My long 8 year journey to buying a house and what I’ve learnt

Hi! It's been a while! 👋

So recently, I’ve been super busy with buying my first home! 🎉 Yes, despite the ongoing news of house prices going out of control since the pandemic began I’ve been able to actually buy a house! I've recently exchanged contracts and am now the proud owner of a nice three bed semi detached home!

So this post doesn’t have much to do with tech or anything. This is mostly me complaining about the housing market and my long journey to buying my own home. When I was writing this post in Bear, it estimated that the overall reading time was just over 10 minutes! So be sure to grab a snack, a drink and get comfortable, this will be a long read.

Since I graduated, one of the goals that I had was to be a home owner by the time I was thirty years old. Quite the ambitious goal all things considered, especially since the average age of a first time buyer is now above thirty in every region in the UK according to Halifax.

So let’s start at when I began to save for my home, in 2014 (which feels like a lifetime ago, that's scary).

2014

2014 was the year that I graduated from University with my degree in Computer Science. But in the spring of that year, I was close to completing my degree and I was beginning to think about what I wanted to do once I had graduated. At this time, I was in Cambridge (as I attended University at Anglia Ruskin’s Cambridge campus). Initially, I had this fantastic vision that I’d have an incredible apartment in the heart of the city, with out of this world furnishings and a good social life (basically, I visioned my rented apartment to be something similar to what Frasier Crane had in the TV show Frasier).

Then reality kicked in.

I realised that I needed to learn to drive, buy a car and also think about starting to save for a house deposit. And after looking at what the average salary was for a graduate, I soon acknowledged that my idea of replicating Fraiser’s apartment was nothing more than a dream. I recall creating a spreadsheet and calculating what I’d be spending per month and thinking to myself “There’s no way that I can afford this.”

So, I began to rethink my plan. Where would be affordable to live, have a job and save all at the same time? The answer; my parents home in Milton Keynes. And so, after I finished my degree in June, I packed my bags and moved back in with my parents.

I didn’t know how long I was going to stay with my parents and I’m glad that they allowed me to move back in. I began to focus on saving money and learning to drive.

2016

Jumping forward by two years, I had achieved one of my goals! I had learnt to drive and bought my own car with my own money (it was a new Vauxhall Viva for those who are wondering. I’m looking forward to getting a better car in the near future). Towards the end of the year, I ended up getting a new job which saw my salary increase.

I was able to join the share save scheme at the business and everything was looking up. I wasn’t concerned about buying a house at this stage, I had bought a car earlier in the year so I wasn’t planning on doing anything like buying a house, but the share save scheme allowed me to save for a house in the long term.

A few thoughts about renting a place did pop into my mind a few times, but I reminded myself that renting is not a good idea as I’d be throwing money away.

So for the next few years, I continued to work and save while keeping an eye on the housing market.

2019

In early 2019 I had an idea that I could buy my own home. So I decided to investigate and actually went out and did some viewings. I also discovered some new developments that were being advertised.

It was at this point I discovered that houses in my local area were starting to become very expensive. Milton Keynes is in a very fortunate geographical position as it’s very close to London by train and not far from places such as Oxford, Bedford and Cambridge. Plus, Milton Keynes has plenty of good opportunities and is home to several big companies.

There was one viewing which I will never forget for the rest of my life. There was this listing for a new one bedroom detached house. The photos looked good, had a spot to park my car, the house was in a good area and the price wasn’t too bad either. So I booked a viewing!

I went to the viewing to discover that the house in question was incredibly small.

It was so small that you’d have to fit a small dining table and chair under the stairs in the lounge. And even then you’d have little room to have a sofa or anything in the lounge. The bedroom was the best part, the ceiling was so low and slanted that I had to crouch to get around the room itself!

Then there was the kitchen and the main bathroom on the ground floor. The kitchen was small but the bathroom was the smallest room in this house. I’d say it’s smaller than bathrooms you’d get in a hotel. Since all the plumbing was in one part of the house, the door to the tiny bathroom was in the kitchen (which was also where the front door was).

I thankfully didn’t buy it but it made me realise that I wasn’t ready to buy a house just yet if all I could afford was a tiny, one bedroom house. So I decided to go back to saving.

2020

Then, the pandemic arrived and everything in the housing market in the UK was flipped upside down.

House prices skyrocketed in value as people began to seek bigger homes, which was partly due to working from home. On top of this, there was a stamp duty holiday, which only caused house prices to go even higher. If Brexit and a Pandemic were unable to cause house prices to drop, I’m not sure what would.

So, this left me as a first time buyer in a terrible position. There was no way that I could keep up with the current prices, no matter how much I saved.

I decided to go back to saving and rethink my strategy again and hope that house prices would somehow fall.

2021

The house market didn’t exactly go in my favour in 2021. Prices just kept going up as the demand for housing increased.

During this year, I completed the share save scheme I was part of which gave my deposit a huge boost. I was able to put down £52K for a house which was a huge accomplishment for me. I could in theory put down anywhere between 10% to 15% of a house and I had cash left in my main bank account in case I needed to put more down (and for solicitors fees etc).

So at this point, everything was lined up to buy a house!

However, despite my savings, there was one thing that didn’t go up; my salary. During my time in my second job, I never saw a pay rise (apart from small salary adjustments due to inflation) until roughly four and a half years of service. My salary adjustment was just over £400 at this point across four years. I went on several mortgage calculators to get an understanding of how much I could borrow, and the amount didn’t give me much confidence.

House prices in Milton Keynes only continued to go up, making buying a property in the area even less realistic. New builds weren’t an option anymore as demand increased.

So although I was deposit rich, I was salary poor. With house prices continuing to climb, I knew that I needed to increase my salary. Saving up for a deposit alone won’t be enough. I needed to be in a position where I could borrow more.

So I decided I needed to find a new job that paid me better. Which I found towards the end of the year!

2022

After securing my new job and working with my higher salary, things were finally falling into place. I started to look into buying a house a bit more seriously and even arranged some viewings.

But Milton Keynes continued to be unaffordable for me. The houses I could afford were very small and would be difficult to sell in the future. So I decided that I had to look outside of Milton Keynes, but also in a spot that’s a comfortable distance away from Cambridge Science Park.

There were some highlights in the news about the house market, shoutout to Kirstie Allsopp for suggesting everyone should give up Netflix, gym and coffee so they can save up for a deposit. It made me laugh when I read that.

There were some early frustrations with house hunting. Some viewings I arranged would get canceled as the house had been sold after being on the market for a day (which is crazy to me).

My search to find somewhere affordable lead me to Northamptonshire (as anywhere near Cambridge was very expensive) and I found several properties that I wanted to view. There were plenty of new builds available which gave me confidence and it wasn’t too far from Cambridge Science Park.

And in May 2022, after months of searching and nearly a decade of saving, I found a new home that I wanted to buy and that I could afford. By the end of June, my mortgage application was accepted. And just recently, contracts were exchanged. The house itself should be complete by September.

It was an amazing feeling knowing that I can finally buy a house. I had saved up so much over the years and everything worked out.

I had to stay with my parents for eight years to buy a house, I didn’t have a choice. I knew that if I ended up renting a place after I graduated from University, there would be no way that I’d be able to buy a house. I’m not sure how many years it would take to save up for a deposit if I was renting. Who knows, I may have even ended up renting for the rest of my life.

That’s one of the worst parts about the housing market today, if you’re renting, it’s very difficult to get onto the property ladder. And don’t get me started on shared ownership, it’s just a scam (who thought buying 25% of a house so you can pay off a mortgage AND rent at the same time was a good idea anyway?)

So, what did I learn?

• The housing market is incredibly cruel to first time buyers. And worse if you’re renting.
• Make your money work for you. Invest in ISAs and keep them topped up. Do plenty of research!
• If moving back in with your parents is an option, consider it. There’s no shame in it! If you need to save money, then do it!
• Build a spreadsheet of your accounts and workout how much you can save. Visualising your finances is a great way in understanding if there are areas that you can cut back on.
• If you see a house that you like, call the estate agents ASAP. Houses sell very quickly so don’t miss out!
• Bidding wars are awful.
• There is always time for more forms to be sent to you that need to be signed (seriously, why is there so much paperwork?)
• Take a copy of all of your bank statements covering six months. Give the mortgage provider as much info as possible.

First time buyers need help now more than ever to get onto the property ladder. Demand for housing isn’t going to decrease any time soon. I was lucky to be able to live with my parents and save, but not everyone can do that. More needs to be done so that everyone can own a home (and I’m not talking about shared ownership here).

Despite the house market apparently “cooling“, prices are going up. People need to remember that a house price increase, of any percentage, is still an increase. The average price of a house is now £289,099 (a new record).

Now that I own a home, I can finally stop complaining about house prices. I just need to find something else to complain about instead.

I’m excited about moving into my new home in a few months and filling it with furniture etc. Who knows, maybe I can achieve my dream of having a place that looks like Frasier’s apartment.