How mum-to-be saved up to buy £350,000 three-bedroom London flat in four years
Vicki Shannon, 29, bought a flat with husband Pete two years ago - but she had to give up on the idea of owning in central London
A MUM-to-be has revealed how she got on to the property ladder in London in her 20s - but it took her four years to save enough for the deposit.
This week in the My First Home series, we spoke to Vicki Shannon, 29, from London, who managed to get her foot on the property ladder when she was 27, even though she never believed her dream would be a reality.
And she's not alone because one in ten potential first-time buyers have given up on the idea of ever owning their own home, according to .
But the health-visitor defied the odds and bought a three-bed flat in zone 4 with her husband, Peter, for £350,000, two years ago without any help from the bank of mum and dad.
Now, she's expecting twins, and says that even though she bought at a "bad time" she has no regrets.
When did you buy your first property and what's it like?
We live in three-bed flat in Thornton Heath, which we bought two years ago.
You've probably never heard of Thornton Heath. It's in London still, but out of it a bit - it's not far from Crystal Palace.
It's nothing fancy but both me and my husband can cycle to work. I'm claiming that it's up and coming!
The flat is on the ground floor in an old converted Victorian House. Developers split it into three flats when the last people left and we've got the one with the garden.
We've changed one of the bedrooms into a second living room for now.
How much did you pay for it?
The flat cost us £350,000 and we put down a 10 per cent deposit for the mortgage, which was £35,000.
Our mortgage will take 30 years to pay off though which isn't great but I think that's standard isn't it?
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The property market seems pretty bleak at the moment for first-time buyers. How did you do it?
Honestly, I'd given up hope over ever owning my own home, let alone in London.
We'd both moved here for work but we thought we'd never be in high paying jobs and my parents couldn't help us out so it was only ever a dream really.
We met in our first week of term at Manchester Uni about 12 years ago but when we graduated, I moved in with friends and rented while Pete moved home with his parents while he finished his architecture studies.
For my age I was earning quite a good wage as a midwife but I wanted to live with my two mates so stuck to their budgets.
We rented a scabby place in Shepherd's Bush for about £500 each, while our other friends were paying £700-£800. It was great. I absolutely loved it!
It meant I could tuck away a bit of money every month but I never thought that it would ever be enough to put towards my own place.
We got married when I was 24 and Pete was 26 and rented a one-bed flat in Battersea for about £1,300, but every year the landlord kept putting the rent up.
At the time, a one-bed flat was going for around £700,000. Are you joking? There's no way we'd ever have that kind of money.
But we kept tucking money away and I started to look in areas I'd never heard of, like Thornton Heath which meant the house prices were lower.
That's when I realised that it might actually be possible.
Ironically, our mortgage is now £150 less every month that what we were paying in rent.
How did you manage to save in the end?
I never thought owning a property was a reality and I didn't want to look back on my time in London and think I never did anything.
I was earning about £1,800 a month and we both tucked away £500 to £600 each into an ISA. We aimed for £1,000 a month together.
One of the things that helped was that we both had savings accounts and watched them go up and then thinking this is doable.
Saving with someone worked for me too because I found it easier to say no to something when there’s two of you!
We started to cycle instead of getting public transport - we even rode our bikes to friend's houses for parties and changed when we got there.
That saved us a few hundred pounds a month easily. Of course we did the normal things too like taking packed lunches and meal planning.
We started shopping online too because it's easier to compare prices.
We did spend some of the cash on our wedding but realistically it took us about four years to save, including some of the money left over from the do.
Did you get any help to buy it?
We bought at a really bad time actually because we had to pay stamp duty and then the Brexit vote happened which seemed to have an effect on house prices.
We didn’t get any help from any schemes either.
We did look into shared ownership but I found it quite overwhelming and I didn’t want to share half of a flat, whether they're over priced or not.
How did it feel when you finally got the keys to your own place?
It sounds so corny but it's a dream come true because we really didn't think it would ever happen.
And now we're expecting twins too. We're not looking to move anytime soon, I think we'll be staying here for a while.
It's an old house. Did you have to do any work on it?
Because the flat was converted just before we moved in it meant that the boiler and other fixtures were already sorted.
We really didn't have to do too much to it, except make it more to our tastes like painting walls which didn't cost that much.
We changed the floor and the carpets and re-tiled a few things too.
Do you have any advice for other first-time buyers?
I'd really recommend getting a mortgage adviser. We paid £200 for ours and it was so worth having and I really trusted him.
Looking back, I wish somebody explained to me that buying a house isn't as scary as it sounds.
You hear the words stamp duty and mortgage and it sounds so overwhelming and confusing but it's not as bad as you think and speaking to the professionals seriously helped.
What help is out there for first-time buyers?
GETTING on the property ladder can feel like a grim task but there are schemes out there to help first-time buyers own their own home.
Help to Buy ISA - It's a tax-free savings account where for every £200 you save, the government will add an extra £50. But there's a maximum limit of £3,000 which is paid to your solicitor when you move.
Help to Buy equity loan - The government will lend you up to 20 per cent of the home's value - or 40 per cent in London - after you've put down a five per cent deposit. The loan is on top of a normal mortgage but it can only be used to buy a new build property.
Lifetime ISA - Another government scheme that gives anyone aged 18 to 39 the chance to save tax-free and get a bonus of up to £32,000 towards your first home. You can save up to £4,000 a year and the government will add 25 per cent on top.
Shared ownership - Co-owning with a housing association means you can buy a part of the property and pay rent on the remaining amount. You can buy anything from 25 to 75 per cent of the property but you're restricted to specific ones.
"First dibs" in London - London Mayor Sadiq Khan is working on a scheme that will restrict sales of all new-build homes in the capital up to £350,000 to UK buyers for three months before any overseas marketing can take place.
Starter Home Initiative - A government scheme that will see 200,000 new-build homes in England to be sold to first-time buyers with a 20 per cent discount by 2020. To receive updates on the progress of these homes you can register your interest .
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