)

oldMcDonald

We are in a Housing Association house at the moment, we were made homeless (long, long story which I won't go into here!) and now that the dust has settled we are getting back on our feet.

My husband has recently managed to gain employment and we are now starting to look to the future. In truth, financially we would be better off staying here, our rent is a lot lower than it would be privately and is certainly lower than a mortgage would be (we are in the south east). Our house is a four bedroom - something we could never afford to buy - and if something stops working someone is here to fix it fast and without cost to us.

However, we still want to buy a house. We found ourselves in a situation we could never have planned for, events took over and we were so grateful to have been given this house when we were in need. We were very lucky. Now we have more money coming in, not a huge salary of 17K, but a lot more than we had. We still couldn't afford to buy on that salary, 3 beds round here start at around £150k, but we are now saving like mad for a deposit. I believe that house prices will drop over the next few years and I hope that with 3.5x salary, plus any deposit we have saved, will be enough to get us a 3 bed. (We are in a 4 bed as the HA say we should be as we have a disabled child, but we will buy a 3 bed with a seperate dining room which will become the 4th bedroom as we could not afford a 4 bed)

I believe that social housing should be for emergencies and those that truely need it. My SIL was given a 3 bed council house 30 years ago when she was a single parent, she lives there now with her 28yr old son and her husband, all three bringing in a good wage and all three having new cars. That is wrong. When you are in a position to buy, I believe that you should in order to free up a house for those who are in need.

It sounds to me like your other half does not see things the same way! At the moment it sounds like you are not in a position to afford to move anyway, but in a couple of years time you may be. There are a lot of costs involved with buying and owning a house, but other people out there seem to manage to cope (provided they haven't been silly and over-stretched their finances as many have in recent years).

In answer to your original question of 'what to do?' I would say get your finances sorted so you know what you can save, talk to your partner and show him the figures, explain to him the reasons why you want to buy. Spend the next couple of years getting a deposit up together and then look at the situation again. If prices haven't come down then re-assess the situation.

Good luck with what you decide