im recently seperated and its weighing on my mind that all i can see me doing is renting forever.
i have two kids, 4 and 6 years
i earn 23k at present (not that i see that changing)
i have no deposit whatso ever.
i live in cambridge and house prices are crazy.
i am totally cluless with all this stuff (missus used to do the finances and i lived in her house)
are any of these part share/part equity type things possible
should i be looking to get on the council house list etc
i really dont want to rent forever 🙁

I too lived in Cambridge and I still work in Cambridge. If you can commute in I would say look at Ely or beyond. We live near Downham Market, 35 minutes on the train and flats available from about £70k Houses from £85k. So about a third of what you pay in Cambridge. I know a very good indepoendant mortgage adviser as well if you need any more advise.
Drop me a mail if you want tmiddleton AT cambridge DOT org

what sort of deposit do people want these days anyway?

about 25-30% 😯

Even with a highish income and sizeable deposit, it’s still crazy.

On £23k and kids to support you’ll never buy a house (on your own) – you need to find a long-term rent that suits.

flats available from about £70k Houses from £85k

cant even buy a caravan in a caravan park for less than 112k where i live!!

i feel for you Odannyboy, the same question has been playing on my mind for about 3 years, the onyl way i console myself is that renting isnt that bad when you call someone to get something fixed instead of burning your savings each time… also we’re quite different to many other countries where its the norm to rent.

i make a concious effort to avoid threads on here where people talk about their second properties as i like to blame people with more than one house for the lack of ANYthing affordable within a 90mile distance of my work

You need to find yourself a single mum to hook up with, ideally she will work in healthcare or education and will have “key worker” status, use this to get in a council house you can then buy, or one of those home buy schemes.

23k is your problem

What do you do?

Can you earn more?

Council list and right to buy are my initial thoughts on what your strategy should be. You have kids so you get pushed a little way up the list. You can be pushed right to the top if you’re willing to make yourself technically homeless, but this will entail staying in some form of temporary accommodation.

Council rents are below market rate in my opinion, and when you right to buy you get a discount on the basis of how long you’ve been renting it, so the rent isn’t “dead money” as such. If you improve the house and can evidence that, it can also further reduce the purchase price to you (ie, if you move into a slightly scuzzy place and do it up).

As the price is fairly low on right to buy, you can save for a deposit, and with a low price may also be able to aim for a short mortgage, which saves you a lot of money in interest.

The other option is to find a way of earning more, but it’s shite out there at the moment. I’m looking at the potential to be earning less after doing a pretty sought after Master’s degree than I was before it!

Good luck and take the advice of a good mortgage advisor as recommended above.

I’ve just done a search for a mortgage for 2 1/2 times my salary with a 20% deposit and returned the grand total of not a single offer ! . What happened to lending based on risk and ability to pay?

It absolutely boils my piss that bankers will no doubt be coining it in over this and charging even higher interest rates despite the incredibly low base rate. It’s a disgusting situation where ordinary people are now paying for the greed of a few.

get yourself onto the local council housing list asap
once you finally get a council house (5 years or so) wait 5 years and exersize your right-to buy

the shared equity things can be a good idea (essentially cost you rent to eventually aquire equity) but they’re only available on new-build flats & houses – which are often priced a little higher as a result.

how old are you? assuming your wage will, in the long term, keep track with house prices..

aim to borrow 4x your income, if you can afford it. on 23k that is 92k borrowed, and should cost around £500/month on a 25 year mortgage. you’ll also need 10k as a deposit (90% mortgages will come back, and probably by the time you’ve saved that much). a good option to save money is move back in with the olds. its not nice, but a lot of folk do it.

so you’ve now got 102k – so that’ll buy a 100k house\flat. Not much in cambridge, I’d wager. So you get a 1/2 bed flat, and pay the mortgage for 15 years. Over this time, you’ll get about 50k in equity. Repeat the exersize and you’ve now got £150k to spend on a house. 25 years to pay off the mortgage.

Its not good, high house prices suck. But buying a house on a below average wage (for the area) has never been easy. I earn approx double what you do, and could only afford the *cheapest* house that came up for sale here (Brighton).

t’other option is to move somewhere cheaper. For instance, lochelly in fife has average house prices of £81k. that’s a third of what they are in cambridge. Even if you can’t move now, you could always be living in a flat in cambridge for now, then move up to a house in a cheaper area when the kids have left home etc..

its also loads cheaper if there’s 2 of you, at some point in the future.

i know.what with kids and all i will be in this town for at least twenty years.i was quite smug for a while when i used to walk home from works piss up etc while all the others ran for trains, lifts etc.
oh how it all has changed now.
best thing was i never got a pension together as she always said the house would be our pension when wer down sized at retirement. now thats gone to… well not for her tho 🙁
repeat, must cheer up, must cheer up…..

We are doing our bit to avoid ever paying any bank a single pound in interest by saving up to buy a house outright.

That’ll teach the bu66ers.

At the moment we could buy a small 2/3 bed terraced house in Truro – not really the plan. Some way to go yet…

I’ve just twigged who you are. Get a decent lawyer and get some money off her. You might not think it’s right at the moment, but you need to do the best for yourself, and by extension, your kids.

Don’t dispair. 5 years ago I honestly considered buying a house impossible. Granted I have less baggage, but I’m now a homeowner … don’t give in if its what you want, but you can’t be impatient.

odannyboy – how have you not got any savings? I suppose you paid rent to your ex?

Surf-Mat – so you’re saving up for a cheap house but run an expensive car? You really love cars! BTW, not sure it’s sensible saving up to buy a house outright as you’re paying rent which could be paying mortgage interest – same thing really. Unless you’re convinced prices will fall significantly.

IMO forget council – so many council houses have been sold that in most areas there is a huge shortage of council accommodation especially decent stuff. You will be a low priority and may never get to teh top of the list.

Look at housing association stuff instead – decent rents, security of tenure, shared ownership possible.

Remember that renting is not all downsides. NO negative equity, no reliance on the vagaries of interest rates, no large repair bills. In much of Europe far more people rent.

Find somebody else in the same boat and band together? It’d be a start, at least.

Tiger – nope, saving up to buy a “proper” house. About halfway there.

Currently rent a nice pad for silly (low) money and claim a quarter of all bills from our business. Cheap for us, cheap for the business.

Car wasn’t actually all that expensive and was bought outright, such is our allergy to debt – and yes, mortgages are a debt – a massive one.

To the OP – any affordable housing options? Housing Assocs will often “buy” half the property and so your monthly outgoings could be really low.

There are some being built in our village to compy with section 106 for some bigger houses. In a village where there are many £1m++ houses, these will be £140k for a 3 bed pad with direct river views. Well under £100k for 2 bed places. A bargain but too small for us. If you can find an HA doing a split ownership scheme, you might be okay?

I think as well, that if the op ever got to the top of the list then council tenancies may not be what they are now. I’ve heard talk of scrapping life long tenancies.

Surf-Mat – oh I see but that must take ages? Unless you earn a lot I suppose. I have no problems with debt if the rates are right, the payments affordable and the benefit worth the cost. Anyway, when it comes down to it your cash is getting a return – though not much now if in a low-risk place – so if that outweighs house price growth after tax then you’ve done well; maybe there will be a crash! I was lucky to be ready to buy a house in the mid-90s so have surfed a decent wave since then; now in a house that I would never have been able to afford if I hadn’t taken that approach.

We are doing our bit to avoid ever paying any bank a single pound in interest by saving up to buy a house outright.

That’ll teach the bu66ers.

No it won’t – coz while you’re saving thousands they’re using your money to speculate on the markets!! Unless you have it all in a suitcase under the bed.

I used to live in Cambridge & despaired at the house prices. 6 or 7 years ago when I was thinking of getting a place, it was about £120k for a bedsit, £140k for the smallest flat.

As suggested above, could you move & commute?? As Tommid suggested, somewhere like Downham Market. A friend of her indoors lives there & it’s really nice.
March would be another option – commutable and pretty reasonable, but you will need a large deposit.

I used to commute from north of Peterborough to Cambridge Science Park, but I wouldn’t recommend that as you’ll spend way too much on fuel to make it viable!

What ties do you have to Cambridge?
Could you/would you consider moving to somewhere with lower house prices. Cambridge is particularly bad for high house prices.

Would you be able to take on a 2nd evening job, perhaps and put that money into a savings account for a deposit. I’m guessing if you have kids it’s not practical to be working in the daytime and into the evening at a second job.

The housing market is tough for everyone at the moment. We’ve had our house on the market for almost a year and have had no joy. I don’t think the people who are looking at our house (mainly first time buyers) can afford the deposit requite to get a mortgage.

Wait to inherit?

Or recieve an offer from a family memeber with health problems to invest all their capital from downsizing into a 66% share in a property for you and your kids. Pay the remaining 34% as a short, hard mortgage. This should be finished by the time the relative has ended their suffering, and bingo, 4 beds, 3 floors, 2 bathrooms, a games room in the converted basement, and a shed. All on a single, lowly bike shop manager’s wage, by the age of 26.

Worked for me anyway.

We are doing our bit to avoid ever paying any bank a single pound in interest by saving up to buy a house outright.

That’ll teach the bu66ers.

And where do you think rent money goes?

Tiger – should be there in about 5-10 years time. Got to where we are savings wise in under 5 years.

Muffin – maybe but it’s all guaranteed and not “costing” us anything. Add up the interest paid on the life of a mortgage and you have spent an extra house buying a place.

Aidy – to our landlord who well get on rather well with. No problem with that. It’s a great place to live and work for a very small outlay.

IMO forget council – so many council houses have been sold that in most areas there is a huge shortage of council accommodation especially decent stuff. You will be a low priority and may never get to teh top of the list.

TJ, that’s a load of horseshit. The guy’s got kids and an income below the national average (and almost certainly way below Cambridge’s average). It costs nothing to have a go.

op – as mentioned above, you should really be getting some legal advice about any monetary entitlement you may have.

Good luck

I used to live in Cambridge and moved due to the daft prices. Now in Bristol and got my house for £104k. There are new builds going up and the adverts all say you can move in for £800 inclusive all other bills paid, they are pert equity share so you only pay around £60k mortgage. So as long as you have £800 in your pocket its a very cheap way to buy, im sure there are other schemes over the uk, just do a bit of research. Best looking at the developers web sites

you are looking at the long term goal (house) with despair but you need to focus on short term goal (without forgetting the long term one) which is to save some money.

A deposit is a huge amount of money and it’ll probably take 3-5 years to save. but you need to start now.

sit down and sort out your finances. work out what comes in. what goes out currently.

Some expenses you can’t change. some you can stop. some you can cut back on.

Try budgeting money.

For example put £50 aside for bike stuff each month. if you don’t spend it leave it there, next month you might need to spend more than £50.

lots of bank accounts can help with this.

i am in no way an expert but i do like budgeting (i am weird) if you want more advice you can email me. 😀

Muffin – maybe but it’s all guaranteed and not “costing” us anything. Add up the interest paid on the life of a mortgage and you have spent an extra house buying a place.

Depends on the lifetime of the mortgage. And if the interest paid on your mortgage is less than the rent you’d pay otherwise, you aren’t effectively losing money.

Add up the interest paid on the life of a mortgage and you have spent an extra house buying a place.

Sort of – you have to consider the NPV of all the payments. Over the longer term mortgage rates are very reasonable – and that’s one reason people have gone for interest only mortgages in the past; they invested the extra in the stock market assuming that their return will be better than the cost of the mortgage. I’m talking about ISA or even endowment mortgages but of course the latter are really a bit of a rip-off due to the costs associated with them.

Average of 5 years to get to the front of the queue

and

Right to buy council house policy reviewed to appease Lib Dems

Also buying a house isn’t a birth given right, despite the government’s efforts to make it appear so.

Overseas people just rent long term and are fine.

Houses aren’t the investments they once were – I reckon prices will drop massively over the next two years. Nothing is selling.

Stop no 1 – CAB.

Get their advice on how to make a claim for compensation from your ex. and especially on spousal maintenance, who gets custody of the children etc. You also need to find out what your entitlements are. You need professional advice! Some law firms do free advice sessions via the CAB. Worth a punt.

Aside from this, i’m pretty sure if you make yourself intentionally homeless you’ll not get help, so be very careful if you are considering this.

Getting a council house is your best bet, then buy it when you are able to.

I wouldn’t bank on the right to buy as there is tremendous demand for local authority funded housing. The rules are likely to change and it’s morally wrong to deprive other needy people of a cheap place to live. The whole area of entitlement to council housing is under question right now. For example, should a family who find themselves with a good income be forced to move out of subsidised housing? There are a lot of immigrants who arrived here homeless and have legitimately jumped the queue because of their needy circumstances. The average waiting list for a council house for someone currently homed is five years! If only the system was a bit more fair and we hadn’t let anyone rock up here without means to support themselves. It should be people like odannyboy getting help, not some eastern european! (expecting the usual loony left backlash – bring it on!)

We do need more council housing because of the ridiculous property price bubble which has grown way beyond the official rate of inflation. People can’t live in carboard boxes!

Second choice is a housing association property.

It will take a long time to get a deposit to buy a property and with two kids to take care of, £23k is not enough. If you get a settlement from your ex, this might help and especially if you get spousal maintenance.

My best mate’s ex gets £2k a month from him, for herself and the three kids, but her circumstances are different. She works for herself, but doesn’t draw a salary. Doesn’t make sense to me how she fiddles that.

Good luck!

Overseas people just rent long term and are fine.

Agreed, but their rental systems work different to ours, espcially for long-term rent – and tbh we lived in germany and there it was more of an age thing, needing to be in your 40’s to be settled in work and have the deposit – before you could buy.

Well why not use that “system” here too? Long term rents can be negotiated and buying over 40 years of age isn’t exactly a daft thing to do.

Just see too many overstretch themselves because they feel they must buy a house – then they lose the house and a lot of cash.

I’d have no problem with renting and not buying if there was any security in renting in this country. As it is I’ve had to move twice in 3 years due to landlords selling up. Two months isn’t an awful lot of time to find somewhere new, then there’s the general expense of moving, paying for references, putting down a deposit before the old one is released.

That’ll teach the bu66ers.

What, exactly?

Personally I wanted to buy a house because I wanted to be able to do stuff do it. Like secure the garage, paint the walls, insulate the loft, sort the kitchen out etc etc. Fed up with getting crap from landlords whilst at the same time.

We pay less interest to the bank than we would to a landlord, and at the end of it all we get to keep the house. If you rent you are just giving your money away and getting nothing back from it at the end.

25 years x £750/mo rent gets you accomodation
25 years x £750/mo mortgage gets you accomodation and probably half a million quid at the end of it all.

I don’t give a crap what people think I ‘ought’ to do 🙂

Mat – serious suggestion – seems to me it’d work out much more economical to buy a house with a flexible mortgage and overpay it with the money you’d be putting into the savings. You’d own the house in the same amount of time and save by not paying into someone else’s pension the whole time. And be able to do what you wanted with the house, should that be necessary.