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sobriqueAccording to the radio this morning, the average price of a house in this country, last year was £175,000.
Now the way things seem to work, is that you can get a 3.5x mortgage, and in order to get a sane interest rate you need a 10% deposit. OK, maybe only 5%. Oh, and of course there's a big bunch of 'other costs' to moving house, like solicitor fees, stamp duty etc.
Which basically means that in order for a first time buyer to afford an _average_ house, they have to be earning £50,000 a year. And have around £10,000 available for 'deposit and costs'. I don't know about anyone else, but the rate of my savings is about enough that i'll have saved that kinda cash in about 10 years time, if I'm really lucky. And the salary? Well, nice if you can get it...
Sadly, we have no Amber tonight, which means I shall have to spend some time conniving and plotting. Oh, and probably mowing the lawn.
I also really need to start going to the Gym again. It's been over a month now...
Now the way things seem to work, is that you can get a 3.5x mortgage, and in order to get a sane interest rate you need a 10% deposit. OK, maybe only 5%. Oh, and of course there's a big bunch of 'other costs' to moving house, like solicitor fees, stamp duty etc.
Which basically means that in order for a first time buyer to afford an _average_ house, they have to be earning £50,000 a year. And have around £10,000 available for 'deposit and costs'. I don't know about anyone else, but the rate of my savings is about enough that i'll have saved that kinda cash in about 10 years time, if I'm really lucky. And the salary? Well, nice if you can get it...
Sadly, we have no Amber tonight, which means I shall have to spend some time conniving and plotting. Oh, and probably mowing the lawn.
I also really need to start going to the Gym again. It's been over a month now...
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no subject
Date: 2004-08-09 03:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-09 03:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-09 05:10 am (UTC)I am only going to buy a house if I get very rich and can afford one in Kew.
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Date: 2004-08-09 05:45 am (UTC)The average price actually paid by first-time buyers would surely be a less misleading figure to consider - even at the best of times you'd expect to be aiming towards the lower end of the market for your first house, unless you were unusually rich. Also what proportion of first time buyers are couples (where £50,000 a year between them isn't so implausible).
People I know who've recently bought for the first time on a single salary tend to be buying the leasehold on flats rather than buying whole houses. Clearly the numbers ought to include that market (I've no idea whether they do or not).