how do people afford to buy houses nowadays?

I looked at buying a house 5 years ago.. but dropped the idea as I thought money would be to tight... Oh how silly was I...

I have a one bedroom maisonette ..... valued around £135,000.

I've had to start dating the girl next door, with the plan to seduce her into selling her place too. Only then will I get a house.

I love her really.

Originally Posted by Gnan

by my calculations if you were buying on your own you'd need to be earning about 50 grand a year to afford it! who are they kidding, what sort of job pays that salary at the age these properties are marketed at (i.e young people) - even if you were buying with a partner you'd have to be both earning about 30-35k

You can buy a place for £150,000 on about that annual salary without having big savings, cos I did.

In the end I worked out that I would be paying slightly less in mortgage repayments than rent on a monthly basis, and at least the house is yours, so to speak.

I admit, I did struggle with all the fees etc associated with buying a place but now I believe some of the fees are waved for first time owners. Some mortgage places even pay solicitor fees too.

[BillyC]

Simply you need a good mortgage advisor, in order to borrow a lot of money.

Originally Posted by Sythree

I wonder if they ever complain about the huge 'arrangement' fees that lenders add to the loan.

Don't get me started, the *******s. I've just rearranged my mortgage and some places try and charge £699 arrangement fee for the 'privilege' of taking a mortgage with them!!

its ok.. I'll win the euro millions tonight....

Jonboy wrote:

One day the property market will have to crash big time.

I am afraid that is very unlikely to happen as home ownership is part of the culture in the U.K. therefore people will constantly strive to get on the property ladder. I accept that there will be "softer" markets when sales are not as readilly found but to suggest or wish for a crash is a little unrealistic.

Largely speaking how a property market performs is a general reflection of the economy of a country at any given time. If a crash did happen there would be many more factors for people to be worried about than just the price of property.

Our great Grandparents would turn in their graves at the money that we buy a home for today but that has always been the case from generation to generation.

Originally Posted by Grinch

its ok.. I'll win the euro millions tonight....

phew

I bought mine for 45K 5 years ago, just had it valued ( as we are building an extension on it ) and they have valued it at 95 K. I have done bugger all to it ( in fact it needs work doing to it ) - The whole thing is a joke.

Some parents i know are re-mortgaging their house to give there kids the deposit and down payment for a house ( as they said it was the only way to get them out of the house )

the mortgage advisor said i could have 115k on my salary which is 5 times what i earn. Im worried that if i do buy, i find myself with only enough money to cover the bills and have no money for anything else