First-time buyer: ‘It’s even harder to buy when you’re single’

18 comments

1. i’d agree with this 25% discount on council tax is kinda bullshit tbh. That would be a nice easy relief for single people tbh.

2. No, it’s impossible to buy when you’re single.

   Source, single and paying so much rent I can’t afford to save a fiver a month nevermind the £50k I need for a deposit.

3. That’s certainly harder than being in a double earning couple although the hardest of all is doing it as a single income couple.

4. Daily reminder that never in human history has it been the norm to live alone long term.

5. I have 70k saved for a deposit, I make about 27k a year, mortgage people will only lend me 115k, so I can’t afford anything where I live

6. I started saving at 16 and didn’t stop till I was 27 very luckily for me my parents were happy for me to stay at home. With my now wife we saved enough for a deposit. Did this by never really doing any of the young adult things like getting smashed all the time and partying etc etc. just cinema now and again with her. Getting on the ladder is no joke, a serious long term commitment unless you’re absolutely loaded.

7. I bought in 2003 by myself and it hasn’t been easy, at the start it was dreadful I changed jobs due to stress just before I moved in and took a drop in salary then I got made redundant 18 months later. I took in a lodger to help and I’ll be the first to admit I wasn’t good with money and budgeting but I slowly learnt the hard way. By 2008 I was also working a second part time job and it was soul crushing. At this time I was running a £500 diesel Astra on waste vegetable oil that I was “liberating” from the back of pubs on Sunday mornings.

   I stopped the second job about 2011 as I got a small promotion, by this time I was onto my 6th lodger who was fab and stayed until 2018 when he bought he is own place, we regularly see each other to this day so that is a real positive. In 2018 I decided not to get another lodger as I didn’t want to have a stranger living here again and things had improved that I was able to stand on my own two feet, I’d had help from a debt charity and had become a budget and bills ninja.

   By 2018 after 15 years of living here I took a new mortgage deal for 7 years at 2.6% (flukiest/smartest thing I have ever done), I also for the first time bought new carpets as both bedrooms only had varnished floor boards. In 2022 I was doing well enough to finally replace the 1960’s single glazed wooden frame windows with double glazing, what a difference.

   In 2023 I went on a big friends and family holiday inc my old long term best lodger, whilst there another friend happened to mention that by Jan he had to find somewhere new to live so after about 5 seconds thought I offered him my spare room (which I had been using as an wfh office) and he moved in first week of January.

   Things (after nearly 20 years) are a lot easier now, I don’t know how I coped at the beginning, I’d crack easily if I had to do it all again. My mortgage deal is up in May next year and I’m saving hard to have enough to settle it in full 3.5 years early. Looking back I’d tell myself in August 2003 to sit down and do a proper budget, maybe find some fledgling tools online or Excel and to open bank statements but have grip over running a home, now I use lots of banking tools to help me manage. Can’t believe I’m approaching the end of a mortgage, seems like just yesterday…..

8. ‘In 1997, the most common living arrangement for an adult aged between 18 and 34 was being in a couple with children, according to the Resolution Foundation think tank. Now, it is living with your parents.’

   That is a fucking depressing fact/statistic/whatever.

   Edit.

   Also fairly sure infantilising multiple generations in this manner is going to have serious long term ramifications.

9. She’s right. It’s a no brainer.

   Home ownership is dead in water now for most single people earning below £30k and currently renting on their own

10. Buying expensive things harder with less money. I’ll make a note of that.

11. A political party that promised to unfuck the housing market would clean up.

12. I definitely agree. I’m a single guy and have unfortunately due to rent increases had to move back in with my parents this week. It’s the only option to save anything. I work a childcare job for which I am very well qualified so am not on minimum wage. The typical minimum wage job will net you under 20k a year. You need to be earning at least 30k a year to even live with current rental prices. It’s insane.

13. Having less income makes it harder to buy things. Revolutionary that

14. This is obvious and inevitable. There will never be a world where coupling up isn’t a big financial advantage.

15. Have you thought about meeting someone and buying a house together?

16. I got a house, you can too! I don’t even earn that much!

    PS: it was years ago when prices were much cheaper, and somewhere very cheap. Yes I will ignore that, as well as you having to move away from your support network to a cheap area to make it happen. There is a non zero percent chance that I will have no empathy towards you.

    – Most homeowners here.

17. In other breaking news, the Pope is Catholic and bears shit in the woods.

18. This is why I advocate to just gathering capital first and buy it out right (not done by working a job of any kind).