Property prices all over the UK have rocketed in recent years and, while home-owning wasn’t unusual for previous generations, these days young people often worry they’ll never be able to buy their own home.
So, unless you’re the favourite niece or nephew of a great-aunt who’s about to shuffle off her mortal coil and leave you her house in her will, you’re going to need to find your own way to get on the property ladder.
With that in mind, here are three ways to help you buy your first home.
Shared ownership
Shared ownership is a part-buy/part-rent scheme for first-time buyers who haven’t been able to secure a mortgage that allows them to buy outright.
With a shared ownership property, you buy an initial share of 25%-75% of the value of the property and pay rent on the share that’s left over.
Shared ownership is a part-buy/part-rent scheme for first-time buyers who haven’t been able to secure a mortgage that allows them to buy outright.
With a shared ownership property, you buy an initial share of 25%-75% of the value of the property and pay rent on the share that’s left over.
When, or if, your financial situation improves, either from an increase in salary or your savings build up, you’ll be able to buy more shares in your home until you own all of it.
Buy in a cheaper area
If shared ownership doesn’t appeal to you and the only reason you can’t afford a house is because the houses in the area you’re looking at cost too much, consider looking in a cheaper area.
You’ll be surprised at how much more house you get for your money in a less desirable area. By ‘less desirable’ we’re not suggesting you live somewhere where you won’t be able to leave your house without a bodyguard or a big barky dog, but by setting your sights a bit further afield, you may find the house of your dreams at a price you can afford.
If shared ownership doesn’t appeal to you and the only reason you can’t afford a house is because the houses in the area you’re looking at cost too much, consider looking in a cheaper area.
You’ll be surprised at how much more house you get for your money in a less desirable area. By ‘less desirable’ we’re not suggesting you live somewhere where you won’t be able to leave your house without a bodyguard or a big barky dog, but by setting your sights a bit further afield, you may find the house of your dreams at a price you can afford.
Save for a bigger deposit
You may think this is a bit obvious and if you could save for a bigger deposit, you would. But have you really tried to save a bigger deposit?
If you constantly have more month than money left in the days leading up to payday, take a good look at your monthly outgoings and see if there is anything you can do without.
For example:
- Cut out that daily cup of coffee from Starbucks or Costa. If you waited until you got to work to make a coffee for free instead of buying one from a coffee shop each day, you could save £50 a month.
- Do you really need so many entertainment subscriptions? After all, you can’t listen to or watch Spotify, Apple Music, Netflix and Amazon Prime all at the same time. Get rid of some of them (or all of them and listen to the radio/play CDs and watch Freeview instead).
- If you’re one of the thousands of people who have a gym membership for a gym they never go to, you can save £100s a year by cancelling your membership and running, walking or cycling outside in the fresh air instead.
- Take lunch to work with you instead of spending money on expensive sandwiches (especially as you’ll probably be tempted to buy crisps or other snacks while you’re in the sandwich shop).
We’re not saying getting on the property ladder is easy, it’s far from it these days. But not all hope is lost and we hope you find these three ways to get on the property ladder helpful.
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