Owning your own home

The prices seem to be edging over £450k now if you look at the ladder area but there is still a reasonable amount of stuff like this just off there http://www.winkworth.co.uk/properties/9505914/sales/grand-parade-green-lanes-n4/HAR160571

Hackney Wick? Or even some of the new Olympic Park stuff? Ours is a 2.5/3 bed house and probably wouldn't hit £600k

Charlton, woolwich, plumstead, abbey wood? There are some nice parts and pretty good for getting in to town.

My mate is about to sell her very nice 1 br place in Crouch End. Around £420K. I'll give you guys first dibs.

(1br!!! £420K!!!???!!)

I think disdain aimed at hipsters is never entirely wasted. But I take your point.

I was tempted by those Shared Ownership schemes but after looking at it the cashdoesn't stack up - the mortgage is cheap but you need to pay 60% rent and service charges on top, which pushes the average monthly cost up to circa £1500 a month which isn't doable for me and my boo.

Even there though - my missus is on a sub £30k salary, even with mine stacked it doesn't work. How can anyone save a deposit on a sub £30k salary in London? I don't see it as possible.

How can anyone save a deposit on a sub £30k salary in London? I don't see it as possible.

It's not.

My other half recently moved from about 33k to 45k. The difference in real terms is so much more than that, as almost all of that increase is disposable cash. The whole of it before was just cost of living. She can now pay off debts and consider saving a bit. Prior to that every month was scrabbling about to clear the overdraft.

It is becoming impossible.

Having said that, I know a fair few people who did it by moving home with parents/squatting/property guardian route.

Oh, that sounds like your combined salaries are around or a bit more than ours were. Saving on sub £30k - we were lucky I guess in that we rented somewhere we were happy to stay in for several years from a private landlord who wasn't interested in matching the local going rate. But I think the truth is that a significant part of many people's deposits come from parents or inheritance.

As soon as I hit £40k I started being able to save as well - I still need to pay back all the CC debts that I lived on when I was on £30k but a tleast I can see those going down and my savings going up. But yeah, she's on closer to £20k and it's just...I can't see it happening.

Squatting / guardianing is actually not a bad idea. My parents live out in Dagenham. I know they'd be OK wiht me crashing them for a few months which is an option a lot of people don't have, but I know my missus wouldn't be up for it. On the other hand my feeling is that pretty soon we won't even be able to afford rent in Clapton so it's either sacrifice a bit and buy a place now or wait ten years to be kicked out of London altogether.

There is somebody on here who squatted, unbeknownst to his family and friends, for nearly ten years with his focus on buying a home. He was earning under £30k a year I think.

He suddenly bought a very nice flat in a decent area of London a few years back.

Crazy lengths to become a home owner. Fair play to him though.

I'd say who it is but I don't think his financial circumstances are mine to talk about.

lea bridge only 5 mins from Clapton but a bit cheaper (for now)

That's actually one of the places I've got my eye on. It'll suck but at least it'll suck centrally.

You're probably already aware of this but, unless your CC debts are on a zero % card then there's not much point in saving until you've paid them off. The interest on CC debts will be much higher than anything you can earn from savings.

When I bought (6 or 7 years ago) the problem was all about getting enough of a deposit to buy, now it seems to be back to not enough of a salary multiple (even though monthly payments could well be less than rent). I know that I wouldn't be able to afford my place now which is a bit crazy.

Fortunately my CC debts are on a 0% credit card. And I definitely hear that financially there wouldn't be much point doing it if I had an APR to pay back. But psychologically I think there's something to be said for having a separate deposit in a separate account - I think it focuses the mind.

Housing Benefit fraud in Hackney council during the 90's

Rampant. A shed load of money was stolen.

Like £2k on the CC

Lol exactly. Thing is it's a hangover from my previous life - I only started getting paid a decent amount a little over a year ago, prior to that I was getting paid ziltch and I effectively lived on my CC toward the end every month. Since my pay bump I've more than halved it (down from over £5k) and I'm paying off £600 a month - it'll be gone in no time.

I feel for you @BleakReference. My partner and I saved for 9 Years. Though we could have stayed central we made the decision to move waaay out (Enfield Lock) so our mortgage would be smaller. We ended paying £225k for a 2bed garden flat. Our mortgage is now just over a quarter(!) of our previous rent in Bow. However we're massively over paying so hopefully we'll be clear in 15 rather than 30 years.

I need some custom wardrobes made. Has anyone got any recommendations?

They should be about 2m tall with doors on the front.

I'd suggest some space for hanging things, some drawers and some shelves. If you wear dresses and/or Matrix coats then get some longer hanging space.

Since when did Hobo's have wardrobes?

For larger built in spaces we used space slide. Basically wall to wall sliding mirror doors with hanging space, shelves and drawers behind. very impressed, will be using again for other rooms.

Ours are floor to ceiling so about 2 1/2 meters tall. They do have doors on the front, mirrored ones so I can see my arse bouncing up and down. Enjoy the mental image.