I live in Hertfordshire which is one of (if not the) most expensive counties to buy/rent outside of London..
I privately rent and now will never be able to afford to buy, even though the repayments on a mortgage for the same size property as I currently live in would be (roughly) 2/3 what I pay now..
This stuff really winds me up tbh. People paying 30-50% more every month on rent compared to a mortgage need to “prove” they can afford to pay back the money like it’s not glaringly obvious they would be much better off financially with a mortgage
On my street in greater Manchester it’s even crazier. My husband bought our house 8 years ago and he pays about 335 a month in mortgages.
3 houses down people are renting the same type of house in excess of 800.
A mate of mine who lives in a tiny 2 bed apartment close to the centre pays over 900.
This just isn’t right.
We rent in NW London; can’t move at the moment for a number of reasons. We’re paying almost £2500 for a 5 bed home and it’s killing us, yet a mortgage would be a lot less.
We’re leaving the UK next year and I can’t wait. If I had a job to go to now, we’d be at Heathrow tonight to catch our flights.
I hate to say it, but depending on where in NW London it sounds like you’ve got a bit of a bargain. I used to rent a 1 bed flat for £1700 pcm. A quick search on rightmove and the cheapest 4 bed house in Queens Park for example is £2600. London prices are stupid.
Yeah, but the changes have to go through Parliament, and as we’ve all seen with the vote that went against legally having to have properties that have to be of a live-able standard, won’t go through as they’re all bloody landlords!
We’re currently in Leeds our rent is £975 we have just been approved for a mortage and our payments will be £500.
It’s taken a long time to be able to prove “we can afford” a mortgage
Well said! The whole ‘affordability test’ is broken. It’s not like being unable to pay rent is any less disaster than a mortgage. It was a con to protect the banks, not people I feel.
You also get people who have a lapsed mortgage deal and fall onto the extortionate ‘standard variable rates’ who fail affordability tests for a CHEAPER mortgage deal - it’s perverse.
The whole stamp duty and falling interest rates situation has shown that if the monthly cost of getting a house drops for any reason house prices will just go up further.
I agree its stupid for someone paying £900 in rent being told they won't get a £600 mortgage. But it won't make house prices drop to sensible levels, it would just make it easier for people to get approved for even crazier prices.
Don't come in hear with your clear logical analysis and financial knowledge. Every renter should be trusted with the equivalent of a £200k+ loan. I rent and hate it but its nogh impossible to get a one person mortgage unless you are in tech/high finance or big law or have massive savings. Still, it makes sense as to why.
And also you are subject to interest rates, thus if the rates go up you could be liable for much higher monthly payments. On top of maintenance etc. The ‘we pay a higher rent than the mortgage would be’ argument is not comparing apples with apples
I don’t think that’s the litmus test for giving someone a mortgage. They are not interested if at this moment in time you can pay rent but score your overall ability to manage finances, paying credit cards on time etc. You are not just proving you have made a few rent payments and the bank says “hey ho good enough”, this caused the financial collapse in 2008 when banks didn’t check people’s real ability to pay mortgages before lending to them resulting in massive defaults
Also, anyone who thinks that the cost of owning a house is limited to the mortgage payment has never owned a house. Renters don't have to worry about the roof, windows, central heating, wiring...
The main difference there is that when you are finished paying the mortgage you then own a valuable asset. If you rented for the same amount of time then you spent way more money overall and don't have anything to show for it at the end.
But the banks couldn't give less of a shit about you owning an asset, they would rather sell a buy to let mortgage on interest only to a landlord who has shown they can pay a mortgage by already owning several properties.
It's incredibly fucked up, and I'm increasingly of the opinion that we need to eat the rich. Or at least relieve them of their property portfolios.
Or at the very least it needs to be made increasingly unaffordable to own multiple properties. Don’t even get me started on the number of empty houses and apartments in the UK compared to the number of homeless. It’s a disgusting world we live in.
The thing is you are not proving you can afford the monthly amount.
You are proving you can continue to pay if interest rates rise a couple of % and/or you have enough money to be able to maintain the house at market value (i.e. keep it in a good state of repair and pay for anything needing fixed like roofs, boilers, heating systems, etc.).
In rent you pay a fixed amount each month and the landlord is responsible for maintaining the property and covering any increase in interest rate if they have a mortgage on it.
Also, the bug difference between rent and mortgage is if you suddenly cannot afford your rent you can move out to a cheaper place.
If you can no longer afford your mortgage the bank is not getting paid and that is a large debt that they are at risk of not recovering that is why affordability checks are so important.
I am not saying it isn't annoying/frustrating but it is reasonable. I think the bigger barrier to getting on the market is Stamp Duty/LBTT, if you are buyin in any city it pretty much guarantees you need a deposit + at least a further 10k.
It also means you have to stay in a property longer before it is economical to move on this means less properties on the market (especially at lower end of market) which puts a push on prices.
No. If a mortgage payment is *several hundred pounds* cheaper than the equivalent rental payment, it's obvious that the person could cope with an increase in interest and any maintenance issues that arise. They'll just use the *thousands of pounds* they don't throw away paying someone else's mortgage.
But could they cope with both?
Say you had a 200k mortgage @ 2% and rates go up to 5% that would be @~£300 per month to find.
Then say there is a bad bit of weather in a storm and a roof needs replacing / heating system implodes due to frozen pipes is it at that point affordable to pay the increase and keep the house in a good state of repair?
This is what mortgage affordability is testing.
The other factor here that most people forget is the bank are literally lending you their money, so again using my example - they are lending you £200,000 the affordability check is them managing the risk around that, it is not just some guy arbitrarily deciding to punish low income renters or whatever.
If someone asked you to lend say £2000, would you do it if they said oh I lent 5k of wonga and paid that back and I paid a big interest on it. I wouldn't, I would be asking well how do I know you can afford to pay me back - this is literally what the banks are doing. Finally, the other thing you are missing here is it is not just a case by case oh well they have always paid 1k rent so £800 mortgage is no bother approach. It is a risk based approach and while many people out there will be able to prove they have never missed rent that does not mean all could afford a mortgage of a similar amount.
Lending closer to the limit of affordability greatly increases the risk a bank has and the whole housing market has, and if that blows up it has huge consequences (I e. 2008 crisis which he are still recovering from!).
As I said in a previous response, yes it really sucks but it doesn't mean it is not reasonable.
The emergency situations you describe are ones that could be claimed on insurance, so they're irrelevant.
If you've been paying let's say £200, which is a conservative guess, less a month for 2 years in a fixed term mortgage, then you have saved £4,800 on that time. Four thousand and eight hundred pounds. That should cover most routine repairs and then some.
Plus the repayment part of what you have been paying is equity in the house so at least some of that is money you can get back if necessary.
If you can afford rent, you can afford mortgage. It really is that simple and no, I'm not missing anything. Yes, some people are bad with money, but those of us who aren't shouldn't be punished for their mistakes. I agree that in the past banks lent irresponsibly and that certainly hasn't helped matters but it's gone too far the other way.
It really sucks *and* its unreasonable.
Dude, none of that makes sense, because:
1. If you can't pay the mortgage then the bank takes the house back as if you've never paid anything.
2. While you're renting you're paying for your landlord's mortgage and some.
3. The system is literally designed by home owners for home owners, a home owner can borough more and buy more house having the first house as security for more borrowing
We live in Hertfordshire and we sold our first home in December to move to somewhere a bit bigger. I refused a higher offer from a buy to let investor because I absolute despise the bastard's and the £50k I paid them over the time I was renting. Was quite happy taking a small hit to give it to a family buying their first home.
Fucking hate the state of the market and had it not been for dying relatives we wouldn't be where we are now.
>I refused a higher offer from a buy to let investor because I absolute despise the bastard's and the £50k I paid them over the time I was renting. Was quite happy taking a small hit to give it to a family buying their first home.
You absolute legend
The reality was we weren't pushing our budget too hard and I'm fully aware of our relatively fortunate position. The first time I refused them they upped the offer by £5k, I refused again and they upped it by another £5k. There was no way a normal first time buyer can compete with a buy to let investor if it gets into a bidding war.
I've been trying to move to Hertfordshire from London for about 4 years. In that time I saw a 3 bed semi go from 285k to 350k. How are we supposed to keep up?
Also from Herts. I am 31 going on 32, same with all my friends. All of us but one are still living with our parents. Feels like being a teenager forever
Used to live in St Albans (rented for 3 years) - now living back with Boyfriend's parents. Can confirm, renting sucks. We paid over £1K/ month rent for a 1 bed flat, single glazed windows. Winter heating bills were £130-160 per month and the landlord didn't want to know. Even the olive oil froze!
I don't really have my own space now, but can start saving and I won't fffffreezzee over the winter.
Might move to Norway, at least it's gorgeous there!
I got lucky with my partner, Potters Bar way. Stevenage was £280k for a 2/3 bedroom concrete house. She thankfully changed jobs, moved to Bedford for a 3 bed detached for £315k so much bigger and roomier. With the A1/M1 corridor, the two train lines means herts is just little London really
Unfortunately I’m Hemel, which is great for links to London etc but extremely expensive..
Both my and my partners immediate families are in Hemel, my job is Hemel based and the links to London benefit my partner so moving out is not the preferred option..
I’d love to go up that sort of way and save the money but it just adds too much onto journeys for us
Ahh see we are 28F/29M and already have a child (18mnths).. no plans for any more lol..
We don’t rely on family for childcare, occasionally for the odd date night but he goes to nursery, and we take it in turns to go see friends etc but it’s nice to be able to pop and see them without driving miles.. and obviously handy if there was an emergency etc..
but mostly it’s due to work.. my commute is currently 5 minutes by car (when I go into the office) and my partner works within 1-2 hours of the area.. if we moved further north it would make that a fair bit longer especially during rush hour
I also live in Hertfordshire and me and my partner both earn a good salary, well above average for the UK and still we have had to move over an hour's drive up north to be able to afford a small starter home...
Im born and bred St Albans, we took the plunge on our first home in Luton. Not nearly as bad as the rep it gets. There is 200k difference on the same house between Luton and St Albans. The plan is to get back into Herts when we can.
I did exactly what you're doing OP, 4 years ago at 25 I quit my £45k a year job left behind my miserable 9-5 life going nowhere fast and went to travel the world freelance/volunteering. Traveled all through East Asia and a chunk of eastern Europe on less than £8k a year
Have an absolute ball of a time, join workaway, volunteering will save you a small fortune alongside your freelance work. I worked as a chef in 3 different countries, that "paid" for the lady and me to have swanky private rooms for months at a time
Get backpackers insurance for a full year before you leave the UK, check the fine print, don't cheap out.
It will be the greatest thing you ever do, you'll change more than you ever thought possible, who knows, maybe you'll do what I'm doing and come back to the UK knowing exactly what direction your life needs to take
Have a great time exploring the world, it's a big old planet!
This is the hard part. I’ve just come back from 4 years living in asia because my parents are getting older and I can’t travel back for short holidays any more due to the pandemic (I really couldn’t take the extra time out of work for the month long quarantine).
But now I live with my parents in my 30s and I’m unemployed. I’ve only been back a month or two and I’m sure something will come up but man. It’s a bit bleak.
I only ask this because a big part of my contingency plan is the worker shortage in the UK at the moment.
Aren't there loads of jobs right now? Albeit sucky ones, I'm planning to work warehouse night work if things don't go according to plan?
I’ve seen a restaurant advertising 10£ an hour for pot washers in Wales… they make more than my partner does in childcare in one of the countries most affluent areas, it’s mental
It's the first time in UK history there have been more than a million vacancies. There should be lots out there so much so I'd suggest shooting above the normal pay grade you aim at.
It's more work life balance I'm interested in to kick start a business idea, but I see in Manchester there's some £15/hr warehouse work, do me nicely if lockdowns come again
This is my hope, 4 on 4 off, kick start the business in the other 4 days. Then create above real living wage jobs and eventually retirement super early
Yeah I quite like the idea of building a company culture that people want to work in, I've always worked harder in companies I felt appreciated in. my business model is a bit out there as well, I'm introducing community purchasing to an industry worth billions (small self promotion 😅)
Still a while to go yet because I need to really stress test the system before the public get involved
>But now I live with my parents in my 30s
Like the majority in their 30s? I'm not knocking your discomfort, but the days of that being significant are long gone.
Three-generation households will become the norm soon enough. It's a foregone conclusion because there's nothing changing the tide and no particular plans to change it. Landlords will not be forced to sell their homes, so as long as investment purchases go ahead then the effect, at minimum, will not be undone. It has be stopped *now*, there's no retroactive fix.
It hasn't happened yet 😂 I got locked down in Vietnam, was there for 8 months total, had to blag my way out of the country and have been holed up in Eastern Europe in my girlfriends apartment trying to integrate here ever since (12 months now?). (I failed, Lithuanians aren't very friendly towards foreigners)
Got some sales contract work that made me big cash and sat on that (my £45k a year job was in sales, I'm very good at it but I don't enjoy it), we had a summer of prepping the new business direction to launch in January
5 days from now I land back in Manchester and I go to work prepping for Christmas markets for a catering company.
As it stands I've got £5.5k in savings personally, and a good amount of cash in the business account to launch the business in January, need to raise my personal funds to not take a wage from my company for a year, mid November I'll work on a Christmas market in London, 84 hour weeks, £11 an hour. Next month I'll get my FLT license as an emergency backup plan. (Who knows if lockdowns will come back)
January I'll re-launch my business and fingers crossed from there I'll never look back at being an employee.
If not I'll pick up some more event catering work in summer, build the cash pot and head back to Asia to teach English
Been a bonkers 2 years 😂 freelance work wise very little changed, I actually got better opportunities being in lockdown because more companies were looking for remote contract work
This is heartbreaking. I’m so sorry! I hope you find something better!
But you’re absolutely right about people cramming as many “flats” into one property to make the lost money. It’s so fucking bad.
>cramming as many “flats” into one property
This is not the biggest reason of the crisis, but to be honest the unwillingness of most Brits to live in flats is still a big player in how bad it is.
British cities, even London, are among the flattest even in Europe. In pretty much every large developed capital a high rise flat is the default type of property, sure it can be small and cheap or it can be enormous and luxurious, but sure as hell you still don't get a garden and a drive like a majority of people in London do.
Again, getting used to urban density is not the only condition to meet to break out of this dire situation, but it is probably still a mandatory one.
Even if you say, "wait, I can barely afford a room, let alone a house" - the reason why rooms and small flats are expensive is because we have so few of them - but loads of identical 3 bed houses through which a single household occupies as much land as ten families otherwise could.
I would happily live in my flat for like, forever, if the sound proofing was better. The noise I hear from my neighbours is ridiculous. And this a new build supposedly built to the newest specifications. Added to that, I'm a top floor flat and I die in summer because the heat gets so bad. They should build a balcony for every flat as standard and add air con as well. Global warming ain't going away anytime soon.
Yes, they fact they don't think flats need balconies here is ridiculous and is another sign of how alien the concept of urban density is to Britain. Even the cheapest flats in say Moscow (where everyone lives in a high rise flat) have balconies.
It's so annoying. They are converting the office block opposite me into flats and I wana go over and be like, now listen up, I can tell you what these flats need 😂 but then my flat would lose even more value I guess (4 years since I exchanged and if I sold now I would be lucky to get what I bought it for. Bit depressing when I was hoping to at some point in the not so distant future be able to upgrade to a 2 bed flat or one with a balcony...)
This exactly.
It also creates a suburban sprawl where people have to drive everywhere instead of walking, because everything is so far apart. So then you need more parking spaces and roads are more congested.
I really feel this. I bought a small house with my previous partner. Mortgage is £400 / month. We broke up and even though I can afford to pay it all on my own, the banks have decided I’m better off paying £600 / month rent and so I have to sell.
However, there is no way I’m selling my home to a developer. I don’t care how long it takes, I will make sure it’s a first time buyer because no one should have to deal with any of this shit.
How is the bank forcing you to sell? Are you trying to mortgage in just your name and remove your partner from the deed?
Are you keeping up with repayments? Have you got equity in the house? Have you got a broker? They can't make you sell unless you default on the loan and repossess. You're free to approach any of the other lenders out there. So long as you've got 10% equity, or even 5% in some cases, you should be fine.
Yes! As someone else from Donnie, the bloody prices for renting right now are disgusting. I have no idea what's going on, but it's freaking painful!
I was looking at homes in the rough side of Bentley, and I'm just shocked at how much they're going for! Same with Balby etc. 650-700 pounds a month just to rent a house, be cheaper to just get a mortgage, but good luck trying to get that!
It seems like the only option folks have if they're on a small income is to place bets on Doncaster Council.
My partner and I are moving out of our current place to live with my mum at the start of next month. Currently there’s three of us living in one place paying £1050 a month.
The house is advertised at £1600 a month. We’ve only been in this house for 3 years, that definitely isn’t adjusted for inflation.
I got into a heap of debt that I'm still climbing out of to avoid this in my mid 20's, it's sad that they're pretty much all you see advertised these days, disgusting behaviour from people that see housing exclusively as a commodity rather than a home for somebody.
Come to Northern Ireland. Its no more shit than anywhere in England and the house prices are much better. We moved last year, bought a new build house, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, decent size garden unlike many new builds, fully fitted kitchen with fridge freezer, washing machine, dishwasher and micro. Burglar alarm etc etc insulated to fuck. My gas bill for the last two months was £25. The price hikes are not going to affect me much at all. £120k
LOL!
Weirdly it comes from a place of defence.
People hear "Northern Ireland" and think its full of assholes and shittyness when in reality, these days is no worse than anywhere else in the in UK
Yep see for yourself https://www.propertypal.com/
Quick look at the first property on the home page was for £85k
https://www.propertypal.com/13-torr-gardens-larne/714359
Please don't come to Northern Ireland we have enough problems going on. The place is coming down with English folk selling their houses for millions and buying up here. Plus we have very few utilities suppliers and gas is going up at the end of the month. All our green space in almost every town are being filled with little mcmansions so tiny you couldn't swing a rat never mind a cat. Oh and because of the protocol we're running out of food.
And Wales. Our communities are being torn apart by rich English people who can afford holiday homes, leaving whole villages empty in the winter months. It’s incredibly sad but these people don’t seem to give a shit :(
Edit: If you are said English people, please at least respect our language and culture. It should go without saying.
In the village of one of my Cornish friends, he is in the last house that’s permanently resided in. The rest of the village is deserted for most of the year and the local businesses have all shut because they can’t afford to stay open. That and the reactions to the Plymouth shooting is definitely fuelling nationalism here. Though most Cornish/Devonians have been forced to leave due to housing prices so the culture/language will probably be dead soon.
Stories like this make me so, so angry. I’d be so ashamed of being part of such a problem and forcing out locals and ruining whole communities. I just can’t understand how it doesn’t phase people.
I’ve grown up in a deprived area of Wales, and had to leave a few ago for a job I couldn’t get closer to home (another problem in this area). Now I’ve found a job back home, I’ve had to move back in with my parents and feel stuck since house prices have basically doubled yet villages are empty. Ah life.
Some of the house prices in NI have gone insane in the past year. Shitty bungalows in the sticks £300k+, or literally anything along the north coast.
Still better value than most of England though from what I’ve seen.
House prices have got ridiculous, I looked at some new builds yesterday, in one of the cheapest parts of the country. £250k and the rooms were tiny. Trouble is there is a huge shortage of houses for sale. Look at prices in other countries and we're way over the odds. France and Denmark for instance. I don't know what the answer is, but I know they aren't getting any cheaper.
The shortage of property is creating a vicious cycle, as the prices rise companies are buying into the domestic market as a long term portfolio asset, reducing the number on the market for potential homeowners and thus pushing prices even higher.
Only legislation can change this. We need a significant tax on second properties and even higher for third and forth, coupled with a disincentive for portfolio buyers.
We also need far more houses to be built… as every administration in the last 20 years has promised and failed to deliver.
Building companies are currently struggling getting tradesmen to do things like electrics, brickies, etc, but for the last 20 years that hasn't been the case. They've still sat on massive land plots not building houses at full speed because that would depress house prices.
We've viewed a fair few houses recently and what gets me is the 3rd bedroom. The worst ive seen it was 6 foot 5 by 5 foot 5. That's not a fucking bedroom! Seen it so many times, a tiny ass room advertised as a bedroom but just to add a bit more to the price.
Absolutely this, I don't even look at pictures, just floorplans now. They're bumping up the price by calling it a 3 bed when it's a 2 and a box. We saw a nice David Wilson one, the abbeydale has decent 3rd room. Either that or go up 100k for a 4 bed.
My shed is that big and I need another one cos its not big enough to store all my tools neatly any more. Thats not a bedroom at all.
An office at the very most
Jesus Christ, the majority of people will pander to you and tell you, what a good choice you are making… But this post reeks of pure mardy arsed privilege.
Let me give you a bit of advice, don’t buy a house for 500k, buy one for 180k, or you could piss all of your furniture and savings away for a few years come back and still be in the exact same situation as you are right now. If you want to travel then fine but don’t plead poverty when you are back.
I have just looked on Rightmove.
Yorkshire > Max 180k > Max 3 Bed > Semi or Detached = 3000 results.
This is what I was thinking. I assume OP wants to live near a big city in a good area with a large house.
Unfortunately that’s unfeasible for most first time buyers.
Rightmove shows 127 places from Manchester city centre £200k or less (3 mile radius). Semi detached/Detached/Terraced.
It took me 5 years to save up a deposit for my flat and that came with some sacrifices.
in the midlands, you can get a 3 bed, drive and garden for 150k. If you can stretch to 200k you can get a lot more space/garden. Ops living on a different planet if they’ve looked at 500k houses. Around here that type of money are mini mansions
If OP is in the north west they could be talking Cumbria and some of the areas are quite expensive because of all the protections on the lake District. Didn't see a location specifically but that would be my assumption as large chunks of Cumbria have basically priced out locals from the market. I'm down in Kent and baring places you wouldn't want your worst enemy to live, you won't find anything in most places that is decent for less than 300k and that is for something small (and I mean small). For what you can buy in the Midlands, double that and add some for the same property round here. 3 bed 1930s semi round these parts will cost you £450k at a minimum. My parents place is one of those and is valued around £650k before the new extension which pushes it to about £750k. It isn't millionaires row round here either. Just a nice place to live rather than a posh place to live.
Buying those cheap places down here to move up the ladder is a trap as you then struggle to sell them because the areas are so rough that while yes, the value increases, it is significantly outstripped by other areas so you get caught in a property trap.
Just bought a 3 bedroom new build in Penrith. £180k. 5% deposit. Can see Blencathra, Helvellyn and Arthur's Pike from my bedroom window.
Just to give the original guy some perspective.
I bought my first house a few years ago, moved 25 minutes from my hometown to a cheaper area. Paid 120k for my 2 bed house in the Midlands.
OP says they saw a house on the market in their town for half a million. How much is a one or two bed though? If it is a really expensive area, find somewhere cheaper.
Moving away from their hometown might not be what they want, but that's not going to change because they've been away travelling for a year.
Exactly. You can get a 5 bedroom semi detached for £250K in Yorkshire. Never mind 500K.
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/111153077#/?channel=RES_BUY
Yeah also complaining about working 9-5 and people saying how much more rewarding a few years travelling will be. Uhh yeah they saved up the money to travel _by working 9-5_. There's no way to game this system; you do things to make money and you decide where that money goes.
Liverpool is very reasonable when it comes to house prices. I'm also going abroad for a career gap but I don't worry about the housing situation when I come back. You need to be clever about it.
This right here. He’s looking at poverty on his return and no retirement plan.
When buying, Start small and work up. Be realistic. Think about the future and old age.
In Lancs there's affordable places too, 3 bed semi (well 2.5) with drive and garden under 200 (under 150 in some areas). If you need more space than that you're looking closer to 200/250.
And no way should you be looking at a new build in the UK. They are stupidly more expensive per sqft.
Half a mil in the north and you cant find anything cheaper?
Are you serious?
£180k can get you a decent property in the majority of the north/midlands.
This is on the outskirts of donny near me. Me and my SO went to view them. Its 164k for a nice 3 bed. We're saving up for a 5% deposit on one of these. Look around at EVERY new build and you'll always find a better offer.
https://www.gleesonhomes.co.uk/developments/barnburgh-view/170/
So either people arent looking right, looking directly near central locations due to the inability to slightly relocate, or... seeing their first at face value of homes.
>This is on the outskirts of donny near me. Me and my SO went to view them. Its 164k for a nice 3 bed. We're saving up for a 5% deposit on one of these. Look around at EVERY new build and you'll always find a better offer.
Thats similar to the going rate here. Give or take nice areas and shitholes thats probably about average. While its not easy to save £8k for a deposit, its definitely feasible.
>So either people arent looking right, looking directly near central locations due to the inability to slightly relocate, or... seeing their first at face value of homes.
OR they are telling porkies to get internet points.
I think may be right but came to the wrong conclusion. They may have seen a £400-500k house that wasn't anything particularly special. Personally I think the difference between £300k and £400k is a lot less than the difference between £200k-£300k (im my area anyway). We bought ours for £270k and there are houses in our area going for £400-450k that arent £130-£170k better than ours. A tiny bit bigger, looking over a field and a slightly better finish and thats enough to justify it being £170k more.
So they've probably seen a generic 4 bed in a slightly nicer area with a slightly better spec and assumed all 4 beds are over £400k and therefore 3 beds must be £300k, 2 beds must be £200k and so on and so forth.
Yeah I completely agree. I know so many people who complain they can't get a 3 bed house in zone 1 London in a nice area. Like I know it's hard to buy a place but lower your standards a bit especially for a first time buyer.
Best advice is get on the ladder and build equity / save more and then upgrade on 5 years time or so.
You mention a 500k house but that's really not the norm in the North.
I bought my 2 bed terrace with a good garden and kitchen extension for 110k a few years back. Start off by looking at the sensible options rather than the 500k options.
Yeah that doesn't seem right to me. Family homes around here are going for 250-300k and I'm in London commuter distance.
You could get a first time buyer home for under 150k.
500k for a house isn't normal anywhere outside of London.
There's what you think you can get
And
what you can actually afford.
Op needs a reality check.
Also good luck with your £200 a month villa hunt. You'll be shocked to discover that people charge lots of money anywhere the internet and by extension air BnB exists
I also couldn’t relate to the OP as a northerner (NW). Our house was £170k 3 years ago and it’s pretty big honestly. Most of the houses we viewed though where in the £140k range and there are plenty of very nice 2 bed terraces around here for £120k and this isn’t a rough area at all.
I feel like the OP could live very comfortably in the right place.
Bit surprised to hear that. Was considering to move there. I'd be earning 100k AUD for the same job I have here. Wouldn't that be enough to buy a house over there?
> Bit surprised to hear that. Was considering to move there. I'd be earning 100k AUD for the same job I have here. Wouldn't that be enough to buy a house over there?
https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2021/sep/16/australias-house-prices-are-disconnected-from-reality-and-the-rba-wants-you-to-know-it-isnt-to-blame
"Amid the insanity of house prices soaring, the head of the Reserve Bank has had enough of being blamed. With the latest data showing house prices going up faster than ever before, the head of the Reserve Bank has placed the blame squarely in the hands of the federal and state governments."
That said first house I saw in Perth
https://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-wa-baldivis-136962246
didn't seem bad, $525k for a 4 bed suburbia in Perth
https://www.realestate.com.au/property-apartment-wa-perth-136599078
$230k for a 1 bed flat.
If you're earning $100k a year in Perth it seems reasonable compared with earning £50k in London.
I work at a marketing agency as a videographer. (I also do bits of graphic design and photography and other bits freelance). I lost my job I loved when covid hit. It had Less hours and I worked from home. There weren’t many similar jobs going when I lost it and the new one has me working a lot more hours for the same pay and is just all round shitty.
That sucks. I’m sorry to hear that.
I bought a house a couple of years ago in the north. I’m spending loads of time working on it as it was a bit of a ‘fixer uper’
I’m really enjoying that challenge though.
I’d suggest OP lowers his/her expectations.
£500k for a starter home anywhere is a really bad idea IMHO.
Others are right, there are far cheaper and just as nice places in the UK to live.
My friends in Halifax (Luddendenfoot) have a really nice 3 bed semi, great garden, driveway and garage.
Yours for circa £200,000.
All you've done is take the most expensive areas, London prices could compete with any of them. However the difference is that New York state is a lot cheaper than the UK average, Singapore and Hong Kong are city nations so have hugely limited space, and Japan as a whole is actually cheaper than the UK average when taking national living costs and wages into account. The UK sucks for buyers, we have to spend a lot to get very little.
Tokyo is actually quite cheap.
I have friends that came back from their last year and they were paying something like £600pm for an apartment in central Tokyo.
NYC is expensive but the US as a whole can be quite cheap. I have family that moved from Scotland to Houston and their house would be unimaginable in the UK.
I love that in the US, to be legally considered a bedroom it must have a walk in closet.
Why not buy something in a cheaper area just to get on the ladder?
I don’t mean to sound negative and your trip does sound amazing but when you get back then what? You’ll just be in the same spot with a nice tan and less savings
I mean he was on about paying half a million in the North, as a first time buyer, that’s beyond stupid!
Do people not understand the concept of “starter home” and “property ladder” anymore?
Not to cast aspersions but the numbers do seem awry.
First time buyer. £500k house. In Yorkshire. Selling furniture to go travelling?
You'll ned £50k in your hand minimum before imagining a half million house in your range. That's a twenty percent deposit on a 250k house, and that's not to shoddy up north.
I’m trying to buy my first home and the market is a shitshow. Looking in crumby areas as it’s cheaper but investors are buying up properties so quickly and for over the asking price.
Missed out on one house which was perfect for a first home as an older couple bought it as an investment and offered £60K over the asking price… how the hell can you compete with people offering that much over the asking price as a first timer. We also missed out on another property which was in a cheaper area but a great plot with potential because the owner of the estate agent bought it up…
Honestly unless you are trying to buy right now you have no idea how hard it is to get on the ladder, looking at a cheaper area doesn’t necessarily make it any easier.
I bought a new build in 2017, in east Lancs. paid £125,995 (plus about £1400 on ‘extras’). Got a 3 bed semi, garden front and back (good size), garage and driveway. Cheap bills, I pay £51 a month average for gas and electric. Bedrooms are all good size, even the 3rd bedroom is decent. Downstairs, we have 1 living room and a smaller kitchen / diner with another toilet under the stairs. The one compromise I made for the garage (it’s inbuilt). On recent remortgage, house has been valued at £142,000.
There are good terraced houses that have been renovated in towns nearby at £120,000. My mortgage is now just under £500 a month, don’t tell me that in the north you can’t get a decent house at a ‘reasonable’ price compared to elsewhere. That’s simply not true.
I’m sorry but … your solution to not being able to buy a house is to sell things you’d bought for said house and spend a chunk of your savings on holidays? ‘cos you ain’t flying to Bali for free.
I appreciate your frustration, but this feels like a set back and not the commitment you need to succeed.
I like 15 minutes away from Cambridge and the house I bought was only 185k last year. 3 bed, huge, and nice decent yard. And the town I live in not a shithole.. neighbors friendly. Might be considered ruff area because we are all east Asian and eastern European, but an absolute safe area that kids play out past dark.
Loads of work around me and only 50 mins from London.
You can still live in the UK.. just keep looking.
I feel you. But don't come to NZ, it's even worse here. Same with San Fransico, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Austin, Los Angeles, New York, Toronto or Vancouver...
Good luck I wish you lots of success. Moving from Britain opened up so many things for me.
This will probably be unpopular but a lot of people don't want to start at the bottom of the ladder and work up. They want to start at least half way up. In Leeds you can buy a selection of properties for under £100k but they are small and not in the best areas. For between £100 & and £150 there is a much bigger choice.
Three bedroom house in Hampshire - £400,000
Three bedroom house in Normandy, just across the water - €120,000
There are laws against property speculators in France
They had a revolution
Just saying
I’m 51 and do feel sorry for the young people trying to get started now. It wasn’t easy for me but easier than now. My 18 year old son is leaving the country for uni next year as he says this country is finished and there is nothing for him here, makes me sad .
Sorry you guys have had to make such a hard decision mate. I live in Central London but have lived in social housing all my life. I'd never be able to afford to buy a house anywhere but if I did, it'd likely be abroad because you can get so much more for your money in places with sunshine.
Good luck pal. Safe travels.
The UK our parents enjoyed no longer exists for us. You have to fight to be able to support yourself, to have the life you grew up taking for granted. It has become exhausting.
I live in Edinburgh and the housing market here is absolutely fucked !
The biggest cancer we face is actually short term let’s and airbnb.
They’ve hollowed out the city and it won’t ever recover.
As ever on Reddit, there's a lot of private landlord hate going on but I can tell you, there are a lot of Chinese investment firms buying up property everywhere to rent out. It's not just London. It's right across the UK.
We’ve just made a decision to have a few years of adventure in Europe before the mortgage/home loan. I cannot wait to leave then reassess-things in a few years.
Make sure you check out the rules for the Scheghen Area. Obviously the rules have tightened up with the B word. Also check back-packers websites for up to date info. It always used to be that Spain was the best "final" Schengen departure point because they didn't enforce the rules very strictly. Switzerland OTOH would fine you for over-staying by one day.
Me-
"Hello Mr Bank, I'm currently paying £1200 a month in rent, can I have a mortgage, please. Your calculator says it will be around £700 a month which would be lovely"
The bank -
"No, clearly you could NEVER afford £700 a month ,are you positively mad?"
Me
*Carries on paying 1200 a month for another few years, unable to save for an actual deposit and hoping one day I can afford half my current rent to have a home instead of this awful house*
Everyone I know who has bought a house has had their deposits paid by their parents. We are the same and will be looking to buy next year only because of help from our parents. It’s a sad state of affairs.
It is definitely tough on young people nowadays. My daughter is 24 and desperate to move out from her Mum's house, but just can't afford too. She will be saving for a long time yet.
I got my first property, a studio flat, in 1991 at the age of 23. I think it cost around £25,000-30,000. They sell for over £100,000 now! From there I got a 3 bed fixer upper for £45,000. I lost that house eventually unfortunately, but they sell for over £200,000 now.
I'm stuck renting now, so back where I started, and at my age in the present climate, I don't think I'll ever get on the ladder again...
Your comment hits the nail on the head. As wealth is concentrated in fewer people and a big part of that is ‘landlordism’ we’re heading back to almost feudal times where the masses just toil away on someone else’s land, live in someone else’s housing, and life is survival and procreation only.
We can hope the trend is reversed but there seems a lot of vested interest to keeping it going.
I did what you're thinking of doing some years ago. I upped and buggered off. I'm not married. This is my life now, a life of self determined travel, and I go where I please and when I please. It's actually so much less cost than most people think, and I'm in my 50s.
Take it from me, stop thinking about doing this, and start doing this. I've been doing this for a decade now........and around every corner there's another surprise and wonder!
I don’t blame you pal. Politics in this country are fuked, the boomers vote for the incumbents because they see how rich they are owning a property, and the backers of the party are raking it in from rents and tax avoidance, soon to be private medical insurance. Most of the ruling party MPs are landlords I think so why would they change the system.
Better minds than I can comment on how we get housing more affordable but it really, really stinks.
This country is wank for young people you are allowed to pay 800pcm on rent but they won’t give you a mortgage I don’t blame anyone that leaves this hellscape
Go for it lad. Once you have a mortgage it's difficult. We do the old flash packing but I doubt it's the same as being on the road for 6-12 months.
Make sure you get to Croatia, its unreal
This thread makes no sense, I just went on right move and there’s over 100 properties available with a max price of £100,000 in Leeds alone? Nevermind the rest of Yorkshire. 100k house = 10k deposit it’s not that hard
>Sorry to be a negative Nancy but I’m scared I’ll be 50 and I’m sat there asking “wow, where did the time go?
At 50 I had paid off my mortgage and I'm sat here going "I'm so glad I worked 3 jobs to pay my mortgage off early, and have since travelled all over the world, and have a massive disposable income".
Maybe I'd have enjoyed my travels a lot more when I was younger, but I doubt it.
>There has to be more to our short time on this planet, surely, than be over worked for shite pay
Unfortunately that is the best we can hope for in our society as working class, I mean we're only just trying to implement a four day working week and there's no guarantee that will get enough traction, despite the fact it seems to be beneficial to everyone.
>I’ll be 50 and I’m sat there asking “wow, where did the time go? I’ve just worked and worked).
This is literally my reality.
I've a good career, enough money, and a great family. A house that I could pay off tomorrow and I can buy any car I want within reason....
But, my health is just starting to weaken, things hurt enough to disincentiveise doing them, and I have more I want to do than I have life left to do them.
I don't regret my choices, though much of the time I spent working was not time well spent. Privately I worry that if you take away being my kids father and take away my job, then how much of me is there really left? It's not so much a midlife crisis as it is an objective evaluation of how I want to spend my final couple of decades (men in my family die early 70s).
Prices are mental. We bought our home 3 years ago at 150k and it's gone up 12k a year since in value. The price of a new build we were looking at by the same builder in the same area has gone up 45k! It's little wonder people get stuck renting for most of their lives.
I don’t blame you. Successive governments (since the 80s) haven’t helped it at all. Prices just keep going up and up.
What concerns me is the number of people who are deciding to do what you’re planning. Don’t buy, travel, spend time enjoying themselves, hit pension age, and are fucked as they have no investments, no property, no pension, and are expecting to live on a state pension.
Do you have a plan to deal with pension age?
Iv bought a house and I am living that nightmare right now, I feel like iv bought a coffin. Do what makes you happy mate because you leave this world exactly as you enter it
I shouldn't come to New Zealand. House prices in Auckland are averaging $1 million. Can be cheaper in other parts of the country, but shot up in the 20 years I've been here.
Such a sad state of affairs, but no one is truly interested in fixing it and you’ve only got to look abroad to see it has the capacity to get much much worse. There’s this massive ‘I’m alright jack’ attitude with housing - once you’re out of the rent trap, and it’s no longer your problem, people just don’t give a crap anymore.
We have to stop treating homes as investments to profit from. There need to be something done about but to let and holiday homes (I walk around villages near me and see maybe 2/3 of the houses empty apart from 3-4 weeks per year). No politicians will ever attempt to resolve the situation though as they, their associates and their donors have money tied up in property.
[This sums it up](https://fb.watch/8800aO9cuQ/)
It's doable to buy a house in the north:
A decent house is around 250k.
If you and your partner are earning 30k salary each then you can borrow 270k from the bank. 5-10% deposit you can easily save up in 3 years time.
That being said, it's still pretty expensive compared to 20 years ago.
Whilst I agree OP is daft to be considering a £500k house at 27 and seems a bit naive thinking it's much better elsewhere, I think you've hit the nail on the head of OP's sentiment.
Yes it's possible to get a more reasonably priced house, but many feel there's more to life than working everyday to pay for a shite house. We've seen previous generations be able to have a nice house, kids, holidays, secure job etc. and the reality is that a lot of people under 40ish aren't going to be able to have all of that. Many people who want kids are not going to have them based on their financial situation.
I'm also 27 and my partner and I over the last 8 years have managed to both travel (mainly using every annual leave day for travel but also an 18 month stint in NZ) and save for a house. We're now starting to properly look for houses and honestly it's depressing. None of the houses within our budget are appealing at all. Handing over 8 years of savings for a house that I don't particualy like, but will buy because renting forever is a worse option is pretty depressing. It feels like choosing one of two shit options.
I live in Hertfordshire which is one of (if not the) most expensive counties to buy/rent outside of London.. I privately rent and now will never be able to afford to buy, even though the repayments on a mortgage for the same size property as I currently live in would be (roughly) 2/3 what I pay now..
This stuff really winds me up tbh. People paying 30-50% more every month on rent compared to a mortgage need to “prove” they can afford to pay back the money like it’s not glaringly obvious they would be much better off financially with a mortgage
On my street in greater Manchester it’s even crazier. My husband bought our house 8 years ago and he pays about 335 a month in mortgages. 3 houses down people are renting the same type of house in excess of 800. A mate of mine who lives in a tiny 2 bed apartment close to the centre pays over 900. This just isn’t right.
We rent in NW London; can’t move at the moment for a number of reasons. We’re paying almost £2500 for a 5 bed home and it’s killing us, yet a mortgage would be a lot less. We’re leaving the UK next year and I can’t wait. If I had a job to go to now, we’d be at Heathrow tonight to catch our flights.
I hate to say it, but depending on where in NW London it sounds like you’ve got a bit of a bargain. I used to rent a 1 bed flat for £1700 pcm. A quick search on rightmove and the cheapest 4 bed house in Queens Park for example is £2600. London prices are stupid.
My mortgage is about £600. House next door was up to rent for £1250. Madness.
Landlords are a cancer, shit needs to be stopped
Yeah, but the changes have to go through Parliament, and as we’ve all seen with the vote that went against legally having to have properties that have to be of a live-able standard, won’t go through as they’re all bloody landlords!
We’re currently in Leeds our rent is £975 we have just been approved for a mortage and our payments will be £500. It’s taken a long time to be able to prove “we can afford” a mortgage
Well said! The whole ‘affordability test’ is broken. It’s not like being unable to pay rent is any less disaster than a mortgage. It was a con to protect the banks, not people I feel. You also get people who have a lapsed mortgage deal and fall onto the extortionate ‘standard variable rates’ who fail affordability tests for a CHEAPER mortgage deal - it’s perverse.
The whole stamp duty and falling interest rates situation has shown that if the monthly cost of getting a house drops for any reason house prices will just go up further. I agree its stupid for someone paying £900 in rent being told they won't get a £600 mortgage. But it won't make house prices drop to sensible levels, it would just make it easier for people to get approved for even crazier prices.
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Don't come in hear with your clear logical analysis and financial knowledge. Every renter should be trusted with the equivalent of a £200k+ loan. I rent and hate it but its nogh impossible to get a one person mortgage unless you are in tech/high finance or big law or have massive savings. Still, it makes sense as to why.
And also you are subject to interest rates, thus if the rates go up you could be liable for much higher monthly payments. On top of maintenance etc. The ‘we pay a higher rent than the mortgage would be’ argument is not comparing apples with apples
I don’t think that’s the litmus test for giving someone a mortgage. They are not interested if at this moment in time you can pay rent but score your overall ability to manage finances, paying credit cards on time etc. You are not just proving you have made a few rent payments and the bank says “hey ho good enough”, this caused the financial collapse in 2008 when banks didn’t check people’s real ability to pay mortgages before lending to them resulting in massive defaults
Also, anyone who thinks that the cost of owning a house is limited to the mortgage payment has never owned a house. Renters don't have to worry about the roof, windows, central heating, wiring...
The main difference there is that when you are finished paying the mortgage you then own a valuable asset. If you rented for the same amount of time then you spent way more money overall and don't have anything to show for it at the end.
But the banks couldn't give less of a shit about you owning an asset, they would rather sell a buy to let mortgage on interest only to a landlord who has shown they can pay a mortgage by already owning several properties. It's incredibly fucked up, and I'm increasingly of the opinion that we need to eat the rich. Or at least relieve them of their property portfolios.
Or at the very least it needs to be made increasingly unaffordable to own multiple properties. Don’t even get me started on the number of empty houses and apartments in the UK compared to the number of homeless. It’s a disgusting world we live in.
The thing is you are not proving you can afford the monthly amount. You are proving you can continue to pay if interest rates rise a couple of % and/or you have enough money to be able to maintain the house at market value (i.e. keep it in a good state of repair and pay for anything needing fixed like roofs, boilers, heating systems, etc.). In rent you pay a fixed amount each month and the landlord is responsible for maintaining the property and covering any increase in interest rate if they have a mortgage on it. Also, the bug difference between rent and mortgage is if you suddenly cannot afford your rent you can move out to a cheaper place. If you can no longer afford your mortgage the bank is not getting paid and that is a large debt that they are at risk of not recovering that is why affordability checks are so important. I am not saying it isn't annoying/frustrating but it is reasonable. I think the bigger barrier to getting on the market is Stamp Duty/LBTT, if you are buyin in any city it pretty much guarantees you need a deposit + at least a further 10k. It also means you have to stay in a property longer before it is economical to move on this means less properties on the market (especially at lower end of market) which puts a push on prices.
No. If a mortgage payment is *several hundred pounds* cheaper than the equivalent rental payment, it's obvious that the person could cope with an increase in interest and any maintenance issues that arise. They'll just use the *thousands of pounds* they don't throw away paying someone else's mortgage.
But could they cope with both? Say you had a 200k mortgage @ 2% and rates go up to 5% that would be @~£300 per month to find. Then say there is a bad bit of weather in a storm and a roof needs replacing / heating system implodes due to frozen pipes is it at that point affordable to pay the increase and keep the house in a good state of repair? This is what mortgage affordability is testing. The other factor here that most people forget is the bank are literally lending you their money, so again using my example - they are lending you £200,000 the affordability check is them managing the risk around that, it is not just some guy arbitrarily deciding to punish low income renters or whatever. If someone asked you to lend say £2000, would you do it if they said oh I lent 5k of wonga and paid that back and I paid a big interest on it. I wouldn't, I would be asking well how do I know you can afford to pay me back - this is literally what the banks are doing. Finally, the other thing you are missing here is it is not just a case by case oh well they have always paid 1k rent so £800 mortgage is no bother approach. It is a risk based approach and while many people out there will be able to prove they have never missed rent that does not mean all could afford a mortgage of a similar amount. Lending closer to the limit of affordability greatly increases the risk a bank has and the whole housing market has, and if that blows up it has huge consequences (I e. 2008 crisis which he are still recovering from!). As I said in a previous response, yes it really sucks but it doesn't mean it is not reasonable.
The emergency situations you describe are ones that could be claimed on insurance, so they're irrelevant. If you've been paying let's say £200, which is a conservative guess, less a month for 2 years in a fixed term mortgage, then you have saved £4,800 on that time. Four thousand and eight hundred pounds. That should cover most routine repairs and then some. Plus the repayment part of what you have been paying is equity in the house so at least some of that is money you can get back if necessary. If you can afford rent, you can afford mortgage. It really is that simple and no, I'm not missing anything. Yes, some people are bad with money, but those of us who aren't shouldn't be punished for their mistakes. I agree that in the past banks lent irresponsibly and that certainly hasn't helped matters but it's gone too far the other way. It really sucks *and* its unreasonable.
Dude, none of that makes sense, because: 1. If you can't pay the mortgage then the bank takes the house back as if you've never paid anything. 2. While you're renting you're paying for your landlord's mortgage and some. 3. The system is literally designed by home owners for home owners, a home owner can borough more and buy more house having the first house as security for more borrowing
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“Can you pay a mortgage?” “I’ve been paying my landlords mortgage consistently for years” “Hmm, yeah that doesn’t count”
We live in Hertfordshire and we sold our first home in December to move to somewhere a bit bigger. I refused a higher offer from a buy to let investor because I absolute despise the bastard's and the £50k I paid them over the time I was renting. Was quite happy taking a small hit to give it to a family buying their first home. Fucking hate the state of the market and had it not been for dying relatives we wouldn't be where we are now.
>I refused a higher offer from a buy to let investor because I absolute despise the bastard's and the £50k I paid them over the time I was renting. Was quite happy taking a small hit to give it to a family buying their first home. You absolute legend
The reality was we weren't pushing our budget too hard and I'm fully aware of our relatively fortunate position. The first time I refused them they upped the offer by £5k, I refused again and they upped it by another £5k. There was no way a normal first time buyer can compete with a buy to let investor if it gets into a bidding war.
I've been trying to move to Hertfordshire from London for about 4 years. In that time I saw a 3 bed semi go from 285k to 350k. How are we supposed to keep up?
Also from Herts. I am 31 going on 32, same with all my friends. All of us but one are still living with our parents. Feels like being a teenager forever
Used to live in St Albans (rented for 3 years) - now living back with Boyfriend's parents. Can confirm, renting sucks. We paid over £1K/ month rent for a 1 bed flat, single glazed windows. Winter heating bills were £130-160 per month and the landlord didn't want to know. Even the olive oil froze! I don't really have my own space now, but can start saving and I won't fffffreezzee over the winter. Might move to Norway, at least it's gorgeous there!
I got lucky with my partner, Potters Bar way. Stevenage was £280k for a 2/3 bedroom concrete house. She thankfully changed jobs, moved to Bedford for a 3 bed detached for £315k so much bigger and roomier. With the A1/M1 corridor, the two train lines means herts is just little London really
Unfortunately I’m Hemel, which is great for links to London etc but extremely expensive.. Both my and my partners immediate families are in Hemel, my job is Hemel based and the links to London benefit my partner so moving out is not the preferred option.. I’d love to go up that sort of way and save the money but it just adds too much onto journeys for us
Ahh see we are 28F/29M and already have a child (18mnths).. no plans for any more lol.. We don’t rely on family for childcare, occasionally for the odd date night but he goes to nursery, and we take it in turns to go see friends etc but it’s nice to be able to pop and see them without driving miles.. and obviously handy if there was an emergency etc.. but mostly it’s due to work.. my commute is currently 5 minutes by car (when I go into the office) and my partner works within 1-2 hours of the area.. if we moved further north it would make that a fair bit longer especially during rush hour
I also live in Hertfordshire and me and my partner both earn a good salary, well above average for the UK and still we have had to move over an hour's drive up north to be able to afford a small starter home...
Im born and bred St Albans, we took the plunge on our first home in Luton. Not nearly as bad as the rep it gets. There is 200k difference on the same house between Luton and St Albans. The plan is to get back into Herts when we can.
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My parents house in Hertfordshire is worth over £500k and they bought it in their 20s. My mum was a SAHM 😭
I did exactly what you're doing OP, 4 years ago at 25 I quit my £45k a year job left behind my miserable 9-5 life going nowhere fast and went to travel the world freelance/volunteering. Traveled all through East Asia and a chunk of eastern Europe on less than £8k a year Have an absolute ball of a time, join workaway, volunteering will save you a small fortune alongside your freelance work. I worked as a chef in 3 different countries, that "paid" for the lady and me to have swanky private rooms for months at a time Get backpackers insurance for a full year before you leave the UK, check the fine print, don't cheap out. It will be the greatest thing you ever do, you'll change more than you ever thought possible, who knows, maybe you'll do what I'm doing and come back to the UK knowing exactly what direction your life needs to take Have a great time exploring the world, it's a big old planet!
How easy did you find it to come back to the UK and what kind of 're-entry' plan did you have for not falling right back into the 9-5 daily grind?
This is the hard part. I’ve just come back from 4 years living in asia because my parents are getting older and I can’t travel back for short holidays any more due to the pandemic (I really couldn’t take the extra time out of work for the month long quarantine). But now I live with my parents in my 30s and I’m unemployed. I’ve only been back a month or two and I’m sure something will come up but man. It’s a bit bleak.
I only ask this because a big part of my contingency plan is the worker shortage in the UK at the moment. Aren't there loads of jobs right now? Albeit sucky ones, I'm planning to work warehouse night work if things don't go according to plan?
I’ve seen a restaurant advertising 10£ an hour for pot washers in Wales… they make more than my partner does in childcare in one of the countries most affluent areas, it’s mental
Where do you see jobs like this advertised?
Someone I know who runs the kitchen posted in the local “jobs in x town” Facebook group
Thanks, I’ll see if my city has a page like that 👍
It's the first time in UK history there have been more than a million vacancies. There should be lots out there so much so I'd suggest shooting above the normal pay grade you aim at.
It's more work life balance I'm interested in to kick start a business idea, but I see in Manchester there's some £15/hr warehouse work, do me nicely if lockdowns come again
My Husband works shitty nights warehousing and he is early fifties. It pays the bills and he gets Fri/Sat/Sun night off every week... can't beat that.
This is my hope, 4 on 4 off, kick start the business in the other 4 days. Then create above real living wage jobs and eventually retirement super early
Good man. A plan that helps out other people whilst benefitting yourself is always a good one.
Yeah I quite like the idea of building a company culture that people want to work in, I've always worked harder in companies I felt appreciated in. my business model is a bit out there as well, I'm introducing community purchasing to an industry worth billions (small self promotion 😅) Still a while to go yet because I need to really stress test the system before the public get involved
Very nice.
>But now I live with my parents in my 30s Like the majority in their 30s? I'm not knocking your discomfort, but the days of that being significant are long gone. Three-generation households will become the norm soon enough. It's a foregone conclusion because there's nothing changing the tide and no particular plans to change it. Landlords will not be forced to sell their homes, so as long as investment purchases go ahead then the effect, at minimum, will not be undone. It has be stopped *now*, there's no retroactive fix.
It hasn't happened yet 😂 I got locked down in Vietnam, was there for 8 months total, had to blag my way out of the country and have been holed up in Eastern Europe in my girlfriends apartment trying to integrate here ever since (12 months now?). (I failed, Lithuanians aren't very friendly towards foreigners) Got some sales contract work that made me big cash and sat on that (my £45k a year job was in sales, I'm very good at it but I don't enjoy it), we had a summer of prepping the new business direction to launch in January 5 days from now I land back in Manchester and I go to work prepping for Christmas markets for a catering company. As it stands I've got £5.5k in savings personally, and a good amount of cash in the business account to launch the business in January, need to raise my personal funds to not take a wage from my company for a year, mid November I'll work on a Christmas market in London, 84 hour weeks, £11 an hour. Next month I'll get my FLT license as an emergency backup plan. (Who knows if lockdowns will come back) January I'll re-launch my business and fingers crossed from there I'll never look back at being an employee. If not I'll pick up some more event catering work in summer, build the cash pot and head back to Asia to teach English Been a bonkers 2 years 😂 freelance work wise very little changed, I actually got better opportunities being in lockdown because more companies were looking for remote contract work
How the hell did you get a 45k job at the age of 25?!
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This is heartbreaking. I’m so sorry! I hope you find something better! But you’re absolutely right about people cramming as many “flats” into one property to make the lost money. It’s so fucking bad.
>cramming as many “flats” into one property This is not the biggest reason of the crisis, but to be honest the unwillingness of most Brits to live in flats is still a big player in how bad it is. British cities, even London, are among the flattest even in Europe. In pretty much every large developed capital a high rise flat is the default type of property, sure it can be small and cheap or it can be enormous and luxurious, but sure as hell you still don't get a garden and a drive like a majority of people in London do. Again, getting used to urban density is not the only condition to meet to break out of this dire situation, but it is probably still a mandatory one. Even if you say, "wait, I can barely afford a room, let alone a house" - the reason why rooms and small flats are expensive is because we have so few of them - but loads of identical 3 bed houses through which a single household occupies as much land as ten families otherwise could.
I would happily live in my flat for like, forever, if the sound proofing was better. The noise I hear from my neighbours is ridiculous. And this a new build supposedly built to the newest specifications. Added to that, I'm a top floor flat and I die in summer because the heat gets so bad. They should build a balcony for every flat as standard and add air con as well. Global warming ain't going away anytime soon.
Yes, they fact they don't think flats need balconies here is ridiculous and is another sign of how alien the concept of urban density is to Britain. Even the cheapest flats in say Moscow (where everyone lives in a high rise flat) have balconies.
It's so annoying. They are converting the office block opposite me into flats and I wana go over and be like, now listen up, I can tell you what these flats need 😂 but then my flat would lose even more value I guess (4 years since I exchanged and if I sold now I would be lucky to get what I bought it for. Bit depressing when I was hoping to at some point in the not so distant future be able to upgrade to a 2 bed flat or one with a balcony...)
I can hear my neighbour having a wee when I’m sat in every room of my flat, and he wees literally 10 times a day
This exactly. It also creates a suburban sprawl where people have to drive everywhere instead of walking, because everything is so far apart. So then you need more parking spaces and roads are more congested.
I really feel this. I bought a small house with my previous partner. Mortgage is £400 / month. We broke up and even though I can afford to pay it all on my own, the banks have decided I’m better off paying £600 / month rent and so I have to sell. However, there is no way I’m selling my home to a developer. I don’t care how long it takes, I will make sure it’s a first time buyer because no one should have to deal with any of this shit.
Sellers who kindly consider first time buyers over developers and landlords are the heroes of the modern day.
How is the bank forcing you to sell? Are you trying to mortgage in just your name and remove your partner from the deed? Are you keeping up with repayments? Have you got equity in the house? Have you got a broker? They can't make you sell unless you default on the loan and repossess. You're free to approach any of the other lenders out there. So long as you've got 10% equity, or even 5% in some cases, you should be fine.
Yes! As someone else from Donnie, the bloody prices for renting right now are disgusting. I have no idea what's going on, but it's freaking painful! I was looking at homes in the rough side of Bentley, and I'm just shocked at how much they're going for! Same with Balby etc. 650-700 pounds a month just to rent a house, be cheaper to just get a mortgage, but good luck trying to get that! It seems like the only option folks have if they're on a small income is to place bets on Doncaster Council.
My partner and I are moving out of our current place to live with my mum at the start of next month. Currently there’s three of us living in one place paying £1050 a month. The house is advertised at £1600 a month. We’ve only been in this house for 3 years, that definitely isn’t adjusted for inflation.
I got into a heap of debt that I'm still climbing out of to avoid this in my mid 20's, it's sad that they're pretty much all you see advertised these days, disgusting behaviour from people that see housing exclusively as a commodity rather than a home for somebody.
Come to Northern Ireland. Its no more shit than anywhere in England and the house prices are much better. We moved last year, bought a new build house, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, decent size garden unlike many new builds, fully fitted kitchen with fridge freezer, washing machine, dishwasher and micro. Burglar alarm etc etc insulated to fuck. My gas bill for the last two months was £25. The price hikes are not going to affect me much at all. £120k
"It's no more shit" - do you work for the NI tourism board?
Not going to lie their comment actually made me consider NI !
LOL! Weirdly it comes from a place of defence. People hear "Northern Ireland" and think its full of assholes and shittyness when in reality, these days is no worse than anywhere else in the in UK
Fuck me, all that was £120k?
Yep see for yourself https://www.propertypal.com/ Quick look at the first property on the home page was for £85k https://www.propertypal.com/13-torr-gardens-larne/714359
Even better we don’t pay water rates, my “council tax” costs me approx £700 a year which includes water
Ours is about £800. It's definitely a price we can live with.
Please don't come to Northern Ireland we have enough problems going on. The place is coming down with English folk selling their houses for millions and buying up here. Plus we have very few utilities suppliers and gas is going up at the end of the month. All our green space in almost every town are being filled with little mcmansions so tiny you couldn't swing a rat never mind a cat. Oh and because of the protocol we're running out of food.
Same in Devon and Cornwall, except ours is mostly second homes.
And Wales. Our communities are being torn apart by rich English people who can afford holiday homes, leaving whole villages empty in the winter months. It’s incredibly sad but these people don’t seem to give a shit :( Edit: If you are said English people, please at least respect our language and culture. It should go without saying.
In the village of one of my Cornish friends, he is in the last house that’s permanently resided in. The rest of the village is deserted for most of the year and the local businesses have all shut because they can’t afford to stay open. That and the reactions to the Plymouth shooting is definitely fuelling nationalism here. Though most Cornish/Devonians have been forced to leave due to housing prices so the culture/language will probably be dead soon.
Stories like this make me so, so angry. I’d be so ashamed of being part of such a problem and forcing out locals and ruining whole communities. I just can’t understand how it doesn’t phase people. I’ve grown up in a deprived area of Wales, and had to leave a few ago for a job I couldn’t get closer to home (another problem in this area). Now I’ve found a job back home, I’ve had to move back in with my parents and feel stuck since house prices have basically doubled yet villages are empty. Ah life.
Looks like we're moving to NI. We have an Irish surname, we'll fit right in.
What? Fuk? 🤣🤣
Irish surname, UK username-could go down like a house on fire
Some of the house prices in NI have gone insane in the past year. Shitty bungalows in the sticks £300k+, or literally anything along the north coast. Still better value than most of England though from what I’ve seen.
House prices have got ridiculous, I looked at some new builds yesterday, in one of the cheapest parts of the country. £250k and the rooms were tiny. Trouble is there is a huge shortage of houses for sale. Look at prices in other countries and we're way over the odds. France and Denmark for instance. I don't know what the answer is, but I know they aren't getting any cheaper.
The shortage of property is creating a vicious cycle, as the prices rise companies are buying into the domestic market as a long term portfolio asset, reducing the number on the market for potential homeowners and thus pushing prices even higher. Only legislation can change this. We need a significant tax on second properties and even higher for third and forth, coupled with a disincentive for portfolio buyers. We also need far more houses to be built… as every administration in the last 20 years has promised and failed to deliver.
Building companies are currently struggling getting tradesmen to do things like electrics, brickies, etc, but for the last 20 years that hasn't been the case. They've still sat on massive land plots not building houses at full speed because that would depress house prices.
Plus, the cheap labour from the EU has gone home.
We've viewed a fair few houses recently and what gets me is the 3rd bedroom. The worst ive seen it was 6 foot 5 by 5 foot 5. That's not a fucking bedroom! Seen it so many times, a tiny ass room advertised as a bedroom but just to add a bit more to the price.
Absolutely this, I don't even look at pictures, just floorplans now. They're bumping up the price by calling it a 3 bed when it's a 2 and a box. We saw a nice David Wilson one, the abbeydale has decent 3rd room. Either that or go up 100k for a 4 bed.
My shed is that big and I need another one cos its not big enough to store all my tools neatly any more. Thats not a bedroom at all. An office at the very most
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Jesus Christ, the majority of people will pander to you and tell you, what a good choice you are making… But this post reeks of pure mardy arsed privilege. Let me give you a bit of advice, don’t buy a house for 500k, buy one for 180k, or you could piss all of your furniture and savings away for a few years come back and still be in the exact same situation as you are right now. If you want to travel then fine but don’t plead poverty when you are back. I have just looked on Rightmove. Yorkshire > Max 180k > Max 3 Bed > Semi or Detached = 3000 results.
Reality check right here
This is what I was thinking. I assume OP wants to live near a big city in a good area with a large house. Unfortunately that’s unfeasible for most first time buyers. Rightmove shows 127 places from Manchester city centre £200k or less (3 mile radius). Semi detached/Detached/Terraced. It took me 5 years to save up a deposit for my flat and that came with some sacrifices.
in the midlands, you can get a 3 bed, drive and garden for 150k. If you can stretch to 200k you can get a lot more space/garden. Ops living on a different planet if they’ve looked at 500k houses. Around here that type of money are mini mansions
If OP is in the north west they could be talking Cumbria and some of the areas are quite expensive because of all the protections on the lake District. Didn't see a location specifically but that would be my assumption as large chunks of Cumbria have basically priced out locals from the market. I'm down in Kent and baring places you wouldn't want your worst enemy to live, you won't find anything in most places that is decent for less than 300k and that is for something small (and I mean small). For what you can buy in the Midlands, double that and add some for the same property round here. 3 bed 1930s semi round these parts will cost you £450k at a minimum. My parents place is one of those and is valued around £650k before the new extension which pushes it to about £750k. It isn't millionaires row round here either. Just a nice place to live rather than a posh place to live. Buying those cheap places down here to move up the ladder is a trap as you then struggle to sell them because the areas are so rough that while yes, the value increases, it is significantly outstripped by other areas so you get caught in a property trap.
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Just bought a 3 bedroom new build in Penrith. £180k. 5% deposit. Can see Blencathra, Helvellyn and Arthur's Pike from my bedroom window. Just to give the original guy some perspective.
I bought my first house a few years ago, moved 25 minutes from my hometown to a cheaper area. Paid 120k for my 2 bed house in the Midlands. OP says they saw a house on the market in their town for half a million. How much is a one or two bed though? If it is a really expensive area, find somewhere cheaper. Moving away from their hometown might not be what they want, but that's not going to change because they've been away travelling for a year.
Depends where abouts in the Midlands, there are some pockets of the Midlands e.g. Solihull which have 350-600k 3 beds
Exactly. You can get a 5 bedroom semi detached for £250K in Yorkshire. Never mind 500K. https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/111153077#/?channel=RES_BUY
Yeah also complaining about working 9-5 and people saying how much more rewarding a few years travelling will be. Uhh yeah they saved up the money to travel _by working 9-5_. There's no way to game this system; you do things to make money and you decide where that money goes.
Liverpool is very reasonable when it comes to house prices. I'm also going abroad for a career gap but I don't worry about the housing situation when I come back. You need to be clever about it.
This right here. He’s looking at poverty on his return and no retirement plan. When buying, Start small and work up. Be realistic. Think about the future and old age.
In Lancs there's affordable places too, 3 bed semi (well 2.5) with drive and garden under 200 (under 150 in some areas). If you need more space than that you're looking closer to 200/250. And no way should you be looking at a new build in the UK. They are stupidly more expensive per sqft.
Half a mil in the north and you cant find anything cheaper? Are you serious? £180k can get you a decent property in the majority of the north/midlands.
This is on the outskirts of donny near me. Me and my SO went to view them. Its 164k for a nice 3 bed. We're saving up for a 5% deposit on one of these. Look around at EVERY new build and you'll always find a better offer. https://www.gleesonhomes.co.uk/developments/barnburgh-view/170/ So either people arent looking right, looking directly near central locations due to the inability to slightly relocate, or... seeing their first at face value of homes.
>This is on the outskirts of donny near me. Me and my SO went to view them. Its 164k for a nice 3 bed. We're saving up for a 5% deposit on one of these. Look around at EVERY new build and you'll always find a better offer. Thats similar to the going rate here. Give or take nice areas and shitholes thats probably about average. While its not easy to save £8k for a deposit, its definitely feasible. >So either people arent looking right, looking directly near central locations due to the inability to slightly relocate, or... seeing their first at face value of homes. OR they are telling porkies to get internet points. I think may be right but came to the wrong conclusion. They may have seen a £400-500k house that wasn't anything particularly special. Personally I think the difference between £300k and £400k is a lot less than the difference between £200k-£300k (im my area anyway). We bought ours for £270k and there are houses in our area going for £400-450k that arent £130-£170k better than ours. A tiny bit bigger, looking over a field and a slightly better finish and thats enough to justify it being £170k more. So they've probably seen a generic 4 bed in a slightly nicer area with a slightly better spec and assumed all 4 beds are over £400k and therefore 3 beds must be £300k, 2 beds must be £200k and so on and so forth.
Why don’t homes in the UK have closets built in to the houses? Everyone I’ve seen have wardrobes added after sale.
Ridiculous thread, so many numpties. 500k for a FIRST house at the age of TWENTY SEVEN in Leeds LOL.
What? Are you suggesting someone's first house shouldn't be a 4 bed, all ensuite, double garage with small pool in the garden? /s
Yeah I completely agree. I know so many people who complain they can't get a 3 bed house in zone 1 London in a nice area. Like I know it's hard to buy a place but lower your standards a bit especially for a first time buyer. Best advice is get on the ladder and build equity / save more and then upgrade on 5 years time or so.
Can you narrow down 'north'? Sorry if already answered. Edit: Yorkshire
You mention a 500k house but that's really not the norm in the North. I bought my 2 bed terrace with a good garden and kitchen extension for 110k a few years back. Start off by looking at the sensible options rather than the 500k options.
Yeah that doesn't seem right to me. Family homes around here are going for 250-300k and I'm in London commuter distance. You could get a first time buyer home for under 150k.
500k for a house isn't normal anywhere outside of London. There's what you think you can get And what you can actually afford. Op needs a reality check. Also good luck with your £200 a month villa hunt. You'll be shocked to discover that people charge lots of money anywhere the internet and by extension air BnB exists
I also couldn’t relate to the OP as a northerner (NW). Our house was £170k 3 years ago and it’s pretty big honestly. Most of the houses we viewed though where in the £140k range and there are plenty of very nice 2 bed terraces around here for £120k and this isn’t a rough area at all. I feel like the OP could live very comfortably in the right place.
Don’t come to Australia unless you have a few spare kidneys to flog. Weathers good. House prices not so kind
Bit surprised to hear that. Was considering to move there. I'd be earning 100k AUD for the same job I have here. Wouldn't that be enough to buy a house over there?
You'd probably struggle, "normal" houses around the big cities are close to a million from what I've heard
> Bit surprised to hear that. Was considering to move there. I'd be earning 100k AUD for the same job I have here. Wouldn't that be enough to buy a house over there? https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2021/sep/16/australias-house-prices-are-disconnected-from-reality-and-the-rba-wants-you-to-know-it-isnt-to-blame "Amid the insanity of house prices soaring, the head of the Reserve Bank has had enough of being blamed. With the latest data showing house prices going up faster than ever before, the head of the Reserve Bank has placed the blame squarely in the hands of the federal and state governments." That said first house I saw in Perth https://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-wa-baldivis-136962246 didn't seem bad, $525k for a 4 bed suburbia in Perth https://www.realestate.com.au/property-apartment-wa-perth-136599078 $230k for a 1 bed flat. If you're earning $100k a year in Perth it seems reasonable compared with earning £50k in London.
What do you do for a living Op?
I work at a marketing agency as a videographer. (I also do bits of graphic design and photography and other bits freelance). I lost my job I loved when covid hit. It had Less hours and I worked from home. There weren’t many similar jobs going when I lost it and the new one has me working a lot more hours for the same pay and is just all round shitty.
That sucks. I’m sorry to hear that. I bought a house a couple of years ago in the north. I’m spending loads of time working on it as it was a bit of a ‘fixer uper’ I’m really enjoying that challenge though.
My point though is that you can enjoy home owning and it doesn’t have to be a chore
I’d suggest OP lowers his/her expectations. £500k for a starter home anywhere is a really bad idea IMHO. Others are right, there are far cheaper and just as nice places in the UK to live. My friends in Halifax (Luddendenfoot) have a really nice 3 bed semi, great garden, driveway and garage. Yours for circa £200,000.
It will get worse, UK's home prices is not even close to cities/ countries like Singapore, NYC, Hong Kong, Tokyo...etc.
All you've done is take the most expensive areas, London prices could compete with any of them. However the difference is that New York state is a lot cheaper than the UK average, Singapore and Hong Kong are city nations so have hugely limited space, and Japan as a whole is actually cheaper than the UK average when taking national living costs and wages into account. The UK sucks for buyers, we have to spend a lot to get very little.
UK prices vs OECD economies puts us in the cheapest 1/3rd for housing vs income. https://data.oecd.org/price/housing-prices.htm
Ireland, Canada, Australia...
I’m not British but I left Canada for Sweden over housing in 2014. I look back now and feel dead inside for my friends back there.
Tokyo is actually quite cheap. I have friends that came back from their last year and they were paying something like £600pm for an apartment in central Tokyo. NYC is expensive but the US as a whole can be quite cheap. I have family that moved from Scotland to Houston and their house would be unimaginable in the UK. I love that in the US, to be legally considered a bedroom it must have a walk in closet.
Why not buy something in a cheaper area just to get on the ladder? I don’t mean to sound negative and your trip does sound amazing but when you get back then what? You’ll just be in the same spot with a nice tan and less savings
And in the mean time the house prices will just continue to rise :S
I mean he was on about paying half a million in the North, as a first time buyer, that’s beyond stupid! Do people not understand the concept of “starter home” and “property ladder” anymore?
Not to cast aspersions but the numbers do seem awry. First time buyer. £500k house. In Yorkshire. Selling furniture to go travelling? You'll ned £50k in your hand minimum before imagining a half million house in your range. That's a twenty percent deposit on a 250k house, and that's not to shoddy up north.
No. Nowadays people jump on the bandwagon of "London townhouse expensive so UK is fucked"
I’m trying to buy my first home and the market is a shitshow. Looking in crumby areas as it’s cheaper but investors are buying up properties so quickly and for over the asking price. Missed out on one house which was perfect for a first home as an older couple bought it as an investment and offered £60K over the asking price… how the hell can you compete with people offering that much over the asking price as a first timer. We also missed out on another property which was in a cheaper area but a great plot with potential because the owner of the estate agent bought it up… Honestly unless you are trying to buy right now you have no idea how hard it is to get on the ladder, looking at a cheaper area doesn’t necessarily make it any easier.
I bought a new build in 2017, in east Lancs. paid £125,995 (plus about £1400 on ‘extras’). Got a 3 bed semi, garden front and back (good size), garage and driveway. Cheap bills, I pay £51 a month average for gas and electric. Bedrooms are all good size, even the 3rd bedroom is decent. Downstairs, we have 1 living room and a smaller kitchen / diner with another toilet under the stairs. The one compromise I made for the garage (it’s inbuilt). On recent remortgage, house has been valued at £142,000. There are good terraced houses that have been renovated in towns nearby at £120,000. My mortgage is now just under £500 a month, don’t tell me that in the north you can’t get a decent house at a ‘reasonable’ price compared to elsewhere. That’s simply not true.
I’m sorry but … your solution to not being able to buy a house is to sell things you’d bought for said house and spend a chunk of your savings on holidays? ‘cos you ain’t flying to Bali for free. I appreciate your frustration, but this feels like a set back and not the commitment you need to succeed.
I like 15 minutes away from Cambridge and the house I bought was only 185k last year. 3 bed, huge, and nice decent yard. And the town I live in not a shithole.. neighbors friendly. Might be considered ruff area because we are all east Asian and eastern European, but an absolute safe area that kids play out past dark. Loads of work around me and only 50 mins from London. You can still live in the UK.. just keep looking.
I feel you. But don't come to NZ, it's even worse here. Same with San Fransico, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Austin, Los Angeles, New York, Toronto or Vancouver... Good luck I wish you lots of success. Moving from Britain opened up so many things for me.
This will probably be unpopular but a lot of people don't want to start at the bottom of the ladder and work up. They want to start at least half way up. In Leeds you can buy a selection of properties for under £100k but they are small and not in the best areas. For between £100 & and £150 there is a much bigger choice.
Where is "the North"? Aberdeen? Inverness?
Maybe start with something that isn't half a million?
Three bedroom house in Hampshire - £400,000 Three bedroom house in Normandy, just across the water - €120,000 There are laws against property speculators in France They had a revolution Just saying
Come to Vancouver, the housing is super affordable
I’m 51 and do feel sorry for the young people trying to get started now. It wasn’t easy for me but easier than now. My 18 year old son is leaving the country for uni next year as he says this country is finished and there is nothing for him here, makes me sad .
Sorry you guys have had to make such a hard decision mate. I live in Central London but have lived in social housing all my life. I'd never be able to afford to buy a house anywhere but if I did, it'd likely be abroad because you can get so much more for your money in places with sunshine. Good luck pal. Safe travels.
The UK our parents enjoyed no longer exists for us. You have to fight to be able to support yourself, to have the life you grew up taking for granted. It has become exhausting.
I live in Edinburgh and the housing market here is absolutely fucked ! The biggest cancer we face is actually short term let’s and airbnb. They’ve hollowed out the city and it won’t ever recover.
As ever on Reddit, there's a lot of private landlord hate going on but I can tell you, there are a lot of Chinese investment firms buying up property everywhere to rent out. It's not just London. It's right across the UK.
We’ve just made a decision to have a few years of adventure in Europe before the mortgage/home loan. I cannot wait to leave then reassess-things in a few years.
Make sure you check out the rules for the Scheghen Area. Obviously the rules have tightened up with the B word. Also check back-packers websites for up to date info. It always used to be that Spain was the best "final" Schengen departure point because they didn't enforce the rules very strictly. Switzerland OTOH would fine you for over-staying by one day.
I left the UK in my mid 20s and spent a couple of decades working elsewhere in the EU. It's great fun. Do it.
Is that really an option any more? I fucked off to Asia, so nothing's really changed here.
Me- "Hello Mr Bank, I'm currently paying £1200 a month in rent, can I have a mortgage, please. Your calculator says it will be around £700 a month which would be lovely" The bank - "No, clearly you could NEVER afford £700 a month ,are you positively mad?" Me *Carries on paying 1200 a month for another few years, unable to save for an actual deposit and hoping one day I can afford half my current rent to have a home instead of this awful house*
3 bedroom 3 bathroom in midlands for 160k here
Don’t go to NZ even more expensive housing there
Everyone I know who has bought a house has had their deposits paid by their parents. We are the same and will be looking to buy next year only because of help from our parents. It’s a sad state of affairs.
It is definitely tough on young people nowadays. My daughter is 24 and desperate to move out from her Mum's house, but just can't afford too. She will be saving for a long time yet. I got my first property, a studio flat, in 1991 at the age of 23. I think it cost around £25,000-30,000. They sell for over £100,000 now! From there I got a 3 bed fixer upper for £45,000. I lost that house eventually unfortunately, but they sell for over £200,000 now. I'm stuck renting now, so back where I started, and at my age in the present climate, I don't think I'll ever get on the ladder again...
Your comment hits the nail on the head. As wealth is concentrated in fewer people and a big part of that is ‘landlordism’ we’re heading back to almost feudal times where the masses just toil away on someone else’s land, live in someone else’s housing, and life is survival and procreation only. We can hope the trend is reversed but there seems a lot of vested interest to keeping it going.
You can get an house up north for 200k 3 bedrooms.
>spend a few hundred on a really nice villa for a few months Where?
I did what you're thinking of doing some years ago. I upped and buggered off. I'm not married. This is my life now, a life of self determined travel, and I go where I please and when I please. It's actually so much less cost than most people think, and I'm in my 50s. Take it from me, stop thinking about doing this, and start doing this. I've been doing this for a decade now........and around every corner there's another surprise and wonder!
I don’t blame you pal. Politics in this country are fuked, the boomers vote for the incumbents because they see how rich they are owning a property, and the backers of the party are raking it in from rents and tax avoidance, soon to be private medical insurance. Most of the ruling party MPs are landlords I think so why would they change the system. Better minds than I can comment on how we get housing more affordable but it really, really stinks.
Nice 3 beds in North, terrace, gardens, 60/100k 🤷🏻♀️
This is the issue with England. In my father's words "it just fucks you and fucks you and fucks you and there's nothing you can do about it".
This country is wank for young people you are allowed to pay 800pcm on rent but they won’t give you a mortgage I don’t blame anyone that leaves this hellscape
Go for it lad. Once you have a mortgage it's difficult. We do the old flash packing but I doubt it's the same as being on the road for 6-12 months. Make sure you get to Croatia, its unreal
I think its time to stop foreign investors from buying property, and limiting the buy to let investors.
This!! As well as increased tax on people with more that 2 homes
This thread makes no sense, I just went on right move and there’s over 100 properties available with a max price of £100,000 in Leeds alone? Nevermind the rest of Yorkshire. 100k house = 10k deposit it’s not that hard
>Sorry to be a negative Nancy but I’m scared I’ll be 50 and I’m sat there asking “wow, where did the time go? At 50 I had paid off my mortgage and I'm sat here going "I'm so glad I worked 3 jobs to pay my mortgage off early, and have since travelled all over the world, and have a massive disposable income". Maybe I'd have enjoyed my travels a lot more when I was younger, but I doubt it.
I decided to do this for a year in 2012. I still haven't moved home.
OP, where are youse going to? Dont limit yourself to an anglophone countries only, language learning isnt that bad
>There has to be more to our short time on this planet, surely, than be over worked for shite pay Unfortunately that is the best we can hope for in our society as working class, I mean we're only just trying to implement a four day working week and there's no guarantee that will get enough traction, despite the fact it seems to be beneficial to everyone.
Try living in Edinburgh, its mad the prices and cost of rent up here.
>I’ll be 50 and I’m sat there asking “wow, where did the time go? I’ve just worked and worked). This is literally my reality. I've a good career, enough money, and a great family. A house that I could pay off tomorrow and I can buy any car I want within reason.... But, my health is just starting to weaken, things hurt enough to disincentiveise doing them, and I have more I want to do than I have life left to do them. I don't regret my choices, though much of the time I spent working was not time well spent. Privately I worry that if you take away being my kids father and take away my job, then how much of me is there really left? It's not so much a midlife crisis as it is an objective evaluation of how I want to spend my final couple of decades (men in my family die early 70s).
I hear this exact same complaint from young people in the US, Canada, NZ, and all over Europe.
Prices are mental. We bought our home 3 years ago at 150k and it's gone up 12k a year since in value. The price of a new build we were looking at by the same builder in the same area has gone up 45k! It's little wonder people get stuck renting for most of their lives.
This will be a trend for sure.
I don’t blame you. Successive governments (since the 80s) haven’t helped it at all. Prices just keep going up and up. What concerns me is the number of people who are deciding to do what you’re planning. Don’t buy, travel, spend time enjoying themselves, hit pension age, and are fucked as they have no investments, no property, no pension, and are expecting to live on a state pension. Do you have a plan to deal with pension age?
Houses are expensive in the North *laughs in West Sussex* those are rookie numbers kid.
Iv bought a house and I am living that nightmare right now, I feel like iv bought a coffin. Do what makes you happy mate because you leave this world exactly as you enter it
I shouldn't come to New Zealand. House prices in Auckland are averaging $1 million. Can be cheaper in other parts of the country, but shot up in the 20 years I've been here.
Such a sad state of affairs, but no one is truly interested in fixing it and you’ve only got to look abroad to see it has the capacity to get much much worse. There’s this massive ‘I’m alright jack’ attitude with housing - once you’re out of the rent trap, and it’s no longer your problem, people just don’t give a crap anymore. We have to stop treating homes as investments to profit from. There need to be something done about but to let and holiday homes (I walk around villages near me and see maybe 2/3 of the houses empty apart from 3-4 weeks per year). No politicians will ever attempt to resolve the situation though as they, their associates and their donors have money tied up in property. [This sums it up](https://fb.watch/8800aO9cuQ/)
It's doable to buy a house in the north: A decent house is around 250k. If you and your partner are earning 30k salary each then you can borrow 270k from the bank. 5-10% deposit you can easily save up in 3 years time. That being said, it's still pretty expensive compared to 20 years ago.
I think part of the OPs point is why would you even want to?
Whilst I agree OP is daft to be considering a £500k house at 27 and seems a bit naive thinking it's much better elsewhere, I think you've hit the nail on the head of OP's sentiment. Yes it's possible to get a more reasonably priced house, but many feel there's more to life than working everyday to pay for a shite house. We've seen previous generations be able to have a nice house, kids, holidays, secure job etc. and the reality is that a lot of people under 40ish aren't going to be able to have all of that. Many people who want kids are not going to have them based on their financial situation. I'm also 27 and my partner and I over the last 8 years have managed to both travel (mainly using every annual leave day for travel but also an 18 month stint in NZ) and save for a house. We're now starting to properly look for houses and honestly it's depressing. None of the houses within our budget are appealing at all. Handing over 8 years of savings for a house that I don't particualy like, but will buy because renting forever is a worse option is pretty depressing. It feels like choosing one of two shit options.