[Cherie]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

OK so keep the car in the equation; if I removed my rent, utilities alone that's £800 a month, which means I could save up a £10k deposit in just over a year. I could also quite feasibly save another £50 a week (IF I didn't have kids) without really feeling it too much. How is that not "keeping it real"? Again I think you need to look properly at the graph, it's from your own telegraph link, and quite clearly shows that house prices related to income in MOST of the UK hasn't actually changed much at all since the 80's. It's only the London bubble where there is a real crisis in terms of the cost of property. Property prices across the rest of the UK aren't really the major problem. Increasing rent, increasing utilities ARE a problem because "being real" most adults CANNOT live with family, and therefore a huge chunk of their take home income goes on those things. Also, social housing stock is obviously a problem. Basically, the private rentals market and the council housing stock are ****ed. For those looking to [i]buy[/i], things are actually not that bad at all outside of that London bubble.

We looked in Norwich to buy a flat for our son as he is studying there and likes the City, he could have got a studio for 70,000 ish or a one bed for 110,000 over a 25 year mortgage would be less than the rent he would pay to a landlord, still thinking about it... need to take a deep breath and close my eyes to do it though