Buying a house as a singleton - almost impossible

[mikelkite]

So as the title suggests - I am looking to buy a house soon when I have enough deposit. Small snag in that plan though.

1. I am single
2. I live in the south east
3. I earn £30k which means a bank will lend me £130-£140k maximum
4. A deposit for an average crappy mid terrace in my town is £170k+

It works out I will need to cover £38k (£170k), £48k (180k) or £68k (£200k) for a house. All in all this will take me (including using the help to buys scheme and all the interest and scheming I can come up with) approx 2.75 / 3.58 / 4.58 years at the present rate of saving (which is as much as I can humanely save)

The thing is - by the time I get to a figure near what is required, house prices will have gone up again, therefore shifting what i need further and further away from my grasp.

We have had about 1000 houses built in my town (alas no infrastructure to go along with them - thanks Quinn!) But every single one of them is meant to be "affordable" - which means for 2 people, earning the average wage will just about be able to get one with a still very decent deposit as these houses go for £250k.

How is that in any which way affordable? I've managed to amass £10k~ so far but as a single person the only answer is to buy a flat or rent, which I think is a total loss. After renting for years and moving back to my parents to actually be able to save up for the first time (thanks Landlords for fleecing people so much they can't ever get out of the trap!)

How do you cope knowing the economy is against you and that I could get a house for life in one of these new builds if only I was a scummy benefit begger (which I know plenty of who still go and work).

Living in the South East is a joke, my parents bought their house for £97k in 1993 and now its worth £500k+ - developers have been trying to buy our garden for years for £40k and we've refused them each time. How can house prices outstrip wages where it now takes 5 years of saving to buy a house when in the 80s you could have bought one outright with 2 years of wages....

 

[deusexlumina]

I feel your pain.

Realistically, the solutions to your problem are:

1) Wait until you find a partner, and are ready to buy a house together.
2) Move somewhere more affordable.
3) Continue saving.

Do you really want to buy a house right now though? I understand that rent is essentially considered dead money, but a house is not necessarily better depending upon how the market behaves over the next few years. If it was me and I had enough to buy right now, I'd still sit tight. A lot might change in the next few years with house value, base interest rate and lending criteria.

What makes me feel better is focusing on "quality of life" with my wage/living situation. How comfortable you are day-to-day and the freedom you have to do what you want in your spare time is more valuable IMO. This is not really improved that much in the short term by owning a place compared to renting.

 

[Dave]

Standard SE market really - when my wife and I lived together in Twickenham, our combined salary was ~£80k and we also struggled to get anywhere near enough for a small flat for similar reasons (high rents, prices increasing > effective saving is low) and we were looking to start a family. We just moved away and bought a house in a more sensible market ... well, ish. Aberdeen(shire) is reasonably expensive, but we bought in the oil downturn.

Realise that this requires you to either have a job where there is more than one centre of work, or be prepared to move somewhere where you may have to start afresh.

 

[Deleted member 77746]

Well for a starters you aiming for a house way out of your league. It is possible you just have to aim lower or go on a shared property plan or actually look somewhere cheaper. People in the housing market seem to want the best of the houses to start with. Aim low, buy low and then move up. The problem occurs when people put stress on themselves by buying what they can't afford down the line and this is when people get into difficulty.

I just sold mine, moved back with family and paid back what I owed as I got myself into a situation I couldn't get out of no matter what I did without going to rob a bank. Mortgage lender didn't want to know they just wanted their money. Wouldn't compromise it was either their way or nothing.

They just built about 500 houses where I live and each one is taken up already and filled - priced from 120K to 320K with only a 10% deposit on all houses required and a full time job. This has now become a problem because all of the 'current' houses has lost value because people don't want them unless they are either by investors or first time buyers. It took 6 months to sell mine because of this.

 

[TJM]

Are you dead set against a flat? Aside from being cheaper to buy, the running costs can be a lot lower and cleaning/maintenance is simple, leaving you with time and money for actual life stuff.

 

[RxR]

Another option? Buy the house you want to live in (and can afford to pay off) as an investment property. Rent it out for 12 months. Then 12 months and 1 day later, move in. This was the advice I got from a Bank manager when I asked the same question 35 years ago.

 

[Russinating]

There's numerous problems to your problem. First up, and the biggest, buying a property isn't a right. A lot of residents in other countries (Germany I believe?) never buy a property. But our society seems it to be something you have to do, for some reason.

You live in the most expensive area outside London and aren't giving the price of a flat. Why are you aiming so high?

Yes rent is 'dead' money, if you ignore the fact that you're getting shelter (which is getting closer to a human right). But so is a new boiler, tanking a wall, sorting out that leak in the roof. There will be a lot of people who own a property that spend what you do in rent a year on general/basic maintenance. Tenants often forget all that.

A mortgage is a massive tie. It's expensive to move, and if you're struggling to afford to buy then you'll never be able to convert to a BTL. And don't forget CGT. You have to be dead set about where you're living, where you're working, and what your future holds, and I'd suggest that nobody outside of a long-term relationship knows that (and even some that are!).

 

[nitram100]

Just move, SE as a whole is a large dump.

 

[RxR]

Buying investment properties is a fairly simple matter, certainly in Australia. In my experience (having done so several times).

 

[Randomface74]

Yes it's busted, move or earn more.

 

[Monkeynut]

Can you fit a part time job around your current job to get some more money in? Cut costs? Cheaper weekly shop, etc

 

[secretspy]

It took me years to get on the property ladder.

I got lucky with my place as I was technically £2k under the required salary though work were doing a quarterly bonus scheme. I had a deposit of £16k and moved out of Surrey as I couldn't afford anywhere else.

I have a 2 bed flat on shared ownership and one thing I noticed when I was looking was that a lot of the main shared ownership websites (I.e. share to buy) weren't listing available properties straight away or they had incorrect figures for rent etc.

I would suggest considering a flat first to get you on the ladder and to register directly with the housing companies and set up alerts for new properties, that's how I heard about mine.

The first year has certainly been difficult with unexpected costs. I had to prove I wasn't money laundering etc and could afford the costs plus utility bills, food etc which I did with Integrity Mortgages. I then also used them to help find my mortgage and they got me a really good rate which I fixed for 5 years. They then also secured me a great contents insurance policy so I pay £13 a month for cover up to £75,000. I couldn't find any companies that did it cheaper than that. They took a lot of the stress away.

Also to save money I didn't use local solicitors, I contacted 5 that can do shared ownership and went with the cheapest/best review one which happened to be down in Southampton.

 

[mikelkite]

Well for a starters you aiming for a house way out of your league. It is possible you just have to aim lower or go on a shared property plan or actually look somewhere cheaper. People in the housing market seem to want the best of the houses to start with. Aim low, buy low and then move up. The problem occurs when people put stress on themselves by buying what they can't afford down the line and this is when people get into difficulty.

I just sold mine, moved back with family and paid back what I owed as I got myself into a situation I couldn't get out of no matter what I did without going to rob a bank. Mortgage lender didn't want to know they just wanted their money. Wouldn't compromise it was either their way or nothing.

They just built about 500 houses where I live and each one is taken up already and filled - priced from 120K to 320K with only a 10% deposit on all houses required and a full time job. This has now become a problem because all of the 'current' houses has lost value because people don't want them unless they are either by investors or first time buyers. It took 6 months to sell mine because of this.

How is the CHEAPEST house out of my league? Are you serious? Terrace houses were for the working poor whom earned historically less than I do now. THERE IS NOT A CHEAPER OPTION. This is the problem, you can only have a house if you have 2x household incomes of £27k+ realistically as NONE of the houses are affordable.

 

[mikelkite]

Just to clarify - flats round my way cost as much as a house. Its a literal entrance to London which most people who sold their £1m council houses in London to come live down here and work in the city.

I can't really move as I work at a data centre and have too many roots in my town, too many ties to move more than 20 miles away tbh, the only option is a crappy run down town house mid terrace which is going to need years of work and thousands of pounds.

South East is a total joke of England, no real investment in decades - the refurbishment of Sittingbourne is an utter utter joke and only got passed cos who got the contracts and the associated bungs!

 

[Journey]

You've got to either move location, to somewhere your can afford with a slightly low paying job (maybe), or just face facts and buy a dump from an auction and refurbish it one bit at a time.

 

[DarkHorizon472]

Unfortunately due to decades of insufficient house building prices have risen rapidly compared to incomes. The only solutions are buy something in your price range or make a career plan to increase your income to give more options. As you mention buying a house to do up can help if you are able and can afford to do the work over time.

 

[Deleted member 77746]

How is the CHEAPEST house out of my league? Are you serious? Terrace houses were for the working poor whom earned historically less than I do now. THERE IS NOT A CHEAPER OPTION. This is the problem, you can only have a house if you have 2x household incomes of £27k+ realistically as NONE of the houses are affordable.

Who said anything about buying in your area? They are out of your league in THAT area.

 

[Semple]

How is the CHEAPEST house out of my league? Are you serious? Terrace houses were for the working poor whom earned historically less than I do now. THERE IS NOT A CHEAPER OPTION. This is the problem, you can only have a house if you have 2x household incomes of £27k+ realistically as NONE of the houses are affordable.

Ironically it does make sense that one-person owners are priced out of housing. As a person on your own, it would seem wasteful to have a 2-3 bed house as opposed to a family buying it.

Obviously if you can afford it, then absolutely go for it - who wouldn't.

Your options are limited as others have said.
- stick to buying a flat which is likely to be significantly cheaper than a house
- move to a cheaper area
- earn more money

By the sounds of things you seem really set against buying a flat, and earning more money isn't always easy. So that leaves your only choice to move away from the South East.

I moved from the south upto Manchester, although the houses in South Manchester are just as expensive as the south west. There are plenty of others on here who have moved away from their home towns to areas where housing can be more affordable.

 

[mikelkite]

Unfortunately due to decades of insufficient house building prices have risen rapidly compared to incomes. The only solutions are buy something in your price range or make a career plan to increase your income to give more options. As you mention buying a house to do up can help if you are able and can afford to do the work over time.

But there in lies the problem, even with a £50k deposit (sickening to say that) my max reach is £180k. There are maybe a few houses like that in my area, the next area and the next all the way until you get almost to the North.

I have no problem with a do up job, the problem is that I don't see at the increase that ANYTHING will be affordable by then. I've done spreadsheets of estimates and property value and required depsosit is ALWAYS going to outstrip my saving power.

"Affordable housing" my arse....

 

[mikelkite]

Ironically it does make sense that one-person owners are priced out of housing. As a person on your own, it would seem wasteful to have a 2-3 bed house as opposed to a family buying it.

Obviously if you can afford it, then absolutely go for it - who wouldn't.

Your options are limited as others have said.
- stick to buying a flat which is likely to be significantly cheaper than a house
- move to a cheaper area
- earn more money

By the sounds of things you seem really set against buying a flat, and earning more money isn't always easy. So that leaves your only choice to move away from the South East.

I moved from the south upto Manchester, although the houses in South Manchester are just as expensive as the south west. There are plenty of others on here who have moved away from their home towns to areas where housing can be more affordable.

Thats kind of a depressing thought when in the 80s a person could buy a house on 2 years wages, now 2 people struggle and one person is screwed.