The 'We're saving for a deposit' thread

Lizling

Starbrite wrote: »

Well all the finers toes eyes being crossed didn't work:( Being made redundant not sure on my end date yet, they asked what I wane so said 3 mths pay and rest of my holidays (I have 18 days left!)

So sorry to hear that Starbrite. Best of luck with finding a new job quickly. Perhaps you'll find something that's better than the old one and have the 3 months redundancy money as well.

hannhol

MiddyMum - I'm planning to buy in London. I'm lucky in that being from London my mum is letting me and my boyf live with her (for a small rent to cover bills) while we save up for a deposit. We are planning to buy in the Stratford/Leytonstone area becuase that is where I have my family (boyf not from London originally) and our friends live etc and rougly where we live now. Westfield has made a big difference to the area (my teenage self would not believe something like Westfield could exist) and transport wise, there aren't many better connected places in London.

we've been here since last December, so nearly a year, so the only really big decision is how much we save, and how big we buy. January will see the enough for a two bedroom flat milestone, but I currently am working on a contract, so I need to get a permanent job before we can apply for a mortgage. by the time that is sorted, we will hopefully have saved a bit more, and can decide what to do then.

Wantahouse_2

hannhol wrote: »

MiddyMum - I'm planning to buy in London. I'm lucky in that being from London my mum is letting me and my boyf live with her (for a small rent to cover bills) while we save up for a deposit. We are planning to buy in the Stratford/Leytonstone area becuase that is where I have my family (boyf not from London originally) and our friends live etc and rougly where we live now. Westfield has made a big difference to the area (my teenage self would not believe something like Westfield could exist) and transport wise, there aren't many better connected places in London.

we've been here since last December, so nearly a year, so the only really big decision is how much we save, and how big we buy. January will see the enough for a two bedroom flat milestone, but I currently am working on a contract, so I need to get a permanent job before we can apply for a mortgage. by the time that is sorted, we will hopefully have saved a bit more, and can decide what to do then.

We live in Leytonstone and are buying there now. We are buying a 3 bed terrace with a huge (100ft) back south facing garden in a great area of Leytonstone in the catchment area of a great school. We've been renting were we are now for over 3.5yrs and both lived in the area before that too, so when it came to deciding to stay in London, Leytonstone was our first choice.

And as London prices go I think Leytonstone is quite reasonable - we're paying £330k, with a 20% deposit (so 66k). Its still a lot but when we considered moving out of London and commuting in we realised house prices there are just as bad and transport costs would increase so we decided to stay in London where our jobs are and where our friends are.

Fingers crossed the purchase goes smoothly - its really really stressful!

hannhol

Yes Leytonstone is pretty reasonable, and is 'coming up' a bit now too with a few nicer pubs etc.

in an ideal world we'd buy in Wanstead, but that's just too far out of what we could afford.

Good luck with your purchase!

MiddyMum

Today I recieved some bad news that a lovely young friend of mine ( in her twenties ) passed away. She had just got a place at medical school too, it has literally stopped me in my tracks and made me realise that life really is too short. This was her second attempt at getting in, the first time she had to leave her pre-medicine studies because of ill health but she got back up and tried again anyway.

My dream to buy in London has been exactly that, just a dream, as I always think in worst case scenario but in some way her passing has made me realise that you must always go for your dreams even when your dream seems impossible. Her dream was to go to medical school, and it honestly seemed like the odds were stacked against her but she still did it. It would seem that the odds are stacked against someone like me buying a house in London , but how will I know if I never try? Hope you don't mind me sharing this..she was a lovely person and her sudden passing has made me feel very philosophical today.

Thank you to those who have recently shared their London plans, it is so exciting to see people getting on in life.

CharlieN

MiddyMum sorry to hear about your friend. I hope your london dream comes true soon x

koneko

I thought I'd join in this thread as my boyfriend and I are now on the path towards buying our first house (we rent at the moment). We are putting in between £250 and £400 a month each towards buying our house, although mine is going towards paying off an old debt for a few months first. My partner has about £5k already saved after we decided that we could live with one car instead of 2 and he got rid of his to share mine.

We are hopefully looking to buy in late 2014/early 2015 and hope to have a deposit of at least £25 - £30k, more if we can manage it.

We live in Hampshire where house prices are unfortunately pretty high, and we are looking for a family home, probably a 3 bed house so that we won't have to move for a long time.

Savings wise, my partner has a regular saver with his bank account which pays 8% interest, but he can only put £250 in to it a month, so we're looking at an ISA or similar to put the extra into.

hannhol

Middymum - sorry to hear about your friend. I don't know what your circumstances are, but even as a Londoner born and bred who I felt the odds were stacked against me ever buying in London. I don't want to live anywhere else becuase this is my home, so explore all your options and explore all parts of town, not just the fashionable/trendy parts, as some areas are cheaper to buy in than others.

nicedream_2

Lizling wrote: »

I am, because my rent will go up again in December and I'm not looking forward to that at all. I think I could be hit with easily a 10% increase and if it's any more than that, I'll have to move out anyway. For all I know, it could go up 20%. They'd still find someone to pay it so there's nothing stopping them.

I don't really know enough about the markets outside of London to speculate much there, but in London, I think more foreign money will flood in as soon as the Eurozone starts to break up, and that will make the high end property market go even more mental. On the other hand, there's such a build up of renters who are desperate to get out and have been saving up their deposits for a good few years (that's me!), that FTBs will flood in and push up prices as soon as mortgage lending criteria relax just a little more. I can't imagine what kind of economic shock it would take to wipe out the effect of all that pent up demand and make house prices in the nicer areas fall. Unexpected things do happen though.

I'm not worried about prices falling because having a flat that's fallen into negative equity is much, much less scary to me than relying on the rental sector.

Do you rent from a letting agent or landlord? I've found that letting agents are more likely to put the price up than landlords. 20% is such a crazy rise!

What you say about the London market has really hit home. I've never thought about it like that. I agree with you about relying on the rental sector. My rent has gone up horribly over the years. I hope you get your house soon, well done on the deposit :cool:

I've felt a little disillusioned recently about saving for a deposit. I like reading about the property market and discussing it but everytime I try and work out how much I need to save it just seems so unattainable ie from looking at what I would (realistically) like to live in v. how much a mortgage I could afford. I love saving though as it's (sadly) such a new thing for me. It's put a whole new value on money I never had. To try and stop myself getting further disillusioned, i've focussed more on saving goals. So by next April I would like to fill an ISA, which means I need to make £520 each month until the end of March. Hard work but I think it will give me the motivation. I have London rent/living costs, so am unable to save much from my salary. However I have a second job that, if I actually put in the hours for, would easily give me the £520.

Any pearls of wisdom from those who have save up deposits over a long amount of time would be lovely

Lizling

nicedream wrote: »

Do you rent from a letting agent or landlord? I've found that letting agents are more likely to put the price up than landlords. 20% is such a crazy rise!

What you say about the London market has really hit home. I've never thought about it like that. I agree with you about relying on the rental sector. My rent has gone up horribly over the years. I hope you get your house soon, well done on the deposit :cool:

It''s through a letting agency, although I actually have far more contact with the landlord than the agency. To be fair, the rent increases have always been reasonable so far even though all those 5% increases really do add up. The problem is, the area I'm in has been gentrified beyond belief over the last 3 or 4 years. The kebab and fried chicken shops have gone and been replaced with little French cafes and Italian deli's and the pubs have been gastro'd to within an inch of their lives :rotfl:. The rent I'm paying now has fallen well behind the going rate so I'm worried that as soon as the landlord cops on to that, BAM, the rent rockets! Maybe it'll never happen, but I'd rather plan for it.