Saving for a house deposit, how does anyone do this now...

You can, in fact we looked at one in Farra where that was just about the case.

We’d have needed a substantial amount extra just to make it liveable though

different times, but looking back crackers that our first house was £59990 in Hurstwood Road( High Barnes) and was immaculate, inside and out.
Literally nothing needed doing.
Lucky looking back as that was just before market really ramped up again.

I do sympathise with younger ones now.
 


I'm sure it's already been said, but try to monetize a hobby/passion away from your actual main income.

Even if it's only a couple hundred quid a month, stick that in a savings account.
 
In the seventies the average house cost 4 times the average salary.

In 2019 it was 8.25.

If you bought a house in the Seventies, have a think about that next time you tell a millennial to stop buying coffee.
Let’s face it the average house now is more than twice as nice as the average house in the seventies.
 
Respectfully, this thought process falls down in two ways.

1.) It implies that every 'luxury' is just that. I work a job whereby my hours vary massively. Sometimes I'm done at 2pm in the afternoon, others I'm working 11am-11pm. I don't work shifts so there's little warning for these things. I get a takeaway more often than not out of necessity than desire to have decent food at an inflated price.

2.) That £4k a year gets you maybe halfway towards a decent ish starter house so you'd be doing it for two years and that's with absoulutely no unexpected emergencies. It would also have you f***ing miserable. You'd be eating in everyday, with no form of entertainment at home, no way to watch the football. I also don't get a daily coffee.

My issue with being lectured by people about what us young-ins need to do is the clear and apparent fact that it's not what previous generations went through. There were no tuition fees. Jobs paid fairly, offered security. Houses weren't priced out for first-time buyers. To a man everyone I know has had to have help with their deposit. Maybe question why that's the case instead of telling young people they should eradicate anything deemed a luxury including a night in front of the telly with a pizza.

to be fair mate I’m 29 and bought my first house only in March of this year, the no luxury and stopping in thing was my strategy as well, you can piss and moan about prices and wages and you’d probably be right but if you want a house you need to just knuckle down and make it happen cause if you live in Sunderland it really is achievable

we lived in a shit hole rented place which was like shameless to save up, we were absolutely miserable to be honest and if it went on much longer we would have given up, all in I reckon it took us about 2 year of proper saving to save up our deposit, 4 year of talking/thinking about it in total and being non committal, like I said in a previous post once you get a few grand there that you can see it gets much easier to stay motivated when you can work out how many months (even if it’s 30 months or something) it’ll be before you will be at your target

And we still don’t have sky now, the only subscription I pay for is Amazon prime, no gym membership, my phone is sim only, I haven’t got a season ticket.

we did BORROW £3k off my dad to get us over the line for the house we wanted but I’m paying him back £250 a month on top of our mortgage now

you need to cut the takeaways out like as well mate, doesn’t matter if you’re coming in late just have egg on toast or something or stick a microwave meal in even, plan your shopping and do an online order so you at least mitigate your costs, have you actually printed a bank statement and done the maths on how much you spend on food? That’s what you need to do, you said it yourself if you cut out those luxuries for a year it would be half way to a starter house, how long do you think it takes like? Have a look on money saving expert forums there’s people on there down south get themselves out the hole after divorces etc and save up for 10 years to get a scabby flat an hour bus ride from where they work. We live in Sunderland man it’s easy mode realistically the market round here. If you’re not prepared to do that sort of thing then good luck to you

there’s no magic solution for us normal people mate, if you haven’t got rich parents the answer is the same - save up and stop in for a bit
 
Think mine is more than that. It has gone up in value around £100,000 in 11 years which is £750 a month which is a lot more than my mortgage has been. It has to be the best investment ever.

I got a big helping getting my deposit together when the company I was working for was acquired so we all got a cash windfall based on length of service. It meant that I could go in with a bigger deposit and lower interest rate which kept my repayments reasonable.
Whilst that's great, it always seems like a bit of a false economy unless your house is too big for you. I mean, I got a cheap place, just wanted to be on the property ladder, cost me £77000. Now, 5 years on, it's valued at £91000. Which sounds great but I couldn't move anywhere smaller, so if I go for a house that was £100000 it's probably now £125000, so all the "extra" money in my house will go when I try to move up the ladder. Like I say it's great if you bought a 4 bedroom place but the kids have moved out and you want a 2, then you'll benefit. For the OP though I would always recommend saving for even longer and stretching as much as you can for your first house, it's difficult to move up the ladder if you start at the bottom
 
Whilst that's great, it always seems like a bit of a false economy unless your house is too big for you. I mean, I got a cheap place, just wanted to be on the property ladder, cost me £77000. Now, 5 years on, it's valued at £91000. Which sounds great but I couldn't move anywhere smaller, so if I go for a house that was £100000 it's probably now £125000, so all the "extra" money in my house will go when I try to move up the ladder. Like I say it's great if you bought a 4 bedroom place but the kids have moved out and you want a 2, then you'll benefit. For the OP though I would always recommend saving for even longer and stretching as much as you can for your first house, it's difficult to move up the ladder if you start at the bottom

this is true like, always push yourself
My mam and dad bought their current house in 1999 for 77k, similar property in boldon they looked at was just out of reach at 91k, my mam and dads is worth about 160 now and the east boldon one about 350
 
In the seventies the average house cost 4 times the average salary.

In 2019 it was 8.25.

If you bought a house in the Seventies, have a think about that next time you tell a millennial to stop buying coffee.
my house in the 70s was 8 times my salary, my monthly mortgage was a quarter of my monthly wage and interest rates were between 6 and 10%
 
I have no idea about the circumstances of the OP, so don't know how much he/she wants to give up quality of life for more money.
From reading this thread, it seems that a huge amount of wages is spent on rent.
That could be the major saving.

The OP could consider renting a room in a house, I know a few young people who do that in London.
Saves paying bills, poll tax etc etc.
Also, he may be able to rent a student house cheaply and have it for himself for the summer when the students have gone home, rather than it being left empty, so he could have over three months of peace. Just a thought.

Also, I know a lass in her late 20s, lives in London, is a schoolteacher, rents a room. She said most people who she went to Uni with (in Edinburgh) have bought houses, apart from those living in London. They still rent rooms.
 
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Some good advice on here by well meaning folk some of it taken totally the wrong way.
It’s hard to get on the housing ladder and it always has been.
only way is to do it on your own is to save. Have a realistic hard look at your finances and current spending and eating habits it
might even spur some on to be entrepreneurial even start a business or find other legal ways to earn money.
it’s not easy and will take time.
 
As some have mentioned as well. Make a budget and stick to it.

The way I did it was got another current account for spending. I have a spreadsheet where all my bills and how much I could save are on and I leave that in one account then transfer the rest.

Next year I’ll still be doing the above but rather than a current account I think I’ll just use a credit card and set up a direct debit for the full amount each month. Purposely to build my credit rating for when we have to remortgage in four years time.
 
Work harder/longer
Spend less
It’s much the same as loosing weight but in reverse
Few posters on this thread with their head up their arse. Average housing costs have massively outstripped average wages since the 70s/80s so its not exactly a simple matter of stopping in or cutting back on the avocado toast.
That’s not going to change anytime soon so unless you knock off granny then expectations of what you want may actually be more realistic to what you can afford
My first property was a flat as opposed to a house
 
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