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first time buyers
- Thread starter Springal
- Start date
I'm not convinced it is as hard as people make out. Been a long time since I was a first time buyer - about twelve years now. But we just bought some property to rent and when we were doing that and getting the whole mortgage whatsit and in and out of the estate agents there were so many decent houses for decent prices with some amazing mortgage offers, that if you are a sensible person with a relatively decent job, who has saved some for a down payment I don't see why making the jump onto the property ladder is as hard as so many people say.
Woodchip
It's all about the bikes
I can afford half a garage, if I'm lucky. House prices are being pushed up by the people that can afford buy-to-let mortgages.
Sorry Starry, but it really pisses me off when people gloat about the fact they've just bought their XXth house on a buy-to-let!!!
Sorry Starry, but it really pisses me off when people gloat about the fact they've just bought their XXth house on a buy-to-let!!!
Northern Rock are currently the bane of our lives. Great to get a mortgage from them but a PITA when you want to leave.
You'll probably get a very different quote from NR if you do it over the phone or a properly paper form, at least that was our experience.
If you want a 4 bed house, huge garden, double garage, all fixtures and fittings, NW Hampshire though....
You'll probably get a very different quote from NR if you do it over the phone or a properly paper form, at least that was our experience.
If you want a 4 bed house, huge garden, double garage, all fixtures and fittings, NW Hampshire though....
Thimble Keegan
Remy LeBeau
All being well I should complete my first purchase on Friday (exchanged contracts today).
An old school-friend is now a mortgage advisor and she managed to get me a decent mortgage offer through Halifax. I have been lucky as I saved up a fair wedge (£10,000+) and I have the salary to not only get a good mortgage but also I should be to cope fairly well with the re-payments.
Albion & England forever.
Thimble Keegan
Skopje-Worthing BHA
An old school-friend is now a mortgage advisor and she managed to get me a decent mortgage offer through Halifax. I have been lucky as I saved up a fair wedge (£10,000+) and I have the salary to not only get a good mortgage but also I should be to cope fairly well with the re-payments.
Albion & England forever.
Thimble Keegan
Skopje-Worthing BHA
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bhanutz said:
Not at all.
I have no idea how much a house wherever you live would cost or what the average wage is, but my little sister just leapt onto the property ladder and managed to do OK (2 bed house, garden, off road parking) in a not so great paid job and with a fairly small down payment.
I'm not gloating Woodchip. The property letting is part of my husbands job, unfortunately I see next to no profit from it!
Rangdo
Registered Cider Drinker
With a combined salary of £40k we were offered £156k so if you are on your own with a better than average income you wil struggle to get more than a studio flat in Sussex IF you can even afford that. We got a nice house up here though 
hitony
Administrator
Firt time buyers getting onto the property ladder is not easy, does not matter where you live nowadays, i do feel some sympathy for them, there are some developers around the country who are now doing some developments to try to help first time buyers, (not many developments i admit) but they are only one bed places in the main, depending on what area you want, you might be lucky and get a 2 bed, my only advice is be patient and keep trying (and saving !!) and i do wish you all the best 
Tooting Gull
Well-known member
- Jul 5, 2003
- 11,033
Starry said:
What an ignorant post. You obviously have no idea, and care even less, about the current plight of hard-working young people who simply can't get on the property ladder in this part of the country.
Personally I think it's a scandal, and can't understand why electorally it isn't a bigger issue. Maybe at the next general election.
Sometimes they earn enough to be able to pay a mortgage - but won't be given one. The problem is not exclusive to London and the south-east, but is especially acute in that area.
You can do all the right things - within the parameters of a likely high rent - and still come up short. Why should you have to move to f***ing Stoke or somewhere to buy somewhere to live, if you've been brought up in Sussex and mummy and daddy aren't in a position to help out (ie most people)?
Gully
Monkey in a seagull suit.
Depends where you want to live doesn't it, I have struck a happy medium with Gloucester, good-ish job and relatively affordable property. My current post is relocating to Buckinghamshire in a couple of years time, I had a look at how much a comparable property to the one I live in would cost in the area where I would need to live if I moved with my job, a cool £350k minimum. As a result I will be looking for new employment, priced out of my job, and I thought that companies were supposed to be moving away from the South East because of the cost of living there.
Tooting Gull said:
Of course I do. One day it will be my children who want to make the step onto the propety ladder.
But I am still not convinced it is as hard as a lot of people would like us to believe. I don't know what age bracket covers "yhard working young people" but my sister who is a fair bit younger than me recently bought her first place, she worked hard, saved her money and made it work. She didn't get the five bedroom house with a pool she might like but she got a more than adequate first time home. And she's not on a huge wage and didn't have a huge downpayment. But she tried, tried again and found the right mortgage. right house and is now paying a lot less for her mortgage payment than she was in rent. I don't know how house prices compare to here (Hampshire) with Sussex.
I'm not sure you're really in touch with this at all Starry.
Here in Clevedon, which is a small seaside town in North Somerset within commutable range of Bristol, a one bed flat will cost you around £110-£120k.
To get a mortgage to purchase such a property, as a single person, you would need an income approaching £30k. That is over the average wage for this country.
Like you, I took the first step onto the property ladder about 12 years ago where, for about £55k, I bought a 3 bed Victorian terraced property close to Worthing town centre. I imagine it would cost at least 3 times that nowadays, and wage inflation has not kept pace with that.
Here in Clevedon, which is a small seaside town in North Somerset within commutable range of Bristol, a one bed flat will cost you around £110-£120k.
To get a mortgage to purchase such a property, as a single person, you would need an income approaching £30k. That is over the average wage for this country.
Like you, I took the first step onto the property ladder about 12 years ago where, for about £55k, I bought a 3 bed Victorian terraced property close to Worthing town centre. I imagine it would cost at least 3 times that nowadays, and wage inflation has not kept pace with that.
hitony
Administrator
Starry said:
I can assure you its not an easy task, is your sister is on her own ? like no patrner contributing ? and if she is, what sort of job / wage does she earn then ? cos without help from somewhere, its definatly not an easy thing, and i live in wales where property is probably alot cheaper than most places, i also work for a major developer, so i am aware of the issues that confront first time buyers
hitony
Administrator
Bozza said:
correct
pishhead
Well-known member
Realisticlally a person like myself who isn't a graduate will find it nigh on impossible to ever be able to afford a mortgage.
There needs to be something done at a higher level to make it more realistic for people such as myself to be able to make the first step. It is harder when there are hundreds of thousands of properties around the country that are sitting vacant.
There needs to be something done at a higher level to make it more realistic for people such as myself to be able to make the first step. It is harder when there are hundreds of thousands of properties around the country that are sitting vacant.
hitony said:
Yes, she is on her own, no partner and what not. She saved up for a down payment and went from there. She earns an average wage for a 25 year old, she is a civililian at the QMG HQ.
Bozza - I know Clevedon well, a good friend of ours lives within walking distance of the sea front where the train, bouncey castle is with the Morrisons petrol station on the corner.
The first property we bought was a four bedroom house that we paid £32k for. It was demolished about eight years though.
Starry said:
That is right where I am.
I've probably glared across the bar of The Salt House at them...
clapham_gull
Legacy Fan
- Aug 20, 2003
- 25,883
I've had a small flat in London for a few years.
I've been working for the same company for 11 years, my girlfriend has a good job etc..
We didn't receive any handouts etc.. and what we have we saved for ourselves.
However - if we were in the same situation now, i.e. at the same grade at our relative jobs we would have trouble getting a mortgage in this area.
My point being that people at the same point in their careers that I was then, would have a struggle. So it's definately changed.
I do know people who have bought places, but I can only think they have put down a huge deposit whereas I put down the minimum of 5%.
I was also helped out by the fact that my girlfriends firm has an agreement with a building society where they would lend more than the usual (based on salary). In fact I was turned down by a couple of building societies.
( I understand now though that building societies will lend far much more than when I got one )
The first couple of years were a bit of a struggle as we also bought when the interests rates were high.
We got out of that mortgage as quickly as we could, and now I'm paying less than I would in rent.
.. but of course when the boiler blows up you can't expect the landlord to pay for it !
( Gutted I didn't take the plunge a couple of years before though - I'd be laughing now. Also gutted I didn't put in the LUDICROUSLY low offer on another flat nearby that was accepted around the same time. Almost 25% lower than the asking price ! The bloke made at least a 10% proft the moment he moved in... )
I've been working for the same company for 11 years, my girlfriend has a good job etc..
We didn't receive any handouts etc.. and what we have we saved for ourselves.
However - if we were in the same situation now, i.e. at the same grade at our relative jobs we would have trouble getting a mortgage in this area.
My point being that people at the same point in their careers that I was then, would have a struggle. So it's definately changed.
I do know people who have bought places, but I can only think they have put down a huge deposit whereas I put down the minimum of 5%.
I was also helped out by the fact that my girlfriends firm has an agreement with a building society where they would lend more than the usual (based on salary). In fact I was turned down by a couple of building societies.
( I understand now though that building societies will lend far much more than when I got one )
The first couple of years were a bit of a struggle as we also bought when the interests rates were high.
We got out of that mortgage as quickly as we could, and now I'm paying less than I would in rent.
.. but of course when the boiler blows up you can't expect the landlord to pay for it !
( Gutted I didn't take the plunge a couple of years before though - I'd be laughing now. Also gutted I didn't put in the LUDICROUSLY low offer on another flat nearby that was accepted around the same time. Almost 25% lower than the asking price ! The bloke made at least a 10% proft the moment he moved in... )
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