Yours first house

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pplpilot

Guru
Location
Knowle
For whatever reason, some people simply do not want to buy. One of my Sisters-in-Law lives in a very nice "Council" property. She has been a "council" tenant since she was 21 (now 73). She could buy the property for less than the cost of a secondhand car (with relevant discounts etc), live in it, rent free, for the rest of her days, then leave (what is a £120,000 property) to her three sons. But, her rationale for not doing this is, she would have to take responsibility for looking after the "fabric" of the house.

I could have done with off loading it about 7/8 years ago to fund this money pit i'm in now. They have been there so long, I just didn't have the heart to give them notice or made them feel like they had to buy it.
 
One bedroom property in Coventry in 1986, £20,750. Only there one year, moved five times across the subsequent 32 years (work related), last move 2012. Absolutely love current property and location, not planning to move again (until it's to the Nursing Home or the Crem).
 

AndyRM

XOXO
Location
North Shields
2009, terraced house in Wallsend on a pedestrianised street. Loved it, and over 7 years got it exactly how we wanted it. Then SophRM decided she wanted to live by the sea and we're now in Whitley Bay living in a building site, which we're fortunate enough to have other people working on for us.

Initially I was raging about the move, but when the beach is your back yard, it's hard to complain.
 
2009, terraced house in Wallsend on a pedestrianised street. Loved it, and over 7 years got it exactly how we wanted it. Then SophRM decided she wanted to live by the sea and we're now in Whitley Bay living in a building site, which we're fortunate enough to have other people working on for us.

Initially I was raging about the move, but when the beach is your back yard, it's hard to complain.

Spot on re the Beach, it's just the best (especially for a Coventry kid).
 

Johnsop99

Veteran
Location
Bude, Cornwall
2001 one bedroom flat in Redhill, Surrey for £68,000 sold in 2003 for £105,000. Now living mortgage free in a four bed detached house in God's own cycling country, one mile from the sea. (No spare cash for N+1 though). I seem to recall that in 2000 when work briefly took me up north a 3 bed terraced house just outside Doncaster could be had for £18,000.
 
2001, 3 bed semi near Rotherham. Too close to my Mother. Too close to neighbours. Bought for £65,000, sold 4 years ago for £75,000.
Had an old corrugated steel garage I intended to but never used and a brilliant south facing conservatory.
 

youngoldbloke

The older I get, the faster I used to be ...
Or you move north. Granted its a one way street if you spend the money, but even so someone I know moved to Yorkshire from outer London and was almost a millionaire.
London is a special case. We've been looking far up north, but the more desirable areas in eg Northumberland are almost as expensive as where we are currently, and by the time you've paid the various stamp duty, legal and removal and other costs there's not much in it.
 
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robjh

Legendary Member
Terraced house in Narborough in 1980 for £12,000, sold my half when we split and made back everything I'd paid out on the mortgage. It's worth a quarter of a million now.
Ours was a terraced house in Narborough at the end of 1987, for £34500. Prices were rising fast at that time and people thought that was overpriced. It was a nice house though, and just like yours, they're now going for about £250,000 in that road.
 

robjh

Legendary Member
If you look at house prices as a multiple of average earning for the area, Oxford is the most expensive place in the UK - with Greater London second, Winchester third and Cambridge fourth. The Midlands doesn't get a look in until Lichfield at thirteenth and the North until York at eighteenth.

(Figures from the Lloyds Bank 'Affordable Cities Review' - the 2018 update is due next week I believe)
I can vouch for the fact that a move from the Midlands to Cambridge will involve either serious downsizing or up-budgeting. It was the former for us.
 

Andrew_P

In between here and there
42k in 1984 South Norwood London SE25 aged 19, Mortgage with a dodgy broker in Peckham where else! Those were the days.

I tend to do my buying at the top of markets, I had it valued in the early 90's and it was 19k or 17500k for a quick sale. We were really struggling with the high interest rates fed up with egg on toast and beans on toast and two jobs each. We loved the flat to be honest although with the price crash the area got pretty rough they were predicting SE25 to be the next Clapham when we bought it in Estate Agents language LOL.

220k in todays market or £900 a month rent. Couldn't do it today as a 19 year old, would need a combined income in the region of 60-70k and 40k deposit criminal.
 

palinurus

Velo, boulot, dodo
Location
Watford
Haven't bought first house yet. 'bought' a small flat at 140,000 in 2011 when in my 40s, plus spent a good whack getting a statutory lease extension (I did plan for that though). Subsequently discovered I prefer renting, but perhaps not on an assured shorthold tenancy agreement.
 

slowwww

Veteran
Location
Surrey
I bought a 1-bed flat in September 1988 for £64k, and such was the speed of price rises by Jan 1989 it was worth £70k+.

Sadly Jan 1989 was also the peak of the housing market, and having planned to only be in there for a year or two at most before buying a small house, I was stuck in that damn flat due to negative equity and eventually sold it nearly 8 years later for £42k!

Fortunately my luck with houses has rather improved since!
 
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HertzvanRental

HertzvanRental

Veteran
I lived in Barming up to the age of 13 (1972-1986). Maryland Drive. Were we neighbours?

As an adult, I lived in rented accommodation until I moved in with my partner, who already owned her own house. So I never actually bought my first house, just had my name added to her mortgage.
Close! Abingdon Road.
 
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