How much of your after-tax earnings goes on accommodation? Poll discussion

Chuffy

Bang on mid K (joint income of me and OH)

Mad_Marty_2

I'm in 'O' and and with the monthly bills (and everything else) increasing its now becoming a little to close for comfort

emma396

E but i don't have to pay any bills. and i'll be moving back in with parents in august

karmix

Category L About 26% which is lower than I realised so am glad I did it!
Am a single parent so always worrying about money!
Feel much better now! _party_

*Jellie*

M for me!...................................

stogiebear

I moved out of the UK in 1987 because I couldn't afford to live in luxury there.

My new 3 bedroomed house with communal pool in a very secure gated community and costs about 8 or 9 percent of my income.

You've guessed it - I live in an Asian country. Thailand actually!

(And now they finally stock jars of Colemans English Mustard so my life is complete!)

If you are stuck in the UK (family, work, etc) then you have my sympathy. If you live there through choice then I'm sorry but you deserve every crappy thing that happens to you.

oscar158

M - and that's with two salaries. Bought in 2006, with a two year fixed from - guess who? Northern Rock. Am in the process of re-mortgaging before NR put the payments up to what would be another 5%. And this Government state they 'understand the peoples' pain'. Yeah, right..

Obi.

A shade under 40% of our joint income goes on the mortgage, this would be almost 75% if I lived alone... I simply couldn't do it.

FTBs have the worst luck these days - we had around 5% deposit 18 months ago but the missus was in temp employ'. We saved hard and doubled our deposit in a year but it was still only 5% (with a little extra for stamp/solicitors) when we bought. Put simply house prices were rising at the same rate we were saving. Glad we got on the ladder when we did 6 months ago. And yeah - we're looking to get away from Northern Rock as soon as we can, only ever went with them cos they'd lend us the money... no choice rly.

teddyco

I live on a spaceship and when they come to collect our council taxes and TV License, I turn on the cloaking device.

anitamarie

It would be very interesting to break that % down to examine those who have bought as FTBs in the last 3 years. My guess is that those who are currently squeezed the most tightly, other than families on low incomes, are young professionals who've taken on very hefty mortgages and are approaching the end of their fixed term deal. I would wager that a lot of them are looking at around 70% at least on income: mortgage ratio and they're on interest only deals for the most part. I suspect that group are going to be very embittered as they're also the ones with hefty student loans; earning good salaries but just not able to keep up with day to day, let alone start a family. The majority of my friends have an expendable income of less than £50 per week after bills.

We can all cheer, "serves them right for going to uni" blah blah blah, but is that really the message we want to send out?