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Wilberforce98@reddit

I don't think its hard if any of the below apply: You get help with a deposit. You have a partner. You live with parents who charge no rent.

Unfortunately, if you're single and renting its an absolute nightmare. Most of my friends who have houses and said it was easy lived at home while paying no rent or expenses and cannot comprehend that they were saving an extra 1500+ a month to people who have bills.

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Ruu2D2@reddit

Even of you live with parents who change low rent

But you get food and board . £200 is lot different to renting place on your own . So many of our friends had arrangement like this

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inevitablelizard@reddit

I live with parents and save a lot because of that but as a single man I just can't get the sort of mortgage I would need to buy. And renting would immediately destroy about half my income unless I live in a crime ridden shit hole in a house with bits falling off it.

So it's either rot in my childhood bedroom or rent and live in misery with no security, no ability to settle and actually start a life.

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Ruu2D2@reddit

I know it still shit for single people , even couples depending where they live , income and health

But so many people don't release living at home isn't alway possible for some. Some parents can't afford adult kid living at home , some parents toxic , some don't want to help kids , some want to downsize.

I think it hard for some people to get head around not everyone got good parents

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Lil_Ratche_@reddit

I think it hard for some people to get head around not everyone got good parents

They can't fathom it because they've never lived it.

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shredditorburnit@reddit

You don't have to live it to empathise.

I'm very left wing in regards housing reform, wealth distribution, unions and decent incomes from working.

I'm not this way because I have suffered hardship, but because I would much prefer to be surrounded by comfortable, happy people than financially insecure, unhappy people. Where's the fun of being able to go to the movies if your mates can't come too?

I've seen in others the difference family life can make both growing up and as an adult, and given how many people don't get much, or any, help from their parents, it needs to be relatively easy to get a job, save some money each month once rent and bills etc are paid and build yourself up from nothing.

Even with that, it would still be unfair how much easier some have it than others, but at least it would be possible for most of those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds to achieve a good life for themselves and their children.

I really really like your phrasing of your mates being able to come to the cinema too

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pajamakitten@reddit

I have the best of both worlds with one good parent and one bad parent. I can see both sides.

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abradubravka@reddit

Why the assumption that it's the adult paying for the kids.

Again - you do not know their circumstances so maybe don't assume they are the same as your deadbeat friends.

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Ruu2D2@reddit

My friends ain't deadbeat ....

Why you being rude . I just talking about not everyone circumstance are same . Where they can live at home till they save .

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abradubravka@reddit

Is there any need for the adult kids comment?

You don't know people circumstances.

Also is there anything in the comment you are replying to that would lead you to think they can't comprehend not everyone having good parents.

They are speaking from their personal experience and your spiteful reaction just want to make them feel like even more of a failure.

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DanBennettDJB@reddit

Likewise I have a 28 year old colleague here in Paris that is completely proud of living with her parents, spending quality time etc.

They have a big enough space and its a system that works for her.

We in the UK are especially bad at demonising it, but in many cultures many generations live at least near each others properties L

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velvetpalm@reddit

My parents are incredibly toxic. Therapy is cheaper than rent ✌️🙃

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Ruu2D2@reddit

My mother is very controlling . Refuse to treated me like adult . Belittle me all time

I had to write letter pleading with both my parents to let me stay in my uni town . I would probably not be here if I havet escape

I still have repeat dreams about having to move back home and it been almost 15years

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Depends where you are, Cornwalls average wage is shite and the housing is expensive.

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barejokez@reddit

Wait what are saying, Cornwall doesn't have the same minimum wage as the rest of the country?

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SnooRegrets8068@reddit

No, that we have far more jobs that are at minimum wage or very close to it than average. Also a lot of seasonal roles which brings that down. I was in a role whereby I was several levels above minimum wage. By the time I left 5 years later they had to add so many lower levels together it was barely above it, infact 2 months after I was made redundant my salary would have been illegal. Next job was 40% higher, then 50% over that for the next one remote within a year of leaving.

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barejokez@reddit

Ok so my point was that the average cannot be lower than the minimum. Mathematically. Saying otherwise (as the other commenter did) is misleading.

And now what are the employment opportunities in central Scotland?

Kind of blocks the region off for a lot of people, that.

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-Xero@reddit

I found them to be way better than Southampton/Portsmouth where I used to live

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panacebo@reddit

I mean, £25k is practically minimum wage? And if a single person is earning just above minimum wage then it's not surprising they can't afford a small mid-terrace and might have to settle for a shared ownership flat or similar.

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Internet-Dick-Joke@reddit

I mean, £25k is practically minimum wage?

You're not super familiar with public sector pay, huh? Lots of people earning around that doing very important jobs on that kind of shit pay.

And the whole point is that even the "settle for" options are out of reach because how how the housing prices are relative to wages. Shared ownership schemes tend to require that you put around 50% down, which in the current market is still going to be well over £50k. Most 'fixer-uper' properties are effectively out of reach.

Unless you mean "purchase and co-own with another person, such as a spouse", in which case they by definition aren't 'single-income buyers'.

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panacebo@reddit

No, I cant say I'm familiar with public sector pay, but 25k is well below the average UK salary. I know that when I was in this situation, being the sole household earner and on minimum wage, I didn't even think about buying a studio flat let alone a terraced house. These days there seem to be more options like shared ownership or the key worker scheme, but I admit I am not familiar with the exact details to gauge exactly how viable they are on MW.

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the_reptile_house@reddit

You're not super familiar with public sector pay, huh? Lots of people earning around that doing very important jobs on that kind of shit pay.

Educate us. Which "very important jobs" in the public sector only pay minimum wage?

Teaching starts at 32k. Nurses start at 30k. Social workers are 30k+. And these are starting salaries that automatically increase up the published pay scales. The vast majority of workers in these fields will be on considerably more.

Median public sector wage is 40k+ according to a quick Google. So I'm intrigued.

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the_reptile_house@reddit

I don't know why you've been downvoted. This is simply the truth. It's always been very difficult or impossible to buy on the lowest possible wages.

When the minimum wage was introduced (1999) it was £3.60 an hour, or £7020 a year (for 52 x 37.5 hour weeks). Even in the late 90s, when property had almost never been cheaper in real terms, virtually nobody on 7k a year was buying a house or flat.

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Big_Daymo@reddit

With current house prices, you would need at least a £50K deposit just to get a flat or a small mid-terrace. That is, at minimum, 2 years wages if you literally never spend a single penny of your wages

Actually the minimum is even longer than 2 years, since a 25k salary is only roughly £21,500 after tax, so tack on a few extra months to make up the difference.

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demonicneon@reddit

You’d be closer to 110-125k, 4.5-5x wage

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Reasonable-Horse1552@reddit

They're just doing it over 40 years now instead of 25!

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You can get decent homes for 200k pretty much anywhere in the country outside the SE.

Would I also like the house to be a bit better located? Yes, 100%.

But have I found ways to cope with all of the above? Yes. Because in coping with them I was able to buy somewhere on my own, on a low level civil service wage.

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Goosepond01@reddit

This is absolute nonsense.

I'm earning a decent wage down south, my options for living basically anywhere within 1 hour of where I work are absolutely fucked, and just remember that any of my options that are further up the country (until a point) are even more expensive because they are commuter towns close to london. Another big thing is that for some reason people assume everyone down south is on London salaries, we fucking aren't, we are on ok salaries with massively inflated house prices thanks to London.

my options are

-Be lucky enough to live with family (even then it can be a bit of a stress point)

-Rent, one bed flats are expensive and obviously you are just pissing that money away and that will significantly hinder you from saving and moving on.

-get a mortgage, so houses are pretty much out of the question, flats have insane service charges that go up and up and up and are a genuine worry especially if you want to sell later, shared ownership has massive risks too and doing anything with the companies is a ballache (even then you still pay service charges AND rent)

-be lucky enough that you have a remote job and can live substantially further away.

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AutomaticInitiative@reddit

God forbid you wanna move in some place you don't immediately have to put a ton of funds into because they didn't do any work on it in 40 years, or because it's sat abandoned for years. Everything within my price range is something like this.

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BoopingBurrito@reddit

Proving my point that you're unable to see a difference between "not perfect" (which I talked about" and "in need of full, expensive renovation"

Also if your price range is currently £42,500 then I can only assume you're working in a low hour, part time, minimum wage role since you're apparently earning about 9k a year. I don't think its reasonable to expect to be able to purchase a nice property (or any property) when you're earning 9k a year.

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WoodenPresence1917@reddit

Here you go mate, 2.5k cheaper and even got a better EPC rating. I bet you could low ball them too https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/157814663#/?channel=RES_BUY

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What if their family live in Belgravia because that's where their family are from? Exactly the same situation applies, just way bigger sums of money.

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Insane-Membrane-92@reddit

People owning property in Belgravia are likely in a completely different world of money.

In terms of chips, amusement arcades and fighting on the promenade, it far suparses Monaco

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inevitablelizard@reddit

I think people have to accept that there will always be areas you can't afford to move to.

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chris_croc@reddit

Probably spoken by someone who has never been north of Watford.

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Leccy_PW@reddit

You could probably get quite a nice place in the North actually.

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Randomfinn@reddit

Like where? Serious question, I’ve been looking at properties around the £100,000 mark need a lot of record or are located in very dodgy areas

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Leccy_PW@reddit

Well he said 100k deposit, so if earning minimum wage you’re looking at places worth 200k with mortgage.

That's inevitable.

Utter twaddle.

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mousecatcher4@reddit

They have already fallen 16% for their peak in real terms (or much more in some areas of London). I said in real terms - 5 or six years if stagnant prices or slight declines gets you that. So not twaddle in any shape or form. Sorry...

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adam_dup@reddit

Do you have anything to back that up? Curious as I'll be buying soon

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discostu418@reddit

He’s right, inflation is hiding a real value crash of housing, even though house prices are still going up in some areas,

In my area in the SW we had a big price bubble during Covid (race for space) it’s dramatically coming down now

I bought a 2 bed in 2020 for £185k, it was valued in 2023 at £290k! It is now valued at £220 in 2025.

Even though the house is now worth more than I paid £220k is worth less in 2025 than £185k was in 2020.

TLDR if I sold my house now I could buy less freddos with the money

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RadioactiveSpiderCum@reddit

It depends where in the country you are as well. Last year I bought a one bedroom flat at the age of 25. I was earning minimum wage, I wasn't living with my parents, I didn't have help with the deposit, and I was single. I'm just lucky that where I live has affordable housing.

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glasgowgeg@reddit

You live with parents who charge no rent.

This is a main one that's typically ignored.

There are many people who don't consider "I was able to stay with parents for free/minimal contributions" as parental help when it absolutely is.

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Dizzy_Association315@reddit

Indeed

My bf pays his parents £100 a month board...which basically includes everything.

I'm on the other hand stuck in a HMO paying £340 a month for the pleasure of a room.

I never got the chance to live at home (unlike my 3 siblings). I was told when I was 21 that I had "officially moved out" and it was "no longer home" 🙃

That said it has given him a chance to save some money to move out :p (I got extremely lucky-if you call several elderly relatives dying in the space of one month lucky- to have some inheritance, otherwise if be fucked )

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Ruu2D2@reddit

I think the issue is, at least with millennials, we were taught we were losers if we kept living with our parents after a certain age. I think that's why there's such a stigma with us and the older generation. For younger, it's necessary. I feel bad for kids having to deal with rent and bills nowadays. My youngest cousin is stuck living at home with abusive parents because she can't afford to move out. A few years back I tried to get her to move to live with me, but it failed (before she was 18). I don't have anywhere to put her now. I just purchased a flat with my partner and there isn't enough space even if she wanted to transfer unis to here. When it was just me in my old place, I would have figured it out. She's an adult now and unfortunately all I can do is give her advice and listen. She knows I understand and believe her. In some ways she was hurt more than me, in other ways, less.

As for paying rent to parents. Sure, enough to cover their portion of the bills etc is fine, not charging real rent and pocketing the extra cash. That's just wrong. I went through it from 16-18. Honestly it was cheaper to live in rented accommodation with friends than it was with my mum back then and far safer (abusive parent).

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Oh god yeah, hence my point about definitely paying board if your parents need it. We were skint up until I was about 10 - bailiffs at the door at one point. But then my dad got a big promotion after some people left at his work and we were alright. Not rich, but my dad could afford to learn to drive, buy a very knackered old Rover 500, and we went on a holiday to somewhere that wasn't my grandparents house for the first time that year.

When I had that job, my girlfriend was finishing uni and then we were going to move in together. This was a deposit for a rented flat - not a deposit for a mortgage. Oh, and I should've added I was paying off about £700 in student overdraft from my time at uni.

I was still paying board - I wasn't living for free - but my dad wanted to whack it up from £200 to £300, which left me unable to save the £100 a month I was trying to be putting into the rent deposit. He was also telling me to hurry up and move out, which I was trying to do!

I'd like to hope I won't need to charge my kids board if they're working and saving for something.

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Honestly, I think the loneliness epidemic is a major driver of a lot of our current problems. Life has always been significantly easier with a partner. In the past, it was normal to find a partner and settle down in your late teens and early 20s, whereas now it's normal to stay single until your 30s or even 40s. If you stay single, you only have half as much money to work with, and if everyone stays single, the price of housing doubles because we need twice as many houses to house the same number of people.

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inevitablelizard@reddit

The problem is not being able to live independently because of housing costs makes it harder to have any kind of relationship in the first place. It's a vicious cycle. Housing too expensive, need a partner to be able to move out, but living with parents makes a relationship basically impossible.

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Dynamite_Shovels@reddit

There was a sweet spot where someone on a modest salary could afford to live in a decent area in a decent apartment. Renting or mortgage - 'batchelor pads' and the like have always been a thing.

Now, you really, really do have to be quite lucky to be able to afford that (by afford - usually meaning you'll be sacrificing a shitload of income to make it happen). It's getting harder and harder for sure; and that's even before you factor in that it's not like people are choosing to want to live alone - loneliness is a major, major issue. Even flatshares are pretty difficult to ingratiate yourself into as a young person these days. It's pretty much the only way to modestly get by if you want to live away from family, but in the cities it seems so competitive to even get a flatshare.

Yeah, it's definitely always going to be easier pooling your salary together with a partner, but it's also I don't think ever been worse for the renting/mortgage dynamic as it seems so incredibly tooled up for either living with a partner or, maybe, being a single very high earner.

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dianthe@reddit

Yeah, that’s how my sister and her husband bought their first home. They each lived with their parents rent free while working office jobs full time and thus were able to save money for a down payment on a home. Then they sold that house a few years later and got a much nicer one.

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ContestMassive9071@reddit

This tbh.

Anecdotally, everyone I know who owns their own home is partnered up/married and bought a house with two incomes. They also often got help from parents with a large deposit allowing them to buy a nicer house than they'd afford on their own.

The exception to this is someone whos mum died and left them >100k letting them buy somewhere outright and someone who stayed at home rent free and managed to save about 30k for a deposit for a house when they turned 29.

Everyone else I know who are single are either stuck renting or stuck at home with their parents into their early-mid 30s. I think unless you have a really good job, it's difficult to strike out on your own and break the renting/living at home loop.

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notouttolunch@reddit

I bought my home alone. No parental help. I’m not unique in this.

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Mac4491@reddit

You get help with a deposit. You have a partner. You live with parents who charge no rent.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

All 3 applied to me. Without grandparents dying and therefore me inheriting some cash, without my partner and therefore a dual income, and without my parents never charging me a penny in rent or bills I would never have been able to purchase a house.

Dr___Dooom@reddit

Exactly. My mum couldn’t wait to kick me out. Now she nags about how I’ve not managed to buy a house.

And of course, it was harder in her day because they didn’t have a washing machine or something.

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NeonKrankenwagen@reddit

Man you nailed this answer so well I don't even think I need to scroll further to find a better reply to upvote, good job! 👍

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geeered@reddit

Those, also... you don't choose to live somewhere with expensive housing and try and live a bit frugally - there's plenty of places with cheaper housing too.

Or you live somewhere with expensive housing, but get paid better.

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Valuable_Jelly_4271@reddit

Years ago my Mate was showing me around the house he and his wife moved into after their honeymoon. Gave it the old 'Bought time you got your own place lad'

Same night he also mentioned that without his Mum and Dad giving them a deposit as a wedding present they couldn't have afforded to buy a house.

Tam936@reddit

Yes if you’re single! Me and my husband both managed to buy a house in our late 20s with our savings

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Flat_Development6659@reddit

It's gonna vary based on location mostly. I'm in the same boat as you where most mates have a career, their own house etc. I live up north though where you can get a half decent 2 bed for less than £150k.

The further south you go the more unattainable things seem to get. Banks usually lend 4-5 times your salary so even if you've got two full time earners earning about the average wage (35kish) you've only got around 315k borrowing, so maybe a £350k house if you want to make out and can save £35k up for your 10% deposit. In a lot of places £350k really doesn't get you much and maxing out your borrowing can put you in a bad position if one of you ends up unexpectedly unemployed.

SeventySealsInASuit@reddit

But equally the starting salary for graduates out of my university has actually fallen over the last decade. This is for engineers, programmers, even the entry level positions at banks haven't increased their pay even if they haven't actually decreased.

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Flat_Development6659@reddit

The purchasing power for houses is still much lower in the south east though.

As for careers, it's definitely turbo charged mine, I'm 7 years in and on 100k, if you want it though you can earn up to 200-300k at a hedge fund, not my cup of tea but that kind of opportunity simply doesn't exist up north.

Personally I'll be moving back up north but probably to Manchester in a few years to be closer to family, but if it wasn't for that I'd probably stay, certainly for now.

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Pedantichrist@reddit

Holy crap. I live in a rural shite hole and it will be more than double that.

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Flat_Development6659@reddit

Have a look on rightmove at coastal towns, areas surrounding Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle, most of Scotland etc.

Under £100k you'll get shit holes, £150k you'll be able to get a half decent 2 bed terrace. If you're looking at spending double that you'd likely be able to get a 3-4 bed semi/detached with a drive/garage and decent garden.

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Traditional-Job-4371@reddit

100%

For some reason Redditors don't know that the UK is a big place.

The assume everyone pays £2k for rent and has 1k childcare costs.

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pajamakitten@reddit

Logically, not everyone can move to such areas though. You have to take into account supply and demand (house prices will go up if everyone moves to cheaper areas), the fact that such areas might not have any jobs in your industry, and the fact that people do not want to abandon their support networks. Moving across the country is not easy and not something everyone can 'just' do.

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Hummusforever@reddit

Leeds is the most economically diverse city in England outside London and has affordable housing. It has definitely increased a lot since I moved here 7 years ago, but salary wise I’m on the same as I would be in my home town and cost of living isn’t even comparable.

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mrggy@reddit

I think it's less expecting people to just up and move to cheaper areas (some people do talk like that and I disagree with that), but rather forgetting that people live in those areas to begin with. Not everyone starts out in the SE and moves north. Some people have never lived in London and have happily been living in Liverpool or Aberdeen this whole time, completely unaffected by London cost of living

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whosthisguythinkheis@reddit

Well I would love to live anywhere in the UK but I’ve managed to get jobs which seem to exist purely in London and Manchester.

I think it's admirable that you managed to do that but I don't think it's a realistic expectation of everyone.

Cash buyers only

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Flat_Development6659@reddit

Good spot!

Just use the same criteria for the same area though, there's tonnes on there for less than £150k.

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ModernMoneyOnYoutube@reddit

Where do you live for a 2 bed house to cost £150k?

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xp3ayk@reddit

My household's combined income is over 100k and the bank wouldn't lend us more than £280k because of student loans and childcare payments.

Turns out paying £2k a month on childcare is absolutely terrible for affordability tests. Who would have thought?

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LokoloMSE@reddit

£350k is absolutely OK for a starter home.

In my area you can get a nice 2 bed flat for under £300k. Hour from central London. Great schools, great parks and plenty of green space.

Realistically if someone is single and wanting to get onto the property ladder they'd buy a flat, when they got into a long term relationship they'd sell the flat and use the money as their share of the deposit on the house they're buying together. You don't really need a full house if you live alone.

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LokoloMSE@reddit

Yes 100%.

To expect an early 20 something year old to buy a 3 bed semi detached on their own isn't really a realistic view.

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MintyMarlfox@reddit

People’s expectations are half the problem. When you’re young you only need a one bed flat. You don’t need a 3 bed detached.

Buy the flat, make some money on it, move up the chain. Everybody expects their first home to be their end goal.

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Sidian@reddit

People's expectationsa ren't nearly high enough, and thats the problem. We have the smallest houses in the world. A 'big' British house would be considered the size of a walk-in closet in much of the world. See this thread from the other day.

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Unprounounceable@reddit

They are small, but there's also only so much that can be done. Although there is room to build, there is limited space in the UK, especially when you consider that green spaces and farmland need to exist to provide for the population. Another issue is that as house sizes go up, population density in an area generally goes down, which can cause a number of problems. I'm originally from the US, and the houses are significantly bigger there, but the resulting sprawl leads to situations where most people are dependent on cars. One thing I really admire about the UK is how much closer everything is, and how common it is to be able to walk to, say, the grocery store. Part of that difference has to do with American zoning laws (so many people are rabidly against any stores opening in their neighborhood?), but a lot of it is the difference in how these communities were constructed.

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This isn't a recent phenomenon though. I bought early 90s and it was no different then.

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SoftwareWorth5636@reddit

I know loads of people that bought houses on their own. My aunt did and so did my parents.

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CharacterLime9538@reddit

More details needed, wage, location?

If you live in the north, a single person on minimum wage can still easily afford an £80-100k property, just as they've always been able to. Earning more than minimum wage and you're laughing.

If you live south, in my case Bristol, it's never been an option. I needed to take in three lodgers to make it viable and meet the mortgage payments, even when house prices were on the floor.

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SoftwareWorth5636@reddit

As someone who lives in the north, that isn’t true. Around manchester prices are rising higher than anywhere else outside of London

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Superguy230@reddit

Get some bitches then lil bro

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LokoloMSE@reddit

Where did you get £80k from?

My sister moved to a different part of the UK a few years ago, because for the price of her poky two bed flat where we’re from, she could buy a massive house elsewhere.

She moved back into her two bedroom flat à couple of years later, when she realised living in a McMansion wouldn’t compensate for the wide circle of friends she’d built up over years in her hometown.

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inevitablelizard@reddit

And for all the people here who are all like ‘just move then!’ - it’s never that simple. Areas where housing is affordable tend to be that way because there aren’t as many jobs going, and a lot of what is available is low paid. If you have an area with plenty of good employment, it attracts more people (and more landlords) and house/rent prices go up.

Thank you, someone else who gets it. There is always this relationship that places with more and better paid jobs have more expensive housing. While many places are much better than London, this is a nationwide problem.

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drplokta@reddit

Average wages aren't £35K in the places where houses are most expensive. In Inner London a year ago, median (not mean, which is higher) full-time earnings were over £50K, and should be about 5% higher than that by now.

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NiceCornflakes@reddit

Yeh my partner and I bought a house last year on a combined income of £52k a year. It’s in a village on the edge of the city, 2-bed semi with a decent sized garden for £195k. It’s definitely possible, it just depends on where you live.

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Fun-Survey7338@reddit

It's the South East and not the South West. And in reality, it's about a 40 mile ring around the M25.

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PuzzleheadedLack1196@reddit

I think the common denominator of your friends there is having rich parents.

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Unusual_Sherbert2671@reddit

It's not just about it being impossible but significantly harder when compared to the 90s -00s. Where you could have one earner working an average job and one person at home, have a family, decent size home, decent living.

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commonsense-innit@reddit

average income, cost of housing, job insecurity, cost of living, do the maths

you dont need to put your hand into a fire or poke your eye with a stick to know the outcome

this problem is not restricted to uk, it it mirrored globally

travel is supposed to broaden the mind

You don't have to be asexual to be long term single! Plenty of people just don't meet the right partner until they are older, or sometimes ever, or separate from them.

Moving in with someone just to make it easier to buy a house is an absolutely terrible idea too.

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_FreddieLovesDelilah@reddit

Depends on where you are I think! Where I live all my friends are home owners and all my husbands friends are home owners (we’re mid to late 20s), multiple also have families. I grew up in complete poverty and so did many of my friends and all of us have managed to get our way out, most of us had to work 2 jobs and miss out on a lot during our early 20s. My friends that didn’t come from poverty, didn’t have to miss as much or work 2 jobs but it was still difficult in its own way. I’ve never heard of anyone I know have to move to London for work and the job market has been kind to all of us, we’ve never really struggled to get jobs any of us (we don’t like in England, don’t live in a capital but do live in a big city) none of us have ever been made redundant (I don’t actually know anyone who ever had tbh) and our salaries tend to be higher than the rest of the Uk for public service jobs etc.

rob_matic@reddit

You're probably earning close to £70k to be able to get a £285k mortgage. Of course it's not hard when you are in the top 20% of earners.

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ukrepman@reddit

If you're buying a 300k house alone then yeah, sure. Not sure who'd need a 300k house alone unless you live in a super expensive area

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In Cornwall as a newly single divorcé who previously owned a home. It's bleak. I lived in my dream home with my partner and child but now I'm single at nearly 40 and can't find anywhere reasonable for my daughter and I.

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DanBennettDJB@reddit

Yes as student just put aside 200 a month with your rent bills costs etc

What?

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ukrepman@reddit

Obviously not students, I was just using that as an example for someone working at 18 rather than uni. If student, 22-26 £300 a month is just under 15k.

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DanBennettDJB@reddit

300 a month for anybody in early 20s is a push when grad roles even in London still have an ugly habit of being 25k and then your rent and bills even in a share is over half that

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Ruu2D2@reddit

Moved out straight after uni

I didn't have £200 spare . Was living pay check to pay check

Did you live at home , were you working , what was your income

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notouttolunch@reddit

*cheque

I did this too. I own half a house now.

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ukrepman@reddit

Is that shared ownership? My sister does that. I scoffed at first but it's actually a great way to get on the ladder imo. She bought her house in 2020ish, and is selling it now and has £16,000 worth of equity, even though she only owns 40% of the house! She's gonna use that to buy a new house. If she carried on renting, this would have never been possible.

If you mean your 50% through your mortgage, I envy you haha.

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notouttolunch@reddit

No, I just haven’t paid the mortgage off yet!

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ukrepman@reddit

No, I was homeless at 19, sofa surfing. Ended up renting at 20. Sorted myself out at 23ish and started getting real about finances. I was very, VERY bitter about the cards I was dealt. But in the words of a great poet 'you have to take them cards and flip them don't expect no help'. I saved shit loads, stopped going out etc. And eventually managed to put 5% down, which at the time was expensive but now my mortgage is like £1200 a month and rent for smaller houses in rougher areas is that.

Was not easy and I felt I had to work twice as hard as the next person to have the same as them. Then I found out, so does everyone. Even Jimmy Iovine said it on a Dr Dre album.

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beanoboy21@reddit

If you take out a 5% deposit mortgage for a £300k house at current rate levels your monthly payments will be in excess of £1,500, if not £1,600. At 24 years old even if you’ve saved the £15k I expect that is a big hurdle.

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PM-ME_UR_TINY-TITS@reddit

Course it's easy when you are earning 55-70k

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AgeingChopper@reddit

I was going to say, here in Cornwall few if any of my sons cohort that still live here have been able to buy homes. Most live in shared accom or in whatever accomodation friends and family can help with,

Wages are low, housing costs are high, it's probably one of the worst areas though.

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4kreso@reddit

The issue is the multiplier, not the 5% deposit.

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DaveyBeefcake@reddit

Depends, delayment of gratification makes it very easy to buy a house, if you lack that discipline and self control it's much harder.

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EntertainerAlone1300@reddit

If you’re from a working class family with no outside support, yes it feels absolutely impossible

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evilcnut@reddit

I’m 20 and my parents kicked me out at 18 and I had no choice but to get out on my own. I make minimum wage, so I take on any extra shifts and overtime that I can get! and I rent a shitty 1 bed flat in a really bad area and just manage to get from one month to the next feeding me and the dog.. and now a cat that I couldn’t ignore!

It’s particularly bad right now for lots of people regardless of age due to rising prices on practically everything. There is no money for holidays, nights out or hobbies. I imagine it’s better for those who have family to help them get started etc. or for those that stay in education and get a degree! I regret leaving college and may go back if I can. But right now all my time is taken up by working.

Buying any property seems like something way way off in the future! Or a lottery win 🤞

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ukrepman@reddit

I was in the same position as you at 20 and now I'm doing alright. Have you thought about looking into construction jobs?

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Ruu2D2@reddit

My husband mother moved abored when he was 18 . At first yes he did stay in family home. But they quickly got rid of it and he was on his own

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Emily-Egg@reddit

My boyfriend and his ex girlfriend put £35,000 on a house deposit so he has a mortgage and we’re now expecting a baby so I hope not! I think it depends on your work ethic and what you’re willing to do, kids aren’t as expensive as they seem, I struggled a bit but by myself I bought everything I needed for my daughter for the first 6 months of her life just by being smart with my money and getting things second hand or waiting for sales It’s doable you just need to know what you’re doing cause people here I think a lot of us don’t have a good work ethic or waste their money on shit or don’t push themselves out their comfort zone to work then complain about how screwed it is that they can’t get a job when 99% of the time it’s just because they’re picky about what they want to do

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Traditional-Job-4371@reddit

The UK is a BIG place. For some reason, on Reddit, the UK and Britain mean London.

I don't know about SE England, but in Scotland and NE England, it's certainly achievable.

You can get a decent house in my town for £140k, my 21 year old nephew just bought one.

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ModernMoneyOnYoutube@reddit

Which town is this?

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callendoor@reddit

No, it's nowhere near as bad as Reddit would make you believe. A lot of the complaining about property is overly focused on London and the South East of England.

Take Glasgow, for example. Sure, if you want to buy a nice place in the West End you can be half a mil to a mil+, but there are also dozens of perfectly nice homes a short commute to the city for 100k-150k. If you are in a couple and both working, you can save and buy one of these homes in a couple of years (I know many people who have) if you want to start a family.

The vast majority of people I know travel at least once a year (usually a few times a year) and many of these folks are working in hospitality. Most people I know have cars, have savings etc etc. The idea that everything and everyone is doomed is just nonsense.

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ModernMoneyOnYoutube@reddit

Could you give examples of where?

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callendoor@reddit

Erm I already did... Glasgow. If you want specifics head to Rightmove add a +5 mile radius to Glasgow and search. Cumbernauld, Paisley, across Refrewshire lots of places.

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Azyall@reddit

4 out of 4 of my nephews (youngest 22, oldest 33) have bought houses in the South East, all work, none went to university. 3 out of the 4 are married, 2 out of the 4 have kids (so far).

To be fair, I know a lot of youngsters do struggle, but our lot have done all right.

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DizzyHeron3@reddit

It depends where you live I think and what your circumstances are. I know quite a few people in their late 20s/early 30s who have managed to buy in and around Edinburgh

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miuipixel@reddit

These days, it is very difficult for people to find rental accommodation, forget the getting on property ladder.

My neighbour wanted to move from their two-bedroom rental flat to a three-bedroom one, as their children are getting older. Both parents are on minimum wage, one works full-time and the other part-time. They have been living in the same property for seven years and currently pay £1,900 in rent.

They found a three-bedroom flat just four miles away, with a rent of £2,300 per month. However, the letting agency told them they would need to earn at least £6,900 per month to qualify for the property. They also visited a few other estate agents, and they gave similar advice. One alternative offered was to pay six months’ rent in advance.

How many people in the UK actually earn £6,900 a month? It’s madness.

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Beartato4772@reddit

It does very much change based on where you are and what you'll accept when buying.

But I bought in 2015 and that income, increased by wage inflation would not buy my house today even if I could save up the deposit while paying rent that would have gone up more. So in my area, with average wage inflation, it has absolutely got harder.

That may not of course be true for any other job/house pairing.

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killer_by_design@reddit

Also, all those people who "got no parental help" maybe is closer to "didn't say out loud what help they may or may not have got".

Inheritance seems to be the biggest one I know of for people who have got on the property ladder down south but haven't said out loud how. The other is parents taking lump sum pension payout and giving £X.XX amount to kids to get on the property ladder.

People don't generally advertise how they got their deposits.

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Llew19@reddit

It's not just parental help for buying either - both my sister and I were fortunate enough to be able to buy places having inherited enough for a deposit, but needless to say both places required a lot of work to make them nice to live in... and when you're not in a position to be hiring professional decorators etc, my parents have given an awful lot of hours of labour to help renovate.

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ukrepman@reddit

I've personally never known anyone take money out their pension. Most people I know who don't own a house by 30 are terrible with money, and most people I know who bought a house by 30 did it through just saving (myself included)

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Hellolaoshi@reddit

But you might be taking your own amazingly fortunate experience and generalising it. You seem to be implying that those people you know who don't own a house by the age of 30 have some defect. However, statistics show that home ownership is increasingly out of reach for young people. They usually have student loans and other bills to pay, too. By home ownership, I presume you are talking about owning a home outright after all associated costs have been paid.

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ukrepman@reddit

There was absolutely nothing amazingly fortunate about my situation, I literally sofa surfed and was living out of my car at 19, don't assume things. I'm certainly not fortunate enough to have my mum draw out her pension to give me a deposit! (And I stand by saying i don't know anyone who's done that, and be honest, do you..?)

It’s fashionable to pretend to be poor these days. most people in the UK are actually doing okay despite what Reddit might suggest.

I am far from rich but I am generally doing okay. Things are in a bit of a slump and the introduction of up front tuition fees screwed me over a lot. That’s just life’s tapestry.

People I have the misfortune of knowing go on holiday all the time and tend to want to do exciting things but none of them see the joy of building their own garden or decorating their own home (properly!) even after they’ve bought their home.

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butwhatsmyname@reddit

Yeah there are a LOT of people whose parents don't gift them a house deposit...

...but whose gran left them half her flat. Or whose uncle left an inheritance in an account for them. Or who actually just don't mention the help they got.

It also depends very much on background and circumstances.

People who move away for uni and then get a job in their uni town/city are paying rent right off the bat.

OP says all his pals didn't get degrees, but what are the chances that they all moved out and started paying rent at the age of 18? They clearly saved some cash up if they've bought a place before the age of 30.

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Beartato4772@reddit

There are people who think they got no parental help who lived with their parents for some amount of time as an adult not paying commercial rent and bills.

My children’s friends are about 50/50 divided. One is in game development, he bought a flat in London about 4-5 years after graduating uni. One is a registered child minder, she and her husband (something in real estate), bought their first home 2 years ago (she’s 29 now) in Sussex and are expecting their first child any day now. Another is an architect, married to an architect, they’re buying their first house now, just got married last year and are in London. But some choose to rent with friends in London (one actor, you’ve seen him, his sister is a BBC radio producer, all the med students are still renting as they finish up training, residencies and such) and some choose to do temp situations as they move around a fair bit - a tattoo artist, one who works for Virgin airlines.

It’s not easy, but it never is really. My parents were boomers and though houses were cheaper my dad was 40 when they bought their first house and they were nervous about making that mortgage. Everyone working for their money is pressed at a mortgage.

My son has a council flat in a small village, tiny development surrounded by fields, 1 king size bedroom, private entrance, walled garden, solar panels, 20 year lease. It’s like rent control. He’s settled and sorted.

There’s also partial ownership schemes, basically you buy a percentage of the equity and pay a reduced rent on the other part. When you sell, you get that percentage bit of the profits and can then buy up the ladder. I know several folks who have done that, one currently has their house on the market.

I worry far more about my child who lives in the US. Their landlord is refusing to renew their lease but wants them to sign a new one for $400 more a month. No reason either, just opportunistic exploitation.

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bluecheese2040@reddit

No...its not....it is possible. There are a myriad of strategies but fundamentally it comes to this...you have to earn more money.

You need to be challenging to yourself...

We are taught to demand instant gratification and for many of us...house buying is the first time when we can't do what we want...where we want and when we want....within reason of course.

So when you're early 20s or mid 20s...the jdes of having to save for many years...with the inflation etc. Seems impossible.

But it isn't.

The.issue people should consider is this....buying a house is step 1....paying for it...having the sort it out yourself...not having a landlord to fix the boiler at 2am etc. .its not all happy days.

I grew up buying the idea that my mortgage would be less than my rent had been....boy was I wrong.

For many people I think renting is better...with a good landlord.

We need massively better renters protections.

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StipaIchu@reddit

Your right. I believe it is the biggest injustice of our time. I myself was nearly brainwashed into thinking I couldn’t own. I had a moan on the net and thankfully a few posters really rallied into me that it is possible. I looked at it. Did a decision in principle on a minimum wage job. And they were right. Did it within a year by my partner and I moving back in with parents.

I do think the parents and couple are essential to making this easy. Singletons renting are going to find that very hard. But 9/10 people can live with parents. They just don’t want to.

And the couples; not everyone is as lucky to find their partner early. But they could save so they are ready.

I think some people think this is a giant conspiracy of some kind. That people from Abu Dhabi are buying up the shitty one or two bed that they want to buy. It’s not - it’s their colleague, their friend, their arch nemesis. And if there’s two of them then obviously they are going to be the ones able to bid higher than a singleton if everything else is equal.

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Cumulus-Crafts@reddit

I'm 23, and have had an office job for just under 3 years now. I'm on a salary (after taxes) of around 20k. I still live with my parents, and I give them £200 every month in digs. My parents don't want me to get into the renting market, as they were in it their entire lives, and they've only just been able to afford their first home at age 55.

In the three years at my job, I've saved up 18k, which I've put into an ISA with 5.71% interest, and I've also managed to put 3k in a LISA. I put £75 a week into the LISA.

However, the average cost of a house here (because it's a holiday home destination) is around 300k.

I've decided that I'm going to have to buy a flat rather than a house, if I ever want to get on the property ladder in this area.

It is if you're from the South and want to remain in the South. It's not if you're willing to live anywhere outside of the South.

It is if you're in a very low paying job. It's not if you aren't in a very low paying job.

Circumstances vary, which is why we look at overall trends and percentages.

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Reddit-Queen-2024@reddit

Northerners are even worse off because they tend to get much lower wages and education, so can’t snap up property as easily as the Southerns moving north

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ADJE777@reddit

Part of the problem is the job distribution is heavily focused around London and the south where house prices are highest. I suppose they go hand in hand, but it’s not very helpful.

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gyroda@reddit

Yeah, I could afford somewhere in much of the country.

But my job isn't there. I can't commute to where many of the jobs are from there. My family isn't there. My friends aren't there.

There's a reason the demand is lower in these places.

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This is my own personal experience and I know it’s true. I’m from the north / middle Lincolnshire and I’d be nowhere near the position I’m in now in the south. My peers from university who are still in the north are 2 years behind me role wise and on salaries 30% less. It’s swings and roundabouts, higher wages in south but also higher costs. But I can confidently say I’m much further on in my career by moving south and I’ve been open to many more opportunities by being here.

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Fun-Survey7338@reddit

Fair enough and of course it varies. There is no absolute.

Also I think there is a distinction of, there's no work outside of the South East which isn't true, but compared to an incredibly rural or very poor town or city, can be correct. And when people from the South East, as I am, thinking there's not jobs outside of the South East, as if Birmingham, Sheffield, Manchester, Bristol etc. Don't have well paying jobs.

For instance I left a commuter town 15 mins from London, average house price over £600k. Moved to Plymouth, avg £230k and now Exeter £320k. My job pays £50k here and £60k, where I'm from originally. So I'm far better off here.

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ADJE777@reddit

Oh yes of course.

Definitely lots of work in the cities, and I suppose that it also depends on Industry too. Medicine for example is country wide, however areas like finance I find are heavily based in London.

Within my personal role, as I said I find that I and the south are paid much better than that of other areas. I’d absolutely love to live somewhere more rural and fortunately with hybrid working it’s looking more possible. I definitely won’t be staying down here for ever…

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LittleRedTitan@reddit

I'm mid 20s living in the south east and commute to London for my job, but think in gonna have to move up north and get a different job, it's such a trap

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WP1PD@reddit

Yeah location is key in answering this, I lived in southern England for a while and there's no way I could have afforded to buy there, whereas here in Wales it was much easier. If you live in the south and have family there you want to be close to you're kind of fucked.

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FunMathematician4638@reddit

I live near Dorset and will be able to afford to stay in the south, plenty of 2-3 beds for 300k in the surrounding area

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Fun-Survey7338@reddit

The South East. * (To a point)

Mainly just the M25 bubble. Source. I moved from just outside of North London to the South West, got a minimum wage job and had a flat in 2 years.

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spartan0746@reddit

I live in the south and the OP’s comments still stack up as true for me and my wider group.

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trainpk85@reddit

I think a lot of it is to do with attitude. For example my husband and I have two family members. Both were dumb and got pregnant young with men they didn’t stay with.

20 year old was pregnant at 16. Split up with the dad by 17. Finished college then went on to do a beauty course and is now a lash tech on evenings and weekends while working in a dentist during the day studying to be a dental nurse. Uses the free child care provided by government and didn’t fight with baby daddy so his parents help with top up child care. She has a little 2 bed flat. Nothing fancy. Benefits pretty much cover the rent. She’s passed her driving test and bought a little micra to improve her earnings. Has a new boyfriend but has learned her lesson and not got pregnant again.

24 year old. Got pregnant and engaged at 20 and gave up work. Boyfriend moved in with her and her parents. They moved to their own house that he paid for but he worked away so she asked him to quit and work in a bakery. She got pregnant again and they split up when that child was weeks old. She moved back in with her parents and didn’t work. Her parents kicked her out when she got a boyfriend who then went to prison. She now constantly asks for money for rent but when it’s suggested she works, she says she can’t because of the kids and she needs child care. The new boyfriend is out of prison now and also doesn’t work. When asking for donations of TV’s, iPads etc she turns them down if they aren’t the required spec. Fights with the original dad constantly and the kids now don’t know who he is and call new prison dad daddy. Prison dad also has a Jeremy kyle situation going on with his kid.

I think the system can work for some and you can have a happy life but you need to work hard and keep your head down. The girls I know were in almost the exact same situation but one made it work and the other is a professional whinger.

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Miss_Type@reddit

My niece worked part time from 16 years old, full time from 18, and saved every penny pretty much. She bought her house aged 23. I think it's hard if you're renting, because most of your salary goes on rent. Much easier if you can live at home for free and save for a decent deposit.

I was the opposite, and could only afford to buy in my 30s because my dad had an industrial illness payout and gave me the money for a deposit.

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Creepy_Move2567@reddit

I know lots who do it so I don't know, somepeople just find ways. :)

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noirproxy1@reddit

Me and my wife live in York via a shared ownership home. We basically own 65% of it while the council owns the rest but we can pay to own more of it whenever we like.

The only problem is that the remaining percentage was 100k in value and we have to pay the council £250 in rent on top of our mortgage. It's basically like being fined for note owning the whole house.

Just imagining what could be done with that lost £250 each month shocks me.

This was sadly the only house we could afford a year ago. My wife is also on the second half of her spouse visa, so can't be part of any mortgage offers, so it is all riding on me.

The house has been...a challenge to say the least. The council clearly doesn't maintain shared ownership homes or keep previous owners to any form of standards. I think we've sunk about £20k in repairs and now hopefully have seen the end of it.

This is coming from falling through the stairs, the boiler failing constantly, the garden being a massive bog and the roof now failing because it was installed by the council wrong.

All our responsibility mind you, not there's.

I'm hoping that after all the improvements and owning it fully down the line that we can sell it for a nice profit and live somewhere more stable.

Coming off of renting a one bedroom annex for £950 a month, it's better than nothing.

Renting in York is a pure scam though. I'm so disappointed in this city.

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Mammyjam@reddit

My experience is dated now but my wife and I bought our first house, a two bed terrace, for £94k aged 24 in 2013 on a 5% deposit. We had been saving up while renting. At the time I was an apprentice and she was a receptionist, combined household income was £26k.

5 years later we were both project managers in engineering with combined £65k, we sold the terrace for £102k and bought a 5 bed detached with a large garden for £260k. It was fucked and we’re still doing it up now but it was valued at £625k at the last mortgage so a big winner for us!

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bloxte@reddit

It’s fairly easy up north. There are still a lot of houses in my town for 80k.

It’s the getting the deposit that’s the problem for most.

You’re still talking trying to gather 8k + solicitor fees + furniture.

If you’re already renting it will be very difficult and take years to get that kind of money together. Yet that’s one of the cheaper ones.

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ModernMoneyOnYoutube@reddit

Which town is this?

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bloxte@reddit

Barrow. But there are other towns like Blackpool, morecambe and Lancaster that will have some affordable housing.

The closer you get to Manchester and Liverpool it will get more expensive

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CharacterLime9538@reddit

£340 per month saved into a LISA will be worth over £10k after two years. If people are determined they will scrimp or take on second jobs to achieve this.

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INTuitP1@reddit

Ugh people were saying the exact same thing when I was young. Yet I bought a house no problem. They tell you that you can’t, so you don’t even bother.

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And_Justice@reddit

Depends where you live and how much wealth you've been brought up in. Personally, I bought a house in Nottingham at 26 - £125k. That was the highest I could push it on affordability whilst only paying 10% deposit. Many places south of here, you can't buy houses for that money so you're essentially plugging the difference with hard cash.

Impossible, no, but the odds are most definitely stacked against anyone earning <£100k, single, and renting.

Reddit seems to have the needle right on this one.

browney321@reddit

I mean it fully depends, i was 30 when i bought my house with my wife (25 at the time), we both had jobs earning around 20k each at the time, renting a house privately for £595 a month and saving £1000 a month. We had no loans or outgoings other than utilities at the time, only used a 5% deposit and had the government ISAs for first time buyers (one each)

NarrowPhrase5999@reddit

Not in the slightest, I was pointing out it was the only reason I'm fairly comfortable, though in hindsight not very clearly. Probably worth stating that also don't drink, don't have a car etc, all which contribute to that comfort.

I work in a venue where hours are being cut for many left right and centre and have seen the panic first hand, two members of staff are now back in with their parents.

I'm highly unlikely to ever own my own home

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Its_Dakier@reddit

It's not impossible. I did it last year with no parental help in Wolverhampton. I did work 6-7 day weeks at times over a 5-year period, but I also lost some due to unsuccessful investments.

Most of these people want to stay in the rip-off south or the vicinity of London, when in reality, there's a colossal fuckton nicer places to live. My friend was complaining about £400k getting him very little, and I was showing him detached 5 bedroom houses in the Midlands, a 2-hour drive to London.

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ModernMoneyOnYoutube@reddit

How much did the house cost?

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Its_Dakier@reddit

Under £200k

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hrrymcdngh@reddit

Buying alone is what's difficult - including flats/apartments.

Buying with a partner isn't that hard to be honest. Even if you're both on minimum wage you could get a small terrace in my area.

There are some cities with insane costs like Bristol Brighton Cambridge and London but those are heavily desirable so if you're on an average wage you'll have to settle for less or commute in.

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So speaking of the people I know - they lived in 1-bed flats/house-shares not 2 bed terrace houses. You can get a 1-bed flat for 800pcm ish sometimes less. Obviously not in London or high cost of living areas. They did this for a good few years.

Yeah living at home is a privilege many don't have. That's what I'm having to do because 1) my area is kinda expensive 2) I want to save quicker 3) I don't have a partner.

One of the biggest problems is rent. Rental costs have increased dramatically over the last few years which means it's harder for people to build the capital for a deposit. Funnily enough, monthly mortgage payments in my area are generally cheaper than rent prices, yes there is the element of home maintenance of course. I'm not sure if this is the same on a national level - Google for this.

Learn to drive?

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Thrasy3@reddit

I tell you what I’ll throw you a bone and we’ll pretend there are not extenuating circumstances for not driving.

So now we need buy possibly two cars as well?

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aembleton@reddit

That works out at \~£2k/year when you amortise buying two second hand cars and maintaining them. The petrol will be much cheaper than train tickets though, so you may well end up coming out under that when you take into account the savings.

If you can save at least £40k on the house purchase, it's probably worth it.

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notouttolunch@reddit

And it makes the shopping and going on holiday easier. So other things become cheaper too.

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Honestly I wonder how ppl manage it. Someone I went to sixth form with managed to buy a house in the first year of becoming a teacher, by themselves apparently, after moving out at 18

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jellybeanmoons@reddit

I think this sort of thing heavily depends on where in the UK you live. In some places getting a small starter home is pretty affordable. In others it’s really not. I bought my first home 6 months ago and despite having saved up for 5 years, I never would’ve been able to afford a deposit had I not been given some money by my parents to prop it up slightly. I live in Cheshire and houses here are very expensive. However I know if I moved somewhere else, I probably could have, however moving to another area wasn’t viable for a range of reasons.

Depends where you live. You can pick up a house for £50k here (2 up 2 down) and then you're already paying less than renting. I bought this house on my own after a messy divorce and I moved to this area because the cost was lower (North Lincolnshire).

It's possible but not easy everywhere in the country.

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Misty_Wings@reddit

I earn 30k just outside the border of London... it'll be nearly a decade before I can afford to live either near where I work or near all of my family and friends. Feels kinda shit.

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Ill-Supermarket-2706@reddit

Wealthy parents doesn’t mean necessarily rich - but it was easier for their generation to buy property so an inheritance could be life changing for someone to afford housing vs a similar person paying rent and having to save (or not save) to afford a property, also having family nearby can help with childcare costs and if you’re on low income you can also get benefits. It’s ironic but easier to have children on a LCOL area and low income than a HCOL area with higher income and no family support (whether childcare or financial)

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SheepherderOk7178@reddit

If 4/10 friends have bought homes by 27 on average salaries, you must be from the north.

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cjsarab@reddit

Yes, I think it's hard for ordinary folk. And the system is not really fair. For example, I bought my flat for £135k in 2019. Sold it for £165k in 2024. Over those 5 years I paid £500/month on the mortgage. Another way of looking at that is £6k/year or... 30k.

So because I was able to get a deposit (I was gifted 20k when I turned 18) I was able to effectively live in that flat for free. If I'd rented a similar flat (they were renting for £750/month) I'd have been 30k+ out of pocket over the five years.

It's completely unfair.

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0023jack@reddit

No, reddit is absurdly pessimistic, life here is pretty good.

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bahumat42@reddit

The stats would disagree with you:

10% of UK adults have no savings at all

14% of UK adults have less than £1000 in savings

24% of UK adults have less than £1,000 in savings

21% of UK adults could not meet an unexpected expense of £300 if they suddenly had to

33% of UK adults would not have enough savings to live off for more than one month

Foodbank usage is increasing year over year.

Child poverty is increasing year over year.

Rough sleeping is increasing year over year.

----------

Just because you are doing fine, does not mean everyone else is.

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WatchFamine@reddit

65% of households in England own their own homes

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Wise_Network_9454@reddit

That’s largely to do with peoples financial profligacy.

Two of my best friends had different circumstances.

One moved into a new career and bought a house on £22k a year. He’d saved extensively for previous four years on a similar salary. His partner was on around £30k.

My other close friend, was on about £50k at the time. His partner was on a lot less tbf. However, he had a flashy Jaguar on finance and would wear t-shirts costing >£100. Forever moaning about how skint he is despite living at home rent free 😂.

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bahumat42@reddit

I mean you can argue that for some of it.

I don't honestly believe the rough sleeping and foodbank usage is down to poor money management. Things are expensive, increasingly so and wages aren't keeping up.

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xian0@reddit

As an individual though, things may seem good just because of how uncompetitive most people are. You're starting from scratch and want to solve that rent issue? Fill in the application form for a warehouse/factory, take night shifts, overtime, Christmas bonus if it's winter, do that for two months. Great now you have an average house or apartment. Meanwhile everyone else is pottering around.

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Wise_Network_9454@reddit

No it’s not. It’s tragic for those people.

But, a lot of people who complain about this stuff are not in that situation.

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BlueSkys96@reddit

What the stats dont tell you is most people are average and so just arent cut out to manage to afford a house. A house is a privilege not a right. People seem to forget that.

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SYSTEM-J@reddit

Those stats add up to more than 100%. It's therefore safe to conclude that they're captured within each other. Another way of presenting the same information is less than a third of the country has only a month's salary in savings. Viewed from that angle, you realise that the majority of this people in the country aren't financially precarious.

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Drath101@reddit

In all fairness if they're all like 27 ish as you would be, and they've been working in civil service/as mechanics from 18 or so while showing any vague sort of ambition, they're probably on fairly decent money by now. Nothing exceptional, but enough

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adamMatthews@reddit

I spoke to a mortgage advisor recently and they said anyone who’s been in a career on their “professional” list for five or more years can apply for a professional’s mortgage.

The told me that means you can borrow 6x your salary and get a personal advisor who adjusts it to make sure you can meet all the payments, even if that means extending it or pausing for a few months if you change jobs.

Obviously this means people with stem degrees or trade qualifications get a massive leg up over those working in retail etc, but the mortgage brokers know the situation is dire and still need customers, so they’re making it possible for at least some of the population. So your example of a mechanic has an even better chance even if they’re on the same salary.

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EnzoScorza007@reddit (OP)

If I could point to one thing I would probably say this has been a factor. One of them left school at 17 and has worked in the same factory ever since and is now in some form of management role. No idea what he makes but he's single and has been able to buy

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/153634712#/media?id=media0&activePlan=1&ref=floorPlanPage&channel=RES_BUY

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/161064734#/floorplan?activePlan=1&channel=RES_BUY

A couple on minimum wage could buy pone of those in a year

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/153736046#/?channel=RES_BUY

DanBennettDJB@reddit

How ?

Your small network I doubt represents the rest of the UK

As somebody who would have to work in London (if I didn't have a role in Paris currently) I would need around 450k, of which 10% for a deposit.

In order for.the bank to loan that you'd need to be pushing 80k for the rest. Of the 11m living in London I think what, 100k people max earn that.

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45MonkeysInASuit@reddit

In order for.the bank to loan that you'd need to be pushing 80k for the rest. Of the 11m living in London I think what, 100k people max earn that.

80k is the ~95th percentile for the whole of the uk, which would make it more like 500k

London has higher salaries, so it would probably be more like 750k, if not a million people.

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DanBennettDJB@reddit

Ok fine, of which how many of them are the audience of Reddit ?

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nivlark@reddit

Probably quite a lot - that demographic is massively overrepresented here.

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DanBennettDJB@reddit

Of that demographic in London I highly doubt much of it is tech money

That's all in Dublin

London's money is older, finance, property and foreign money.

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nivlark@reddit

I think you would be surprised. And I'd also add data science to the list. I work in academia, and know a few people that transitioned to industry. That's what they're doing and while I don't know specifics they're clearly getting paid well for it.

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DanBennettDJB@reddit

Yeah I work in a similar field which is why I'm sceptical how many of us there are, and likewise how the job market is certainly not buoyant

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Icy-Revolution6105@reddit

It depends on your location a lot. London and the South East is much more expensive than the North, for example. Parts of the UK are still fairly cheap.
In general, not impossible. But not easy.

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Savage-September@reddit

I’m in my mid thirties. I’m from london. All of my school friends are from london too. Most of them are still living at home and others have moved into social housing with their partners and families. Very few have actually bought homes, those that have been fortune to move out have either been lucky to get a high paying job in the city or decided to leave london and live way out from where they were brought up. I have been lucky throughout my career working aboard and benefitting from a tax free life. That has translated into me being able to purchase my home in what used to be a very rough part of london almost a decade ago. I was the first of my friends to do this, and I done this while I was renting a room. I didn’t have the luxury of staying with parents and so lived on my own since the age of 19. I had no choice but to focus on securing a good career and owning a home. I sacrificed a lot of weekends and lads holidays to get where I am. I was either studying or working but focused on not falling into the traps of debt, drugs and criminality.

When I speak to people who are within my age range I find that most of them are not in the position I am. I don’t think of it as I’ve done better than anyone, I’ve just been extremely lucky and someone has given me an opportunity every time I’ve rolled the dice. But it is hard for many young people to attain these things. Having children is a luxury, especially in the city. Childcare will run you into the tens of thousands a year, good schools are in areas unaffordable the common man, cost of travel is high, cost of living in general at an all time high. These things will make it much difficult to get on in life.

So yes, it’s as bad as they say it is for young people. They are riddled with the cost of student loans, high rents, living at home or in shared unsecured accommodation, job market is bleak and so progressively this will get worse the older you get.

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Glittering_Boat_4122@reddit

There is huge variety depending on where you live and what support you have. There always has been. Friends who stayed near their families generally have more support.

For example one of my friends lived at home during uni and until she got married at 24. She worked part time from 16 and through uni.

They had children young and her parents looked after their 3 children full time (for free) whilst they worked. Kids were 4 years apart.

As she never rented a house or paid for childcare, she was very unaware of the cost.

I was paying £500 pcm rent (+bills) from age 18 until buying a house and £1000pcm childcare on the early nursery days (3 days a week)

A rough estimate of how much we have spend on childcare in 10 years with 2 kids is £56,000. Thats not including summer clubs to cover school holidays.

This is all based on 10 years ago too, prices have rocketed since then

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MrFlaneur17@reddit

The smartest people I know, very smart Russell group people in their late 20s are still struggling to get a toe in the housing market and only a minority of them have kids. The very smartest person I know from that group couldn't afford London so moved back up norff to a decent tech job. I really could cry for them. If they struggle, just imagine how everyone else feels

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potentiallyasandwich@reddit

Its regional too, I work with early 20s folk that are managing to buy ex council houses without help while working in the trades in a relatively large town in the west of Scotland. I'll add that the private rent prices here are astronomical compared to a mortgage. A few miles up the road in Glasgow is a very different story and house prices like for like are around double.

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CuteAnimalFans@reddit

I actually think it's quite a dangerous narrative for young people to hear tbh.

Save your money, find your partner and a deposit is pretty easy to put down. Then your money is going towards an investment, not a landlord! Most people can absolutely do this by 30.

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Tauorca@reddit

It's easy to get a house in the UK, ut people here want to pay 50k/100k for a house and those are mid terraces at best, then the mortgage providers rip you off, I saw on reddit the other day 240k home the mortgage repayments were over 500k I mean wtaf is wrong with the banking sector, and it was a highstreet bank offering that mortgage as well, no wonder house prices are sky rocketing if that's been the norm for the past 100 years

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Personal-Opinion-890@reddit

I think your friends are probably doing better than most. Mortgage affordability has only been getting worse over time, and there’s not much sign of that changing.

First-time buyers now spend around 38% of their take-home pay on mortgage payments, which used to be closer to 27% before the pandemic. Wages haven’t kept up with house prices. The average house now costs nearly 4 times a joint salary, it was under 2 times back in the 90s.

It’s still feasible if you’re a couple, but even then it usually means having way less disposable income than people used to. Living in a major city makes it even harder. I know people say “just don’t live in London, Bristol, Manchester, Brighton” or whatever, but for a lot of us, that’s where our careers, communities or just general happiness are tied to.

Sounds like your group’s doing well, which is great, but it’s probably not the norm based on the wider trends.

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circlesmirk00@reddit

The thing I’m not seeing mentioned here is how much money these people have in the bank, as savings, investments, or in pensions.

I think people in this country are MASSIVELY underestimating how much money they should have saved or in pensions even when they’re 30.

I know plenty of people who have a nice house, nice car, but literally nothing in the bank or accumulating value for retirement.

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SophieMayo@reddit

I'm 29 and the only friend I have who owns a house used money from her wealthy parents to buy it. The rest either rent or still live with parents. I don't even dream about owning a house because I know how unlikely it will be for me on minimum wage.

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Responsible_Rip1058@reddit

Not really, here is a route, 20k deposit, really not as hard as it sounds, 2 people over 4 years saving, thats per person per year 2.5k saved.

then one earning 36k and one earning 26k, both not that diffiuclt to achieve

that would get you a property up to 290-300k.

considering you can get a flat for 150-200k, I don't see why its so difficult.

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sjpllyon@reddit

No, but doesn't mean it's easy and nor will you likely be buying in your ideal location. Im in my mid twenties amd I've gone from leaving a youth hostel at 18 to owning (without any mortages) 3 properties. I had to sacrifice eating out, coffe, nice food, new clothes, having a decent phone, nkt putting the heating on nor the electric and generally going without to save every last penny I could. I also worked 3 jobs at once. I would finish a 12 hour shift to jump right onto deliveroo, and get the occasional decent odd jobs. And put the money into savings, and investment accounts. I did this for years to save to my goal. This then allowed me to purchas a cheap flat (from auction)in an okish area. I then saved again that allowed me to buy a hiuse that I could flip, again from auction with very few bids.

I know live in a upper middle class neighborhood in a house that's a nice size and more than big enough for my needs. Now that I own am able to go out and enjoy life a lot more. And interestingly enough my mates do ask me how I was able to do this. I told them at the time and they didn't listen. Amd now they tell me they can't do xyz for not having the money for it.

Also because this worked for me doesn't mean it will work for everyone. You will need to be mentally rebust and be comfortable of feeling hungry and cold. You'll also have to find enjoyment in the free things in life.

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Blue-Toucan-Data@reddit

I only know of one person my age who has got a mortgage on a house, but I am pretty sure their parents gave them the deposit because they were a big spender during their Uni days and go on a lot of holidays.

I would say that it solely depends on factors highlighted in some comments, such as: you get help (some people don't have parents who work good paid jobs meaning that they can't offer support to their children), you have a partner (for some people, they maybe don't have a partner or want one, so that extra income makes getting that deposit together 2x as hard) and you live with parents who charge no rent (this one gets me irritated, purely because I feel that if you are working, you should contribute a proportion of your spending towards the household - obviously depends on the amount earned and parents agreeing to it but if you are working a full time job (not minimum wage, like £30k+) and don't pay some money out, then I think that it does not prepare you for the expenses that bills and mortgage are when moving out)

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JuneauEu@reddit

My old 2 bed mid terrace in Middlesbrough town centre was recently resold for 50k.

the_midget123@reddit

Hello, I'm 22 years old, an energy engineer, and left uni last may.

Got a graduate job straight out of uni near my family home. Saved for 9 months + a gift from my widowed grandmother and existing savings from previous work, and bought a flat in rural Suffolk last month.

I was lucky with getting my job and finding a property with a local council grant. I know some of my mates are struggling. Some are like me and are living with family and saving, and others that are stuck in the rental market. I do think it's different in a more rural area.

I have always been very good with my money as during my childhood I never had any. While at uni, I'd work all summer long and dump that into my savings, budget heavy while at uni. If I wanted something, I'd wait a month and see if I still wanted it, I avoided impulse purchase.

I had a more working class upbringing, but I'm definitely in the middle class now. For the family thing, I'm single, and dating in rural areas is shit.

Also, my current savings and bank account read £14.36. Thank God it's payday tomorrow as I'm running out of food and my flat is barely furnished.

From my experience, it's hard but not impossible, but I managed to avoid the renters market and had a gift from my Nan that allowed me to buy a few months earlier.

Best a guy sitting on a wooden chair.

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Foodie_Lover04@reddit

I barely make just over 1400 a month so the thought of moving out is so far out of reach to me. I work a ‘full time’ job in a school yet the hours each week don’t qualify it to count as full time (despite doing tons of work out of hours) so like many of my colleges I have a second job in my holidays. Truth be told I don’t think I’ll be able to move out of my parent’s house until I’ve got a partner and I can’t see a way that anyone would give me a mortgage by myself

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nikobenjamin@reddit

Yeah it's pretty bad. Obviously depends on your circumstances, but if you're renting as a couple, it's so high you've got to earn big bucks to save anything.

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TheInspectaa@reddit

I live on Bournemouth. Majority of the houses are rentals for 1300+. Most houses are £340k plus. My parents bought their 3 bed house in 70s for £1k deposit on a £27k house. Its now worth £350k+.

I work at a VERY large mortgage lender. I see landlord properties all day, every day. I earn £1650 after tax per month. I need at least £60k deposit to be able to get a good LTV and therefore better rates. I have saved about 10k so far in the last 3 years. All options are 1500+ per month on repayment for a span of 35 years on approx 4.5% interest for a 5year deal.

I can barely afford to live. I have about £300 for the entire month. Im 33 years old. Qualified PT, qualified massage therapist, but covid forced me to change my career entirely for banking and office work. Im fat because i no longer am active during the day, im sat at a desk 8-6, depressed, I speak to landlords who make a fuck tonne of money off people like myself. Constantly going on holidays - they complain that we haven't done something, but they're just fine about getting slightly drunk and then calling us to complain. Im 33 and my parents fucking support me still.

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perrosandmetal78@reddit

I don't think it's impossible. I think a lot of people are used to a renting/leasing culture now and always want the best of everything. When they can lease a lovely new car tgry don't want to buy an older, less prestigious brand.

I bought my first house very cheaply in a rough part of my city. It cost about £30,000 in the early 2000's and gave me a step on the housing ladder. I now live in a nice part of the city. I checked recently and better homes than I had in that same area are costing about £60,000. That's very affordable. People just generally aren't prepared to buy in that area.

This will obviously be different in different areas and I do know times are hard. But I think unrealistic expectations is a part of the problem and I don't think it's as impossible as some make out. There's no way I could have afforded to buy a house where I lived with my parents. You have to compromise. I worked with a guy complaining he couldn't afford the house he wanted. He was leasing a Mercedes, had the newest iPhone and ipad. I see this a lot.

"I think a lot of people are used to a renting/leasing culture now

Truth is, most of the population has always needed to rent, some of the time. There was a golden age, post Thatcher/Reagan when everything was booming and most young working young couples could plan to buy, it was illusory to some extent as in both the US and UK, mortgages were given to those who lacked the long term financial stability. 100% mortgages? Northern Rock? It was all too easy. In the US it was Fannie May and Freddie Mac, giving mortgages away. It was built on sand, supervised in the US by Alan Greenspan, in the UK by the clunking fist of Gordon Brown!

STILL amazingly there are people who defend Brown.

It all ended in the great crash, we have never really recovered, Covid followed, then Ukraine. Now we have Rachel from Accounts, totally out of her depth, destroying businesses, increasing costs.

I bought a house with my partner last year, (Scotland, 26). We both saved for two years while working full time, living at our parents houses for free. My parents lived at home until they moved out around the same age so they were sympathetic.

I'm very worried about having kids, in money terms. The only way we afforded buying the house was by working full time, and childcare sounds very expensive. So I'm not sure how we will manage without changing jobs or relying on friends and family. The mortgage we have is admittedly quite small and affordable, but we'll need to upscale if we start having children.

The keys to buying our house were joint mortgage, free digs and LISA.

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Exact_Pea5427@reddit

Not just the young, if you're any age and haven't bought a house yet you're pretty much done for unless you have a huge inheritance coming your way.

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everyoneelsehasadog@reddit

Yes, it's possible. But for a small group of people. My husband and I did manage it (both moved out at 18, no bank of mum and dad, no inheritance) but mainly through an incredibly lucky set of circumstances - we had a good landlord who didn't put rent up for 4 years, the pandemic happened so we didn't go on holiday, we worked quite well paid jobs, and we didn't lose said jobs during the pandemic.

If any of those things didn't happen, we probably would not have bought and carried on renting in a really nice city. But like I say, a very small group of people, and ours was only due to a very particular set of lucky circumstances.

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stirianix@reddit

It's not impossible but it's hard work.

I haven't done it. But a close friend of mine (let's call her Lydia) decided when she was 16 she was going to own her own place by 25. From 16 she always had a job - after work experience week in year 11 she was offered a role in retail and continued that around A Levels. She did a 2 year degree during which I think she worked during the holidays. She took jobs she HATED - build a bear over Christmas was one of them. She then got a full time job after her degree (which wasn't related to her course).

I think she may have received some inheritance from her uncle when he died when we were 7 or so, but I am really not sure. It was an untimely death.

She bought her first place for £80k or so when she was 24 - a ground floor maisonette in a not-so-nice part of town.

She spent a few years being very careful with her money. I don't know the details but I know Lydia was upset one day when a friend of hers told Lydia that she had gone out and bought a new £200 oven - Lydia told me there was just no way that Lydia could afford an impulse purchase like that, and it was hard constantly budgeting, and seeing her friends spend money the way they did.

But I would say she's never struggled to the point of not affording food/heating/bills. She has always been very savvy with money. She is amazing at finding bargains for new clothes etc. she always looks well dressed but buys a lot from Primark, New Look, etc.

Anyway. Fast forward. About 3 years ago she met someone (after a failed relationship in her twenties in which she moved out of her place into his and rented her place out), they recently got engaged. He had his own place that was in the countryside in Norfolk, so cheap, and he'd renovated it.

They've combined their pots and recently bought and moved into a 5 bed detached house about 20 minutes from the centre of Norwich and hope to start a family soon. And they're currently on holiday in Venice celebrating their engagement.

So, I believe it can be done. It helps to start young and not spend money on stupid shit. Neither of the couple came from money, neither came from poverty either.

Additionally, my partner is a working class Brummie. He went to state school, did well, got an engineering degree and worked in oil and gas for a number of years which allowed him to save 50k for a house. He flat out refused to 'go back to being poor' (his words not mine). He scraped through university and worked in construction during the holidays.

I do think that the people who are not handed money (I was given pocket money during A levels) generally have a better work ethic and are better at saving.

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Informal-Form-5606@reddit

I find a lot of people want to live in an extended adolescent phase through their 20's where they get educated, travel globally, finance a car, play house with non-serious partners or friends and expect a certain amount of online gambling, sports bars and bags of sniff. They wake up at 30 and want to buy a house a little worse than the one they grew up in and blame the system when they can't. If you aren't from a wealthy background good luck ticking off more than two of those and saving a deposit. If you seriously knuckle down and save with a committed partner you'll get there in your 20's in an area with realistic cost of living. Living wage these days post tax nets just over 1,700 and if two of you pool resources you should be able to save 10k a year. Three to five years and you are well away. Let alone if you get 5 grand from mum and dad, earn over living wage, take a bit longer or save a larger amount each month.

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2epicpanda@reddit

where exactly do they live? I doubt this is in the south or anywhere thats a big city

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HonestBobcat7171@reddit

It all depends, is the true, yet not very helpful answer. It depends on where in the UK, what are your earnings, savings, and expectations. The last of which is really the most important bit. As long as a persy sets realistic expectations for themselves, it's very much possible. Source: Bought a house on a single income 2 years ago.

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Additional-Bike-9688@reddit

Very achievable if you don't live in London/SE.

Min wage salary at 40hrs = £25k salary ~£1.8k per month after tax.

£700 house share incl bills £200 on food £150 for car insurance/maintenance (or public transport) £50 fuel £350 in a LISA £20 phone

£330 anything else or increase the above to suit your lifestyle.

After 3 years you'll have £15k in your LISA and you'll be able to borrow £100k-125k which will buy you a house or flat in loads of places.

Not sure how this is impossible? Would say almost easy considering the contingency there...

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27106_4life@reddit

Yes. Very much so yes.

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Lord-Servus@reddit

That makese sense, I thought from your original comment you presumed it was very easy for people these days. I have a home but only because I got help, I have siblings and friends past 30 completely stuck. I think it massively depends on where you live obviously. Most people have rent and bills that is 70 % of their income, so they can save very little. And the better job they have the more likely they have a higher expenses, rent and so on.

Well, I'm 42 and never bought when the market was lower. I had mental health issues, poorly paid employment, substance abuse issues, no money in the family, and never had a steady partner. Now I earn good money in a steady job, and I have been putting money into my pension to have *something*, but the deposit still eludes me. I'm at the age where it's starting to get risky for a mortgage, so whilst I am trying to get that deposit, I might not make it before the market shuts me out forever. Then I will just have to take what I can, move somewhere isolated, or leave the country altogether.

I hope someone comes out to tell me I'm a wastrel and have only myself to blame, like I didn't know that already...

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queen-bathsheba@reddit

No, we just like to moan. My kids bought in their mid 20s, ie 3 to 5 years ago.

Difficult to save a deposit if you are paying rent. Stay home if you can and save up.

But youngsters that have to move for work because the live in a small town, must be very difficult

I am 30 next year and I only know ONE person who has managed to buy property on their own. If other people have, it’s because they are in a relationship (myself included) or they’ve had a generous helping hand from parents/inheritance. Not only do you have to have the deposit, you have to be earning enough for your mortgage to be approved!

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fisher30man@reddit

I live in the Midlands I'm currently 31 I was never able to buy my own house threw out my twenties and I still can't now not without getting a mortgage with I'm not doing because everyone I know who has one even older friends they are still paying it off way in to their 60s.

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Connect_Candy6291@reddit

I think it depends where in the UK you are. In Kent house prices are very high e.g my friend just bought a 2 bed flat for £295k in Kent whereas my cousin in Derby has just bought a 4 bed detached house for £305k. They both have partners and a combined income of around £55-£60k.

You can't get really any property in my home town for less than £290k so obvs have to have a bigger deposit and mortgage to be on the housing ladder, whereas she could have got a place for £110k and it still be bigger than my friends flat.

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Interesting_Try8375@reddit

No. Perhaps a more accurate statement would be list 5 things previous generations could do and current generations get to pick 3/4 of that list.

I bought a house a couple of years ago and it really wasn't that hard. As long as you can get stable work (like your friends) you should be able to do it if you put your mind to it, outside London anyway. I live on the south coast.

But while there are some things past generations could afford that I can't, the reverse is also true. I can easily afford a really sweet gaming PC. Even a budget smartphone is more powerful than the supercomputers of their day.

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Ok-Chest-7932@reddit

No, it's not impossible, but the market is built around dual income households and if you want to buy one yourself or have a partner who doesn't work, you have to be earning well over medium salary to be able to afford it - which is crazy since half of all people earn well under median wage.

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Wise_Network_9454@reddit

If you don’t live in London or Manchester and you both earn £30k plus and have enough for a deposit, you will be able to get on the property ladder.

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Dense-Crow-7450@reddit

I guess you've never lived in Oxford, Cambridge or Bristol then.

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Wise_Network_9454@reddit

I’ve lived (rented) in central Birmingham which was expensive compared to my hometown (inexpensive compared to other places).

London and Manchester were two obvious examples. I had zero intention of writing a comprehensive list.

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Putrid_Buffalo_2202@reddit

Birmingham is really expensive for what you get. Little value for money out there in my opinion.

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Putrid_Buffalo_2202@reddit

A young relative of mine and their partner have recently bought a new build in a fairly desirable area, however they were able to live with parents rent free for years while they built the deposit required. It’s not easy without that kind of help.

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geoffs3310@reddit

If only 40% of people can afford to buy a home by their late 20s then that's not exactly a great stat is it?

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royalblue1982@reddit

It depends on your circumstances.

But I would guess that the vast majority could if they were willing to accept the compromises it would require. I'm not critical of those that choose not to.

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MountainPeaking@reddit

In London / SE yes I believe so. Also if you’re single.

Further north (birmingham and above) I believe it is far exaggerated.

Minimum wage jobs at 40 hours p/w earn £25k per year. If you live with your partner both working at this rate it’s a £40k (ish) post-tax salary. Anybody can live on this amount with a mild amount of frugality.

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LessCantaloupe8960@reddit

I’m 27, my combined household income is just shy of £80,000 a year. I have 2 degrees. My mother is dead, my dad works a minimum wage job after my mum died and he couldn’t cope with his career anymore. My partners mother is alive and well, however sacrificed a career to care for her disabled daughter. I don’t anticipate I will be able to buy a house in the next 10 years, despite me and my boyfriend earning well over our peers.

We save. We scrimp. Somehow everytime we get anywhere with our savings something happens, car goes bang, dog needs the vets. Household appliance breaks. We have cheap cars, dogs insured, but yet still it eats away.

For a basic household in my area I would need to save about £30,000 for a deposit. That would take me years on current income and expenditure. We have tried to make cuts absolutely everywhere, everything is sky rocketing in price. I buy the same shopping from Lidl weekly, a shop that once cost me £60 a week is now over £130, AT LIDL. I didn’t even know that was possible.

I have accepted the fact I will never buy a house. Not unless I win some money (I don’t gamble so that’s unlikely) or unless I’m left some mystery inheritance, or unless I’m somehow able to move to a different area. Right now it’s just not possible.

I will continue to rent my shitty worn out terraced house until either the market crashes or I die, whichever comes first 😂

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sossighead@reddit

It is in some parts of the country. It seems like it’s damn near impossible in some parts of London and the South East unless you’re on megabucks / have a lot of parental health.

For me it was very easy but I have a relatively well paid job and have mostly lived in relatively LCOL areas.

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BrillsonHawk@reddit

The UK is a big place - don't think many youngsters will be affording property in London. Its a lot easier to do it in the east midlands though

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phoebesolid@reddit

If you have a c

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legion777sw@reddit

I am 33 now. I was single and renting a flat from 2016 through to 2024 I saved up a deposit for my house that I bought on my own. so on the surface: it is possible.

However, I had several advantages that certainly helped me to get here.

1) my rent for a two bedroom flat stayed the same from 2016 throughout my tenancy. It was £425 a month. I guess I had one of the good landlords.

2) I had several pay rises across the same time period, (16k - 28k)

3) buying a house was my goal for years and I stuck to it

4) I saved my money into a help to buy isa this boosted the £12k deposit I had saved over the years to £15k at completion of my house purchase. A loan from the government I do not have to pay back.

5) pandemic, during which I was on super lockdown due to health risk so I wasn't able to go anywhere but I still had my salary coming in made for much easier saving.

6) right place right time. The house I bought the previous owners knocked 10k off of their asking price because they wanted a quick sale.

7) right area of the country where properties are relatively affordable. My house was £130k, 1960s build, 3 bedroom end terrace with front and back garden plus conservatory (I know new builds in the area are north of 250k)

8) I don't drive. No vehicle costs. Public transport costs ranging from £100 - £150 per month.

It is true that the average age of the first time buyer is higher than it was twenty years ago, but a strong majority of people do still become first time buyers. The vast majority buy as a couple, but that's been the trend for a very long time now. For your query, buying together and starting a family is very possible indeed for a large proportion of the country.

To put in anecdote form, most people I know are homeowners and often parents (mostly early 30s give or take), with the notable exception for those that moved to London for work after graduating, that seem to still post on social media about renting and looking for housemates etc.

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flusteredchic@reddit

Couldn't have done it without a shit tonne of privilege, luck and an early inheritance. I'm 37.

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BlueSkys96@reddit

No. I bought my first one when i was 24. Im 28 now and have 3.

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justreedinbro@reddit

"None of them have degrees" this means they don't have student debt and didn't spend 3 years out of full time work to study, so if anything they'll have a head start on people their age at the moment.

But also it's generally not that difficult if you have some financial sense and can live with parents while you save up, or get assistance from parents to buy a house. If you have a dysfunctional family, or you need to move away from family for your career, or you have kids before you attain financial stability it's a lot more difficult. Still not impossible though, reddit is definitely more negative than reality.

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FarRequirement8415@reddit

All the new housing I see being built are 3 - 4 bedroom detached, with a small area for 'affordable housing'

I don't see starter houses being built anymore, they're being bought as assets for wealthier families.

That leaves most renting, paying for an asset that will never be theirs, paying rent that will only ever increase.

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freebiscuit2002@reddit

Not impossible - but many people cannot do it on their own. Many rely on financial support from parents (or money inherited after parents have passed).

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CongealedBeanKingdom@reddit

It depends how rich their parents are. If your folks don't already own a home you're fucked. Simple as that.

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grrrranm@reddit

No, it is difficult but not as hard as it's presented. Bit of selection bias in the reporting people will always feel motivated to post more about negative things.

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Advanced_Parfait_642@reddit

I live in a wealthy part of the South East, every one I know apart from me got massive deposits from their parents /inheritance to buy their first home and were able to live with their parents for next to nothing, so save up even more money. Without this they would be in rented.

I am the only person I know who did it without help. I was extremely lucky with my timing (bottom of the market), and was prepared to move to another town that people around me thought was "rough" that then improved and is now a very desirable commuter town not far from London. I also have a partner, so 2 incomes.

It also depends where you live, £100,000 in some parts of the country will buy you a nice house, where I live it's a deposit on one.

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BrawDev@reddit

Depends on where you live.

I got a 95% mortgage and applied as part of the Scottish help to buy scheme for a flat at 50k.

All I needed, was 4000 quid in the bank to cover pretty much everything.

If you can't actually save that money, you couldn't ever have bought a house at any point in any historical timeline.

Now the only people I think are exempt from that, are those paying 1600 PCM for rent, on properties with mortgages of 500 quid, you're being completely fucked.

I went back to live with my parents during covid, everything was shut, couldn't go out and do anything, so I was able to save the money.

Now I'm in a position whereby paying the mortgage off, and the property value going up, I've got positive equity to take with me onto my next step in the ladder.

You can't start out buying a BMW or another really fast car.

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drifty241@reddit

Really depends. I have a family friend who joined the Marines at 18 and bought a terrace at 20 through a military loan and not having to spend money on accommodation.

That’s obviously a very specific scenario, but the answer is yes. If you manage to avoid debt and have a decent income it’s not completely unrealistic.

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bduk92@reddit

At least 4 out of 10 have already bought homes (some 2-bed terraces, nothing fancy, but still) Almost all of them go abroad at least twice a year Three have started families, and two are getting married (one of the couples getting married has no kid) Sure, a couple of them are still living with their parents or doing tough manual labour jobs with limited upward mobility. But overall, I’d say at least half of them are doing reasonably well

So...

6/10 haven't bought homes, and those that have, live in relatively small houses

7/10 haven't started a family.

8/10 aren't married.

Some of them still live with parents.

Some of them do tough manual work with little prospect of progressing.

Half of them are doing "reasonably" well..so half of them aren't doing reasonably well.

OP, it seems like your friends are a perfect reflection of the current state of the UK.

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antde5@reddit

Not as hard as it was. I think it is Loyds who now offer a 100% mortgage based on your rent payments. You can get 5% mortgages pretty easy and if you have the ability to move north, it’s much easier.

Not everyone can though, I get that.

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Nevernonethewiser@reddit

I don't think it's anywhere near as difficult as some make out.

It's hard, sure, but the vast majority of the doom-sayers are in London, want to be in London or only look at London.

You'll mostly see them claiming anywhere else is awful. There's one in this very thread that's banging on about "...only afford some shithole in the North...", to paraphrase.

This is myopic, at best.

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Academic_Feed6209@reddit

I have the opposite, almost all of my friends went to uni and almost none of them have families or houses. Also most of my friends have chosen to live in London which is definitely the hardest spot to buy, not just because of prices but also because of how much you have to spend on rent and other daily expenses. Also, I think a lot moved to London to get the best possible start in their careers and have no intention of staying long term so definitely would not buy. I live in a small town in Scotland on a decent paying job now, so I hope to save up a deposit within a couple of years but that would still be me buying a house over the age of thirty, which is definitely older than I would have thought when I left school.

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Illustrious_Bat_6971@reddit

I'm not sure how valid this would be but if it was me and I had 2 or 3 really trustworthy friends in a similar position, I'd suggest getting together to buy.

Not sure how the lender would view this arrangement but just a thought...

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Flashy-Length-9177@reddit

It's so based on location. Take a 60K salary which is roughly 2x the average salary (most people buying have dual incomes which works out even better from a tax perspective). Say you can borrow 4.5x your salary that's 270K. You will struggle to find a flat for that in a reasonable area of London. You will get a decent starter home in the midlands. Probably a nice terraced house in the north. A nice house in Scotland/Wales.

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useittilitbreaks@reddit

You can get a hell of a lot more than a terraced house in the north for 270K. A lot more.

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Flashy-Length-9177@reddit

I wouldn't know... unfortunately I'm based in London so owning a home will probably only happen if I win the lottery.

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Pleasant-chamoix-653@reddit

As a Muslim I chose not to take an interest bearing loan. But otherwise I think it is easy to get something.

Within two years by the age of 21 I had £15k which would be a deposit. Then lost it due to ill health. Ive been renting many years but have £20k which is still a deposit for a £100k house

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ZedBundy@reddit

The reality is wages in the UK have not kept up with house prices, in the late 80s a mortgage was 3-4x your salary on average, today it’s 8-10x. With a growing cost of living, it’s harder.

That said if you’re happy to relocate, are buying with someone else and have a decent salary, it’s not impossible.

I chose to settle in the South East, so I’ve shot myself in the foot with that as house prices down here are eye watering. Buying imminently though after 10 years of saving.

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Cultural-Eggplant592@reddit

Being in the North helps. A two bed terrace is well within reach. In the south, no chance.

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useittilitbreaks@reddit

It’s hard if you’re single and have low earning potential, or if you’re anywhere near London.

A combined household income of two full time people earning minimum wage is around 50K. Speaking from experience it is perfectly possible to make a living with that, as a couple “up north”.

Your money goes further as a couple. You can more or less live in the same size dwelling, a lot of the ancillary costs are shared and two people earning 50K combined pay less tax than one person earning that.

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Sea_Kangaroo826@reddit

I'm 31 and my husband and I are having our first baby and hae just bought a house. We both have postgraduate qualifications and each make £25,000 a year. It would impossible for us to have bought a house, to be having a child and to be living decently (going to restaurants, going on holiday) without support from our parents. They gifted us the entire deposit for the house and have been helping us pay our bills and take holidays for years.

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Safe-Vegetable1211@reddit

None of them have degrees is your big clue. Most people waste 5-6 years of their lives getting a degree that only allows them to get an average job.

5-6 years of working full time while living at home with you parents allows you to save £50,000 pretty easily.

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Mr_Bumcrest@reddit

No. Reddit does not accurately represent society

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scarletOwilde@reddit

The bank of Mum & Dad, or Granny is now the most likely way to get help with a deposit.

I did it solo, but I was earning good money, only needed 5% deposit and prices were much more realistic. I got stung by a rise in interest rates to 15%, so sold (just covered my costs) and rented for a while.

I think it’s also worth saying a couple years makes a huge difference as far as income from those “average jobs” goes.

Quite a lot of people who went uni and studied and everything ended up with normal minimum wage jobs. Even in the industries they went for, a lot of jobs start you off very low (like you’re lucky for the chance to work in this field) or for example, a lot of uni lecturers even have short contracts and are constantly looking for work.

When I first worked full time at my minimum wage job in 2015 or so, barely making 18k I used to often look on in awe at those who’s dad put them on a building site and earned way more, or engineers on 30-40k. I thought 50k was rich.

At this point in time, I’m still in minimum wage work, but my wage has almost got up to that 25-30k, whereas that guy is most likely still working on the same wage.

Incidentally I have a mortgage coz of my nans inheritance, my mums previous good wage, and my husband being an accountant on a decent wage, coz whatever I earn, its hard to get a mortgage if you’re not salaried or you don’t work the amount of hours stated on your contract.

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Pyriel@reddit

I bought my first house in July 1999 for £24,000

I sold it in February 2015 for £127,500

It's now worth £211,000 (according to Zoopla)

That's for a two bedroom terraced house in a cheap area in Wales.

So yeah, buying is probably out of reach for most young people.

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arrpix@reddit

Even in 2 years this is the case - my sister's partner has a rich father who bought them a house in London a few years back (1mill+). They're moving and it's already netting them more than was paid. Whereas I moved 300miles north, still can't afford a place, and am now stuck with increasing rent and not-jncreasing salary in a collapsing public sector without any of the amenities you pay for in London (and I'm no longer that young.) Even living rent-free with my parents after uni til I was 30 hasn't helped; I have a deposit but without a partner earning more than me or a salary 3 times what I make I can't get a mortgage, and every year that deposit I saved looks less like a healthy deposit and more like a few months rent.

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Traditional-Job-4371@reddit

Can get a lovely house in Scotland or the NE for 200k.

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Sudden_Discount7205@reddit

To give another example ... my parents sold a 3 bed semi in west London for £144,000 in 1996.

It sold for £455,000 in 2006.

Zoopla reckons it's worth about £1 mill today

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Xsyfer@reddit

Bought at 29 in London Zone 3.

You have to be flexible with location and research commutes, travel but WFH has also opened up working away from SE which opens up a lot more value.

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EnoughYesterday2340@reddit

I'm in my early 30s and most of my friends own homes in London now. It's a lot of ex council buildings, lots of fixer uppers, all south London. We're a fairly average group of millennials. University educated and not low wage earners but not 6 figures either. £40-75k (yes I know that's quite the range).

Depends on circumstances. If you live alone then it's hard. But living with parents or renting with a partner? Then it's easy. Just save like mad. The hardest part is saving and not spending your money on things you don't need.

It also takes time to save up. We're managing around a thousand a month. So in 20 months we'll have plenty for a deposit

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sillysausage2222@reddit

A lot of the media I read is around young people not being able to move out of their parents house and buy a property locally - which to me seems like a naïve idea anyway

Property prices have increased more than wages and certainly I'd have not been able to afford my parents property when I left university at 22. They worked their whole lives and I was just starting my career, how could I possibly expect such a thing . When they bought their house it was not worth nearly what it is now, but also the area was not as nice either.

Now I'm in my 30s, most of my friends have their own properties. We rented in flat shares, built up our savings and earnings, and then bought properties (as a couple) in cheaper locations still. It's certainly achievable

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h00dman@reddit

You can buy affordable houses as starter homes in the UK, you just have to manage your expectations.

E.g. I chose an ex-council house in a commuter town near Cardiff because Cardiff was out of my price range, which meant that practically every other city in the UK was even more out of my price range.

On top of that you'll likely have to move pretty far away from where you grew up in order to do it (meaning you'll have to find work further away).

This is probably one of the few benefits I got from growing up in a rural area - as soon as I was old enough to leave home I did, and pretty much any place I went to would have been an improvement. I imagine if you grew up in London that wouldn't be the case.

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aaaaargZombies@reddit

Impossible is a strong word but it's a completely different compared to what previous generations were dealing with.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices.html
https://iamkate.com/data/uk-inflation/
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/housing/bulletins/housingpurchaseaffordabilitygreatbritain/2022

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SomeHSomeE@reddit

It's practically impossible in most of the country if you are single, on an average salary, and don't have help from parents or an inheritance.

leninzen@reddit

I hate these kinds of threads tbh, because you're stoking an argument based on something which is provable.

You can check out the statistics online.

It is harder to buy a house these days than 30 years or so ago. That's a fact.

All the anecdotes of "I just stopped buying avocado on toast and coffee" won't change that statistical fact.

The reason you see a lot of people complaining about it, is because it's a very real problem.

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Fun-Survey7338@reddit

Yes it is harder. Yet outside the 50 mile ring of the M25 not impossible at all. You will absolutely get less than you would have 10/20/30 years ago.

If you live inside that ring or some select cities then, almost impossible, yes.

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leninzen@reddit

Yeah I agree. It's not impossible in many places but definitely much harder.

That's the nuance. I just feel these kinda threads lack that and end up being very black or white.

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Fun-Survey7338@reddit

You're completely correct.

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Justha-Tip@reddit

My husband and I are in our early 30s now. We bought our first house at 23 (small 3 bed semi) and started our family at 25. We both worked from being teenagers, went to university and then lived with his parents whilst working until we had our £40K deposit saved (40%) I think we were both earning around £23K at the time we bought our house.

We come from a working class background. Neither set of parents contributed towards our deposit. We pretty much worked and had no social life. It’s the same now. Partly due to having 3 young kids. Husband now works full time in his degree field. I work part time at a minimum wage job that fits in with childcare. We receive no benefits and nobody babysits for us. Our income is now around £60K. We bought a bigger house for around £200K 3 years ago. We both have ok second hand cars we bought last year for around £8-10K. No debt.

We haven’t got a prayer of going abroad with a family of 5 financially. But in a few years time, when the baby is at full time school, I’ll be able to pick up more hours or change jobs and it might be possible to go abroad every 2 years, with a UK holiday in between.

If we’dve moved into rented accommodation after uni, I don’t think we’d have ever been able to get onto the housing ladder. The only reasons we were able to save our deposit quickly is because we met young and both had the same life goals, both left uni with savings from working rather than in debt and that we were able to live rent-free at my in-laws for almost a year after graduating.

With how the housing market has gone up in the last decade since we bought our first home, I’m not sure we’d be able to achieve that today. We sold our first home 3 years ago for £40K more than we paid. For a lot of people, owning a home/having kids/having a nice lifestyle, is going to be an either/or situation. Some of my friends have decided against having kids for the sole reason that they don’t see themselves being financially stable enough, until their parents die and they inherit their estate. At which point, they will likely be too old to physically have kids.

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lcmfe@reddit

We were fortunate to buy a house fairly young with a 15% deposit but could barely get the mortgage we needed (wasn’t a big mortgage) for both of our incomes. The deposit was other half’s inheritance/parents helping out. A few years later both my siblings bought on their own, with deposits saved up themselves, in their early/mid 20s working decent but not hugely well paid jobs and have now gone on to buy with partners. Other than one, I think all of our friends are renting

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CarlMacko@reddit

As others have pointed out it’s location dependent.

However often people will say houses in XXXX area are unaffordable.

A quick search on the web brings up affordable houses, but it’s quickly pointed out that no one wants to live there as it’s a shithole.

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F_DOG_93@reddit

The social contract has been broken. The average person on the average income in an average job can no longer afford the average house. Long story short, this is a recipe for social and civil destruction.

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kliq-klaq-@reddit

That sounds to me like you're approaching 30 and 60% of your friendship group aren't homeowners and 70% have not started a family....?

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Real-Apricot-7889@reddit

That seems pretty normal to me but 4/10 having bought property still means the majority haven’t yet. Housing costs are a huge factor tbh that will influence things so would be interested to hear how that is where you live. I grew up in the south east and went to uni up north. My uni friends who went back to near where they grew up in the north and midlands were way more likely to buy property by age 27 than my friends from home who stayed in the south east. I think only 1 had bought somewhere at that age compared to most of them in the north/midlands.

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CharacterLime9538@reddit

Two twentysomethings on minimum wage, earning around £48k.

5% deposit on a new build costing £200k (two bed terrace, 30/40min from Bristol, older properties can be bought for even less).

The couple need around £15k to cover deposit and fees.

A mortgage of £190k is less than 4x earnings.

Repayments are just over £1,000 per month based on a 25yr term.

Their income after tax and pensions is over £3,000 per month.

After mortgage, they still have £2,000 per month for everything else.

This is in the south, where 200k doesn't buy much. Elsewhere in the country (excluding SE) the situation is even better.

Before someone says but 15K deposit!

If each person contributes the maximum £4,000 into a LISA for just TWO YEARS, they will have 20k available.

If you live in the South East, or are single, or got kicked out of home aged 18, then you're going to struggle.

I struggle to empathise with this cohort, as it's never been any different.

Once you step away from the doom scrolling and kids are getting on with their lives and buying homes (I personally know several couples who have done/are doing this).

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ProgrammerComplete17@reddit

Depends where you live. I live in the East Mids where property is relatively cheap and most of my friend group own their home. None of them have particularly high salary jobs either.

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turbosprouts@reddit

It's undoubtedly hard. I think there's a lot of factors beyond 'housing is bloody expensive'. Anecdotally:

It's very hard to save *and* rent at market rates, unless you're earning well and living 'low'. People who are able to live at home for minimal cost (not zero cost) for a time while working have a huge advantage, provided they're smart with saving. Likewise those that lived at home while studying (if they went to university) will start with less debt.
A lot of parents I know actively plan to contribute to their kids property purchases. By this I mean regular savings, taking advantage of savings schemes, insurance/endowment policies etc. This is true both of people my age (40s) with kids, and the parents I know from my own parents' generation. Receiving any kind of help with a deposit is a massive advantage.
Affordability varies significantly around the country. House prices vary more by location that salary does, as far as I can tell, especially at the "lower" end of the earnings range, so in some locations it seems 'easier' for people to get started
A side effect of people delaying their first home purchase is that their requirements/desires shift, and they don't want to buy a one-bed or small two-bed flat in part of town when they're 30something/considering kids imminently -- which cuts out some of the most affordable home ownership options in most places.
There are a lot of ways for money to 'escape' now. Gym memberships, phone and internet plans, endless subscription services for entertainment, food, coffee, shaving, childcare, dentistry, lunches, takeaways etc. I realise this sounds dangerously like a 'cut out the avocado toast argument' but I don't mean it like that. It's just very, very easy to add a few £5-£20/month subs to make your life better/easier/manageable and have a couple of 'lazy days' each month, and not realise how much of your income is going to these things.

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SassyStonks@reddit

Honestly? No. Just be prepared to use public transport to get to work. The further away from any of the U.K. cities you go, the more affordable it is to get on the housing ladder.

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beanoboy21@reddit

Answer with maths.

As your friends are in their 20s with average jobs, let’s assume they earn £30k gross, £24k net. Average rent is c. £10k per year, council tax £1k, energy & water £1k, phone and broadband £1k and food £1k (obviously very rough figure but not a million miles from the truth).

That leaves £10k a year, or £833 a month, to live off and save from. That doesn’t include luxuries such as cars, insurance, fuel, gyms, holidays, days out, birthdays, Easter, christmas and having kids. If you account for these type of things your £10k a year quickly becomes £5k, probably even lower.

If you want to buy a house, it is 4-5x your salary, so let’s assume £150k house, £15k deposit, if you are willing to save - decent amount of what you have left it will take you 3-6 years to get there. Is that unreasonable? It is subjective.

If you are renting with a partner or living at home (if you are lucky enough to be in that position) then what you have left to live and save from is much higher, so the task is much easier.

I would say that of your friends if 4 out of 10 have bought a home after 10 years in work, I think that is an indication of how things have changed. In years gone by I expect that would have been double. It should be 10 out of 10.

I would say that if you are fortunate enough have some family support behind you, whether that’s direct financial contribution or allowing you a place to live for a long time low rent/rent free then things aren’t too bad. Otherwise it’s a real struggle.

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Freebornaiden@reddit

40% are home owners by age of 27 so its still skewed heavily in favour of not home owners. I guess the question is how close the other 60% are. Do you know?

You may also wish to enquire at some point as to how the funded desposits. If they are really working unremarkable jobs, then saving £15k unaided while going on holiday twice a year is a serious achievement.

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stuaird1977@reddit

It will depend on a lot of factors like deposit saved , current debt etc.

But in the north west for example

Average salary around £35k Average house prices for a 3 bed semi £220-300k 1 child £1000 a month FT nursery Then all your other bills plus food.car (s) etc it isn't cheap

capGpriv@reddit

Where are you finding any 2 bed flats that are 70k

Even in the poorest areas near me, anything 2 bed flat would be approx ~200k anything less being shared ownership (which is a scam)

You sound delusional

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azkeel-smart@reddit

Rightmove. The cheapest in town is going for 45k. There is a lot of choice for 70k.

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capGpriv@reddit

Top 5 most dangerous towns

Otherside of country from my family and my job

homeostasis_queen@reddit

I’m 33 and live in south midlands/north Oxfordshire. Everyone I know owns a house and majority have kids. We all earn roughly 40-50k and are all living with a partner who earns around this amount too. None of us live a flashy lifestyle but we are all relatively comfortable. We all attended state schools in small towns and then either went to uni or learnt a trade. A lot of us lived at home for at least 5 years during our 20s and I suspect even then most had a helping hand with deposits.

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MonitorJunior3332@reddit

Are your friends in the North or South?

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Low_Stress_9180@reddit

No. If parents rich or connected no problem

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Claire4Win@reddit

The only reason I own a house is because a late friend added me to their will.

The guy saved and invested wisely. Buying a house is worth it but few can do it now due wages being sh*t

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EcstaticOrchid4825@reddit

From the outside it looks like there’s more affordable options than in Australia (excluding London obviously). Then again Australia is one of the most unaffordable markets in the world so maybe not the best comparison. All I know is it’s gone from only Sydney and Melbourne being unaffordable to no affordable options in any capital city apart from perhaps Darwin which isn’t somewhere most Australians would consider living.

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nickytheginger@reddit

It really depends on your situation. There are people I know in there thirties renting and struggling to saving even though they budget everything and I know people who have homes because they did the same thing. Some of them live in cheap areas, other had mutilple costly problems arise.

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Don’t live in a HCOL area. It’s fine.

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SirMcFish@reddit

Guy I work with is 27, he just bought a house with little problem, and is paying to get it done up. His is a 3 bed semi I believe...

I, now 54, took til I was 33 to be in a position to buy one, at over 6% interest on the mortgage and sometimes higher than that, apart from 2 years when it hit 4.7%. I spent years being able to do each room up. Mine is a mid-terrace, 3 small beds, which I was only available to afford because it was a repossession (cost £67k, had to have a £72k mortgage as it needed lots of work). Never did I feel the need to blame the World, previous generations or anyone else for my situation.

My nephew (26ish at the time) and his fiance, got a £200k+ mortgage at under 3% a few years ago. They've been able to do it up with no real trouble.

My GFs' sister, 27, is just about to complete on a house which is £240k. Needs no work at all, and she's single.

Sure it's just 4 stories, however the only one of them that struggled to get a house was me, so make of that what you will.

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Electronic_Name_2673@reddit

It varies massively by area.

I live on the South Somerset/North Dorset border and I basically have a choice of:

Remain stuck in literally the only tech company here, making 24K, with evidence that suggests my income will never increase inline with prices. The cheapest rents are already 60% of my net.
Get another job that pays at least 26K, preferably 28. This would require a change of career to a likely dead end one, and probably a comical number of hours.
Get a similar job - make at least 28K, and accept that everyone looking for a software tester or someone who knows the MS stack is at least 1.5 hours away (Bristol/Newport/Cardiff).

I've picked option 3.

Most people do not want to move 1.5-2 hours away. I don't really. But If I want to have my own roof over my head, I don't see any other way short of working myself to death and not putting my years in this industry to any use.

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human_totem_pole@reddit

No, it's not as impossible as 'shady' Reddit accounts and tabloids make out.

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seklas1@reddit

Depends on their job. There’s quite a few young people get into well paid jobs and can afford homes themselves without any other contributions (especially up north). But also there’s a lot more who barely survive on their wages and have no hope of owning their own place without help. We are at situation, where if you want to have (atleast eventually) a decent job and still somewhat enjoy life, have to live in a city. But renting in a city is expensive, travel is also expensive if you’re out of city, if you own a car it’s also expensive, like. If you pay for things to live your life, it’s expensive and without a decent wage which is probably getting closer to £40k a year, unlikely to own your own place without help. Those who have the advantage of living with parents, can save up quicker even at lower wages if wanted.

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rocotoc@reddit

Not so bad if you’re ok living around third world migrants crime and drug addicts 👍

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Xaphios@reddit

Without some sort of parental help we wouldn't have been able to buy. We bought just pre-covid (Jan 2020), a 2 bed semi ex council house. At the time we were both a little below the national average salary (about 25 and 30k respectively) and had been for a few years. We're earning more now but prices have gone up a lot as well in the last few years - our 170k house is now apparently worth 225k, and would be 250k with some new windows and a new boiler. That's nearly 50% extra in 5 years for an outlay of maybe 10 grand on sorting it out!

If you're renting, yes. Having to sink 1000+ (if you live alone) in many areas means you're paying off someone else's mortgage for years instead

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hitiv@reddit

if you have a partner and dont rent (or pay a lot to your parents) so that you can save for a deposit (or use your uni loan for the deposit like we did), getting a house isnt hard.

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Lucy_Little_Spoon@reddit

I live alone with my gf, so we have to pay all of our bills ourselves.

Obviously anecdotal...

27M - Of the people I know from uni, the only ones that I know are still renting are because they live in London. Everyone else is buying their first house, a few have married and either have, or trying for kids. The only reason I'm renting is due to some peculiarities with my living situation but I am planning to buy this year with my longterm partner.

Reddit is overly doom and gloom because the people enjoying life don't endlessly doomscroll on reddit. I suspect a large chunk of the people moaning about housing live in London or other major cities because [snare roll] more people live in cities and housing is definitely a bigger issue.

Go out into the rest of the country and the situation is generally OK.

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Lord-Servus@reddit

I believe it is impossible without help no matter how much income you make or how great your job is, without help you must pay rent which today is around 70 % of your income, after tax, bills food etc you are left with very little to save. The more you make the more you spend as well.

I only managed from my father. Everyone else I know that managed it had to live with their parents for 25-30 years old saving non stop, and even then they had to find a wife and both go halves to get a mortgage. Then you spend your life in debt paying it back.

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jay19903562@reddit

It's difficult to get in the housing ladder as a single person unless you have either a job paying above average , or are helped in some other way be it by family or another windfall .

A lot of people seem to be disparaging of those that get on the housing ladder with parental help . Personally I don't really care if that's what someone else has been able to do . The only time it irks me is when it's those stupid newspaper articles about some 18 year old that's just bought a £400k house and is heralded as some sort of exceptional feat of hard work .

But otherwise if peoples parents can help them then why not . I understand not everyone has those same opportunities . Indeed I bought my first house by doing a ton of overtime in a job that pays above average and living in a house share .

If my financial situation remains as it is and I have kids I'll definitely be helping them with a deposit if they want to buy a house .

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Sad-Huckleberry-1166@reddit

I feel like a couple with two decent incomes can probably live quite well. I earn well, my wife doesn't really, and it took us a really long time to save up. If she's earned what I do I think life would've been a breeze tbh.

This is SE though.

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Impossible-Box8977@reddit

It’s way easier then in America or most of Western Europe

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nl325@reddit

It's simultaneously harder than it ever has been AND there's a weird tendency lately to rewrite history and claim things of the not too distant last that are absolutely bullshit.

Sick of people in their twenties and thirties lamenting the fact that they can't buy a family home while single. Even if a solo salary could do this, it doesn't mean people did it.

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It's only hard of you are adamant in not moving location.

There is affordable housing in most locations, provided you are prepared to move and/or commute to work.

Gorthaur91@reddit

A lot of young people (mid 20’s) I know wants to buy a fancy 4-bed detached house with no additional work on the house required. If you’re an average citizen in your mid 20’s, then it’s really hard to buy a house based on this expectation.. on the other hand, few others bought smaller/older houses. So it really depends.

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ReneRottingham@reddit

Definitely possible, just bought a 3 bed myself.

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cooky561@reddit

Honestly I don't know, I keep hearing it's harder and harder to buy a house, while the deposit is a massive commitment and prohibitive to many, I had little trouble buying my first property just over 10 years ago.

While I'm sure that the £10 phone contract and the avocado toast aren't causing problem, brand new PCP cars probably are. I owned a 20 year old rust bucket when I bought my house, but at least I didn't have to pay monthly for it.

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TheHalfwayBeast@reddit

I was in university ten years ago.

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Nice_Back_9977@reddit

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Blue-Moon99@reddit

No. My brother bought a house last year with his partner, they had a baby at the time. They saved for years since starting work and combined savings, both are 23.

Both lived with their respective families so didn't have to pay rent or many bills which meant they could save a lot.

But location is probably the biggest factor, we're in the midlands where house prices, while they have gone up, aren't impossibly expensive.

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gogybo@reddit

This will probably get buried, but I came across a report the other day on just this topic and was hoping I'd get the chance to use it:

https://ifs.org.uk/articles/homeownership-young-adults-has-recovered-its-2010-level

In short, the answer is no: it's not as hard as Reddit makes it seem. Nearly 40% of people aged 25-34 own their own home, and the trend is actually going up relative to the other age brackets. Divide it up further by income and you of course see that the poorest bracket of young people are least likely to own property, but the middle bracket is again at about 40% which shows it's not just some weird statistical quirk.

It's undoubtedly harder to buy property now as a young person compared to the 90s and before but, despite what people here will have you believe, it is still very possible.

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Several-Support2201@reddit

I have a theory that popular discourse has a lag that's a few years behind reality

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MixGroundbreaking622@reddit

Really depends on where you live... But it is getting harder every year.

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Lampeyy@reddit

No it's definitely not, but Reddit is notorious for being a far left platform and unfortunately there's a lot of people who spend too much time on here complaining about everything that isn't perfect or easy, instead of putting in work and making money to improve and enrich their lives.

It's sad, but true.

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Weed86@reddit

People often tend to exaggerate their problems, especially when it comes to money. Many don't realize how good they have it in the UK.

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Prasiatko@reddit

And it's kinda rude if some is complaining to jump in with how you're doing just fine.

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Weed86@reddit

Not it's not. Especially when YOU know - how well they do monetarily and yet continue to complain.

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LegendaryArmalol@reddit

You can do it with two people earning minimum wage, but you won't be able to be picky about where in the country you buy. The south and large swathes of the midlands will be too expensive.

It's pretty much impossible if you're a single, low earner (or probably even average earner) without help with a deposit/not paying rent to save, etc.

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Some-Air1274@reddit

I don’t know about the UK. But in London yes.

If you’re earning £60,000, you have about £3,500 net.

Rent is anywhere from £1,000 to £2,000.

A one bed is about £300,000 to £500,000.

If you get the £300,000 flat you could just about do it, but the £500,000 would require a deposit of £230,000.

How can someone save that if paying thousands in rent?

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Klossomfawn@reddit

I bought my house at 28 by myself and single and I've found that it isn't impossible but a lot of people have strict criteria on what they were looking for, I didn't so it was a little bit easier for me.

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Dupeskupes@reddit

yeah but I think the main barrier for this is people being unable to find work in these areas.

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GammaPhonica@reddit

Of course it isn’t. Reddit, like pretty much all social media, distorts the truth to at least some degree. That’s doesn’t mean it’s much more difficult for young people today than it once was.

If it was 40 years ago, 9 of your 10 friends would likely be on the property ladder and/or have a spouse with kids by now.

My mum was telling me when she and my dad bought the house I grew up in, they thought they were really stretching their finances… it was a 3 bed semi, £20k. I just looked it up and that same house is now worth £220k.

Young people today are earning nothing close to 11 times what my parents were earning in the early 80s.

These things are still attainable. But it is significantly more difficult than it used to be.

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It’s harder if you’re single

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Fun_Gas_7777@reddit

Where do you live?

I used to live in Northumberland and houses were relatively very cheap, but decent paid work was scarce unless you were a tradesman. There was a lot of drug dealing in the area and you could see the houses that were doing the dealing too. Very expensive. I was a carer so I didn't really have a chance but I wasn't bothered.

I live in Kent now, none of my friends (late 20s, 30s) can see themselves ever owning property unless they inherit lots of money.

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EnzoScorza007@reddit (OP)

I live abroad, but the area I'm discussing is South Wales

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Fun_Gas_7777@reddit

I can't say for Cardiff.
I'm mid 30s and my friends from school have spread out all over the place. The only ones who own properties have inherited lots of money, or have very high paying city jobs, or have moved abroad. Majority have not been able to buy.

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Fun-Membership-9795@reddit

If you earn under 30k then it’s not easy at all. I’m 31 and have never earnt more than 28k whilst being an experienced jeweller that works 6 days a week. Everyone says work harder get another job etc but It’s just not viable with my working hours and Having to stay sharp in the mind. I have saved up a 20% deposit for a 1 bedroom flat in my area but I am unable to buy it because when you times my salary by 4.5 it’s still not enough to get in the ladder. kind of think what’s the point really as I can’t really buy anywhere until someone in my family dies 😂

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CoffeeIgnoramus@reddit

I'm in a fairly privileged position, so that's a massive caveat to my view and I realise that will mean a lot of people don't have this. I have parents that would allow me to stay home and helped me apply for good jobs and supported me.

So I can only say that for people with that sort of support, it absolutely is possible.

I have bought in one of the most expensive cities in the UK. So for those that are in my position of earning an average wage and have a supportive middle-class family, I think it's a misunderstanding of what a necessity is and what a choice is.

I'm not saying you have to give up all comforts. I'm just saying you have to know the difference and make educated decisions.

You are constantly making choices that affect your money and those who manage to save up are choosing to forgo comforts for savings. Too many people assume others on their income who are saving are somehow living at the edge of their abilities, but actually, they're living well below their means. They are cutting out the choices they feel comfortable cutting out.

For example: I cycle miles and miles to work, shops, social events, etc.., rain or shine because I'm ok with that to save on car costs. However, I love having a good (admittedly overpriced) coffee from coffee shop, so I don't cut that out. They are choices I made.

A car is a choice (except if you're disabled/have mobility issues). You can absolutely walk 2 hours a day to work and back (I have done that), you just don't want to and that's absolutely fine. But you need to know that it's a choice.

So the issue I see time and time again is that people don't know how to save because everything is a "necessity" to them. So they are left wondering where others have managed to keep money back.

Disclaimer: I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT PEOPLE WHO ARE STRUGGLING TO FEED THEMSELVES AND PUT A ROOF OVER THEIR HEADS, they deserve more support from us all and the government.

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xray_vez@reddit

Speaking personally, I'm from a very rural county (Shropshire) and moved to London for my career. I work in a very competitive field where you basically have no chance unless you're willing to move to a city, or live in commuting distance.

It's a trade-off - do I stay put, do a job I don't really want to do for low pay, but live somewhere more affordable? Or do I move to the city, get the career I want and good pay, and then not be able to do anything with that extra money anyway because the city is so unaffordable?

I would just move back but my partner is from London and all his family have lived here for generations. I think it's a worse situation for people like him, as they've effectively been priced out of their childhood areas whereas I could theoretically go back to mine and get by.

It really depends on your circumstances and where you live.

My wife and I bought a place 10 years ago or so. Used a 5% deposit option with a major bank and bought a flat for c.£100k in a town near Edinburgh. The interest rate was pretty high for the time (probably about what rates are now for mortgages actually).

Neither of us was on high salaries...probably mid-£20k each and were both mid to late 20s.

Lived there for 4 or 5 years and then upgraded for a new build. Got some equity off the flat so used that as a 10% deposit and have been overpaying the mortgage through the new place.

Now got a kid so no plans to really move again any time soon (house is good, neighbours are amazing and we've got friends that live just minutes away so no incentive to move really).

It is entirely possible...but getting more difficult since wages and house prices haven't been rising at the same rate.

But that's for here...if you're in London, you can probably forget about it.

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Sweethoneyx1@reddit

No. I saved while in university. Just by meeting the standard LISA. Living within my means and I was lucky to have a larger SFE and went to a uni with low cost of living. That I bought my first house after my first year of working. If you are ready to work hard and save. It’s not impossible.

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Southern-Variety-777@reddit

No.

Reddit is quite biased IMO.

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Fungled@reddit

If you trust the Reddit hive mind, the UK is lawless post apocalyptic wasteland. Think Children of Men

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ThisIsWhatLifeIs@reddit

I purchased my house for 256. We "did it up" for a very lucky price of like 20 to 25k. It's now worth 360k lmao. In a few years time it'll be worth 400k. Ridiculous really. It just means the next house that we want to get is going up at similar rates, more higher to be honest

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Me and my partner live in the south and we could only afford a house because his father died and his family got the insurance payout.

We had to put down a £40k deposit and only got a 2 bed with 1 bedroom being a tiny box room. His mom helped us with the deposit, using his dead dad's money. We had to move 40 minutes away from family because the area was too expensive. (For context: I was 25 and my partner was 29 when we moved out. We both have full time jobs and work hard.)

Never could we have afforded a house without his dad dying - and absolutely never if I was single.

My partner is a teacher and works in secondary education. All his kids say they have no hope for the future.

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arran0394@reddit

Yes and no,

if you are lucky, know the right people, or have a good enough start, well off parents (you say they weren't but it depends on what you would deam wealthy, but I'll class it as if you're parents had enough money to help you drive/ get a car). Then no it's not that unrealistic, (although even if you can afford an average house depending where your are that might not even be an option).

But, if you have a bad/ poor start and are just a little unlucky or live in an area without any real infrastructure, yes it's downright impossible.

So did you both magically afford a £35,000 deposit + fees?

That’s more than your combined annual take home.

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cathodian96@reddit

Sorry it wasn't 20% I'm thinking of where we're moving to now. We had 20k in savings and put down 10% so it was 17.5k. Fees were covered by our help to by isas so we had no solicitor fees and didn't pay stamp duty.

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Bxsnia@reddit

175k is MAD cheap, the average house price in the UK is £270k

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cathodian96@reddit

There's a few near me for sub 200k.

Nice village, two pubs, Tesco express and a 10 minute drive from the coast. You're 40 minutes from Norwich city.

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Bxsnia@reddit

You're a very lucky guy.

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Being a home owner in England seems to be a luxury only the wealthy can afford. I honestly don't know how the new generation of average earners will ever be able to afford a house without some sort of windfall.

Even if they could afford the mortgage, who is going to lend?? Unless you are a very high earner you will definitely need to go in with a partner. Many lenders don't like sole income because they're higher risk.

I'm digressing, but England seems to becoming just an extension of Knightsbridge (the most expensive part of UK).

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BaconLara@reddit

I’m paid a decent bit above minimum wage, 24 hours, contract, north east.

Can’t get a mortgage, and the mortgages I can don’t cover the price ranges of the houses for sale.

Paying the for cheapest rent property, damp ridden etc. spending more on bills and rent each month than I’m getting paid sometimes, even with added overtime. Now I can save money better in some areas, but for the most part I’m not that bad with money.

It’s not impossible, but it’s hard. But it’s a damn lot easier if you aren’t alone when doing it. My partner currently can’t work, and universal credit don’t help much at all. (In fact, they currently aren’t paying us while there’s a dispute, as they seem to be under the impression I got triple pay one month when that was a mistake in paperwork)

But we’ve worked out that even if he does 8-16 hours a week, we can get a 100k mortgage and pay it off at a much cheaper rate than rent.

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ExplicitCyclops@reddit

It’s easy, if you save. Saving is tougher once you’re paying a full rent. So if you skip renting altogether and buy a house straight after leaving home, it’s as easy as it can be. But if you leave home and started renting in your 20s, it’s a big uphill battle

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SongsAboutGhosts@reddit

Well yeah, it's tough. Wages are rising a lot slower than house prices, rent, and inflation/price of living. Costs are going up and up relative to earnings. You have less left over at the end of the month to put away, the percentage you can borrow remains static, but the house prices rising means it's incredibly difficult to pay rent and build up a big enough deposit to make up the property price you can't get a mortgage for. If you're single, it's even harder, because you have no one to share costs with, and there's economically a bit of an expectation of double income households. Higher paying jobs are often in higher cost areas, and when you start your career, you often don't see relatively high salary bands - so it can cost a lot to get into a higher paying career.

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XihuanNi-6784@reddit

It's not impossible to buy a home. The issue is it's comparatively much much harder especially if you live in a high cost of living city. I'm in London and I know people on really good money, 60k+ for sure in tech. Out of 10 people 4 have bought homes. Not a single one of them did so absent family money. Historically this just wouldn't have been the case. If they were that well off after 5 years or so working in London on a top salary they wouldn't have gone near any family money. But it's still necessary. In my wider circle, the people buying homes who have normal jobs e.g. teachers, are all partnered and they had to wait for an inheritance. So no it's not impossible to buy a home per se, but the opportunities have significantly diminished since our parents time.

By way of comparison, both my mother and my father bought a house in London while single in the 80s. They stayed at home and saved up for a maximum of 5 years. If one was to do that today, not only would you need to be on a top top salary, but it would still probably take 8-10 years if you didn't have family money for the deposit (they didn't at the time).

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Footprints123@reddit

No.

Most of her peers are in a similar position, either starting on the property ladder or renting from the council. The majority are going straight into well paid apprenticeships rather than the old uni route, so are able to get a good head start financially.

We're in our 50's, and there is no question most of the folks we know in their 30's are much better off than we are now.

But, because such a huge percentage of the population are crammed into cities and towns in the south east, the people we see everyday all around us are still the minority.

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charlie_boo@reddit

I was 35 before I realised I could actually buy a house. I just assumed I couldn't becuase that's what everyone told me. We are the equivalent of 2 minimum wage incomes with 1 school aged child, but with a 5% deposit option it was perfectly doable. Single people, and those near London with silly house prices would absolutely struggle.

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CptConnor18@reddit

You'll always hear the people who shout the loudest. Reddit embodies that quite heavily.

It's not 'impossible' to buy a house but it's really not as hard as Reddit makes it out to be. If you have an income, don't have much debt and don't live in central London, you can buy a house fairly easily.

I was 25 at the time, on <£30k a year, around £4k debt and lived in the Midlands and managed to buy a house with little to no issues. Of course this depends on what you buy, where and what you're willing to comprimise on but it's doable if you try.

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Toastofbritain@reddit

Maybe life is just depressing for most that they'd rather spend the entire £400 extra they have a month on stuff that makes them happy instead of saving it for 5ish years to pay for a deposit + £3k on fees.

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worldworn@reddit

The other thing that people gloss over, about location, is not just what is affordable or desirable, but even younger people starting in their careers can be locked out of parts of the country if they want to find work.

In your example, your friends are probably quite mobile. But for me at that age I had three companies to choose from and two wasn't hiring.

The next nearest city with that sort of industry was in the middle of nowhere, great for prices, terrible for my then girlfriend to work.

If you are from an affordable area already, then it's a lot easier to get on the ladder. But otherwise it's an additional challenge.

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InitiativeOne9783@reddit

Impossible? No.

Is it getting harder every year? Yes 100%.

I couldn't afford the house I live in now if I tried to buy it today (bought 10 years ago).

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ASX9988@reddit

It’s definitely possible. I bought a 4 bed house in Greater London for 465k, at age 31.

Help to buy loan of 20% and a deposit of 5%. Value has gone up so much in 4 years that I am remortgaging and absorbing the loan and keeping the payments relatively the same.

I get paid well by national average standards, but I have a good career. I worked hard at it since I was 17. I work in IT.

My friends who live in south Wales have all pretty much got houses, have families and did it all in their late 20s. As an example one of them is an IT tech in a school and his wife works part time as a health care in the NHS and they have 2 kids and a decent sized house

My friends who live in south east England are a far more mixed bag, one has a pretty decent sized house that they bought in their early 20s before house prices exploded, one has his own flat, the rest are renting and only one of them has a family.

For context myself and all my friends are pushing 40

I just bought my first house 2 years ago and it took me stopping work to study for a master's to go back onto a higher wage to do so

It's not impossible, but in addition to the obvious it depends what job you have it depends alot on where you live and what help your parents can give

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BusyBeeBridgette@reddit

It's entirely possible.

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haroman666@reddit

People with the strongest opinions often shout the loudest. A lot of stuff online and very much in the media is likely the exteme end of whatever the subject matter is.

Therefore you probably hear far more doom and gloom "you'll never own a home" opinions than more middle-of-the-road stories. You'll probably hear more from the other end of the scale too, where people have had it super easy and bought a house straight out of uni because of XYZ reasons.

The people who've managed to get a house, but maybe had to get over a few hurdles along the way etc are probably too busy to bother typing out their own experience in all the house buying threads.

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Ruu2D2@reddit

It's all depends . Everyone circumstances different

Some people get pot money of family

Some people can live at home and safe. The friends I know mostly did that

Some area much cheaper

Some people are able to live cheaply

Some people good at budgeting

Me and my husband struggle to save for house . As we both moved out at 18 for different reasons .

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Kaskills@reddit

A big problem is how extortionate rent is. For me at least a mortgage on a half decent house is a fair bit more affordable than renting even a shitty flat.

Fortunately I have moved back in with my parents and can save for a deposit, but if I didn't have this option I would never be able to buy a house as I could never save for the deposit, or I would be saving for a long, logng time

Granted my wage is pretty poor to be honest, it is way below average, which doesn't help but I imagine there are a tonne of people in the same situation.

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LetsGoMugEm@reddit

Not at all. Back in thr late 90s early 2000s rent was expensive compared to wages so getting a deposit was hard. Nowadays it's far more acceptable for young people to stay with parents until theyl are 30 so they can easily save up a deposit.

Not saying it isn't hard still but it's no different to 20 years ago

You can get a 5% mortgage on a 200k property so you only need 10k

It really depends on area, income and other circumstances. It is hard to buy if you are on your own with no help or if you've sunk years into renting in an overpriced city. It's hard to raise a family if you earn an average wage and have no-one to help with childcare. However, not everyone is in those situations and you will hear complaints more than you hear celebrations. You don't hear from the people who got an inheritance to pay their housing deposit or the people whose mum looks after baby 4 out of 5 days because they don't need advice on what to do, they don't need to vent about their financial situation. Myself and the majority of my friends are doing well - most either own homes or are well on their way to own homes (with the exception of the ones who chose to live in London). Children aren't so much on the cards, but that is our mindsets of waiting till we're established in our career first rather than a financial issue - if me and my partner wanted to make it work, we could, we just don't want to yet.

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SingerFirm1090@reddit

Yes & No.

It depends, around London & the South East, a magnetic for young people in some professions, it's nearly impossible, yet not that far away, say East Anglia, it's much more achievable.

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