Women Are Getting Honest About How They Bought Their First Homes
House prices in the UK are on the rise and women are now sharing how they got onto the property ladder.
On Monday Halifax reported that house prices in the UK had reached a record high in January, with the cost of the average home in Britain reaching £276,759 (up £24,500 over the last 12 months).
Adding salt to the wound, Kirstie Allsopp, known for fronting Location, Location, Location, sparked outrage and infuriated her readers when she declared that young people should simply give up their Netflix subscriptions, gym memberships and luxury holidays to get onto the property ladder.
Personal finance expert Lynn Beattie has now ignited another conversation about first-time buyers after revealing how she managed to buy her first home.
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Beattie said: "Can we all be 'A BIT' more honest about how we paid for our first homes? Yep I was 24, but I bought with my boyfriend (who was 10 years older with much more money) who paid the entire deposit."
Now women are sharing the honest reasons of how they managed to get around the large fees to get their first house.
Lots of people said they had partners to help cover solicitors fees and deposits. One woman said: "I was 26/27 & bought with my husband who earned a lot more than I did. We saved for ages, it was hard & sh*t. We paid off our mortgage due to my father leaving me some money when he died, but I want people to be able to buy as easily as people did in the 70’s & 80’s".
A man tweeted a similar story. He said: "I bought my house last year at 25 years old. I bought it with my girlfriend (who contributed more than I did as she earns more) and my parents and brother loaned us half of our deposit money. Because of that assistance and the renovations we’ve done, the value is up £150k now".
Other commenters said they had to seek help from family members to help cover the costs.
One woman said she received her inheritance at the time she bought her first home which helped her immensely. "I was 25, I had been left £2k in a will and I had saved £1,500 myself on a £11k salary. I was lucky. I live in the north and I bought about 3 months before the house prices in my area went up £20k I wouldn’t have been able to afford it then or if I’d not had the inheritance."
In a follow-up tweet she added: "And I still live there, 20 years on".
Someone else wrote: "Stayed in for 6 months while sharing a £300pm rent with my sister living in my grandma's 2nd home. Scraped £6k together in 6m for a 5 per cent deposit on a £100k house with enough to cover solicitors fees. Even as little as 7 years ago, that is quite out of reach for most people!"
One woman shared her story of how she became a homeowner at 29 with a six-figure salary. "I bought my 3-bed house in Zone 4 last year. But I'd been on a six-figure salary since 2018 and the pandemic lockdowns meant I saved about £30,000 in 12 months from not travelling and going out so I could afford the 10 per cent deposit a year earlier than planned."
Following a response which said her story was 'unrealistic', she added: "No absolutely! That's the point I'm trying to get across. I was *only* able to buy property alone as a solo woman *because* I've earned since figures for 3+ years and there were three lockdowns. No one on an average salary without family support has a hope in hell."
After reading the responses, some members of the public said it felt 'reassuring' knowing how others managed to get on the property ladder and why they themselves may struggle when they don't have an inheritance or family members to provide financial help.
"Thanks! These are oddly reassuring as to why I didn't have a chance," one Twitter user confessed. "For one example, one grandmother died when my mother was 5 and my other grandmother died in 2014 with about 35 grandchildren, so not so much with the legacy."
A woman in the comments responded with: "Yeah, I sometimes feel screwed as various family circumstances mean I will never inherit anything. Sucks that this has such an effect on whether you get to have a secure affordable home or not. I then also feel guilty for feeling sorry for myself!"
This followed calls for changes to be made in the property market to make it easier for people in 'regular jobs' to buy their own homes.
A senior business and law lecturer said: "It doesn't matter how we paid imho, it matters that *no-one* in a regular job can afford to do the same now, and it matters that older people, especially rich ones with a platform, like Allsopp, should do an iota of research using publicly available data before mouthing off."
And someone else reflected: "Anyone else see these tweets and think maybe, just maybe, we as a society should make this easier rather than some miserable right of passage? Having a secure home should, and can be, a basic right. A strange English trait to see virtue in sacrifice."
After the debate went viral, Beattie told Tyla: "This tweet has been seen by more than 2 million people by lunchtime 9th Feb. I think the honesty of the responses are a huge refreshing insight into the world of finance, particularly the reality of how to buy a home. The privilege, or the luck or the sacrifices made to get on the property ladder".