So I’ve made a plan to save up £25,000 over the next 2 years. I want to move out of my family home & buy a property. A shared ownership one, most likely.
The more research I do, the more I realise that won’t happen.
Shared ownership as a single person seems like the odds are against us. Families and couples are favoured. And with the housing market as saturated as it is, I’ll definitely be pushed to the bottom.
Not only that, my income is low and I’m not sure how much it’ll raise in those 2 years. Currently I earn just under £24k - whilst there are a ton of 1 bed flats available for less than £100k (25% share) - my income is my disadvantage. Will they even consider me?
Buying outright is out of the question, clearly. But I don’t have problems with moving a little further out of London (but still within m25 for work purposes). It’s not like I’m looking in zone 1, I’m looking in zone 4/5 even zone 6.
It just seems near on impossible.
Shall I just give up and rent?
I don’t want to be sharing a tiny bedroom at the age of 25. I need to get out but I still want to be smart about it.
Any of you guys have experience with shared ownership or buying a property on a low income?
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phildawson
(Sorry, I will have to escalate this.)
2
I have a similar story. I was 19 and on £24k salary living at home. Made a plan to stick to spending only £600 a month and putting everything else in savings slightly over £1000 a month. Two years later I had my £25k and bought a 1 bed flat for around the £100k.
Renting gives you a ton of advantages which shouldn’t be overlooked. The freedom to move around and not be stuck with an illiquid asset can be quite valuable.
I would recommend just focusing on your career for now and upping that salary (ideally doubling it) and reevaluate the situation once that’s done.
But as the post above says, it seems to be possible, so if you do believe it’s the right choice then go for it.
I know you said work… But the job market doesn’t end at the m25
For the top paying industries it often does. You can get away with remote working but often it still requires an initial foot in the door just to prove your skills before they let you go full remote (remote by default positions are very hard to get as you’ll be competing with thousands of people all across the country and sometimes even beyond).
Me and my partner managed to become first time buyers and got a house in Folkestone at the start of this year.
I was living in London on a £35k job with my partner (about £27k I think?) but wanted to move out of London back to the Kent coast to be with Family. We decided to save to try and buy a house. It took us about two years to save ~£13K for a 5% deposit.
The Main reason we managed to save in that time was that she worked for London Bus Operator which gave us free Oyster Travel and we both got little bonuses from our jobs. We each saved using a help to buy ISA, the bonus really helped as did the Stamp Duty cut at the end of last year.
If we weren’t lucky enough to get that free Oyster, ISA Bonus, StampDuty Cut, I can’t think how many extra years this would have taken us both to get what we needed.
You’re right in that they’ll ‘crash’ eventually but the government are doing all they can to keep them inflated! I’d give it at least 5-10 years even if Brexit knocks them before we get a real price correct unfortunately
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phildawson
(Sorry, I will have to escalate this.)
11
I’d still recommend saving whilst in your family home and have low expenses, trying to save once you start paying rent as well as other bills it gets tough if you’re take home is £1600 I’d say you’ll be doing good to save more than £250 after rent/bills/food/etc unless you’re living like a monk.
It would take 100 months putting away £250 to get that £25k together.
If you find a partner or friend to share with then its a different story.
I’m at the stage where I’m on ok salary, but trying to move home on one salary with wife and baby and the cheapest four bed is half a million. So whilst the bank is happy to lend me £250k on my salary we gotta find the same again in equity and savings, wait until my wife is able to work again or hope some shares pay off.
Its fine if you bought 20 years ago and have that in equity in your current home, but buying these days is hard unless you are on decent salary £100k+ or that combined.
I’m convinced I’m going to have to save up down here in England and then convince my other half to move back to Scotland so we can get a place there - you can get a mansion where I come from for the price of a 1 bed down here in England!
I’m living in Hemel Hempstead right now which is mostly a commuting city for London (it’s about 30 mins away by train) and it’s about £1200-£1500 for a 2 bed flat. We joined this scheme with a housing association who do “intermediate renting” where they do a lower cost of rent 25% and the money you save you save towards a deposit - we can only stay a maximum of 5 years in this place and then you have to get out. It’s a new build though so nice new everything
They have access to our savings account and bank accounts and can request them anytime so they can see we are saving or its a breach of the contract.
Hopefully in 5 years we might have a decent amount saved between the two of us!
You could probably buy a garage here for £100k… I’ve found a few shared ownership flats for £80-130k - seems to be the lowest and most likely I’d be able to afford…
Ofc I could wait longer and save more, coupled with a few pay rises - it might work?
I’d really rather not rent. It just seems like a huge waste of money to me. I’m not a big fan of moving around, I’d prefer to be stable and stay somewhere for a while until I can afford bigger & better.
As for doubling my salary. Yeah easier said than done.
I wouldn’t mind living within commuting distance from London but I’d have to go towards the West to be able to do it.
I’m really not a fan of these small towns, outer London towns. They types of people there just don’t compare to people from big cities. I just worry that living in a smaller town won’t be… as fun/worth living in? But I’ve never lived in one so I really can’t say/don’t know what it’ll truly be like.
I’m just used to the diversity and buzz of London (and I live in one of the quieter outer London boroughs).
No idea! I moved from Scotland to here 7 years ago and at first I rented 1 room in a house and that was £450 which was a great price (and the landlord never put it up) and I know now that the room is now going for around £800 a month … and most rooms in Hemel on roomshare or rentaroom are around £800 FOR A ROOM! 1 ROOM!
It’s crazy! People just say because its a commuting town that its expensive!
