Buying a House in London for the Average Londoner

How feasible is buying a place in London for the average Londoner? How helpful ARE Help to Buy, Shared Ownership, and more? Let's find out!
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If you're new to my channel and videos, hi! I'm Evan Edinger, and I make weekly "comedy" videos every Sunday evening. As an American living in London I love noticing the funny differences between the cultures and one of my most popular video series is my British VS American one. I'm also known for making terrible puns so sorry in advance. Hope to see you around, and I'll see you next Sunday! :)
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[@adiuntesserande6893]

So what you're telling me is that the affordable part of London is called Lancashire. Got it.

[@evan]

Haha

[@jackmackenzie6721]

Move north-west, nowt else

[@ThePirateParrot]

hey thats not on the east coast mainline! haven't you heard of the lovely london commuter towns of retford, newark and grantham.....

[@TheAnon03]

Pretty much. we're looking around there and Yorkshire

[@damianleah6744]

Lol excellent 🤣

[@JustAnotherPerson4U]

Welcome to a man who has mastered the british art of passive-aggressively calling out their terrible landlord.

[@JoeChristian02]

He’s truely one of us now honestly

[@dlawn19]

I saw it as a result of his growing up in New Jersey where I also grew up!

[@covfefe1787]

@@bazza5699 its starting to affect him he starting to speak with accent on certain words now.

[@elliothunter2579]

Being single is a massive issue, regardless of where you live in the UK - essentially you have to halve your affordibility before you even start looking. Where I am, this isn't *too* hideous, but i'm still talking 3-4 times my annual salary (which isn't exactly minimum wage, either), to buy a decent place. "Single Tax" is real lol!

[@beep6185]

In my area, most jobs are minimum wage or close to, big rural area, they can get away with paying nothing. And the known "comfortable wage" is double minimum wage at full time, it's basically like "unless you earn the same as 2 people, being single is bad"

[@EloiseEighteen]

I bought with my brother to make it possible. Obviously not everyone wants to live with a sibling/ friend but it has worked well for us so far (with a plan, clarity about who owns what, spreadsheets etc!)

[@katyferenczy-dakin]

This is totally a problem, I would never have been able to buy if me and my husband weren't buying together and so doubling what mortgage we could get

[@zera9579]

if you've got parents that are willing look into joint borrower sole proprietor mortgage's. I actually put my dad on the mortage a few years ago before these came out so I was stung by double stamp duty but without it i'd still be renting.

[@lunalaws]

Definitely true. Being late 30s and living at home is not something I envisioned but job I hate at 32 hours on barely above minimum wage in commuter distance of London. New local council housing is £198 a week rent for 3 bed and being taken by people from Watford and Londoners. Local flats at 45k plus need payment as cash in full and some renovation. I could use right to buy my parents house but that's another minefield. If I inherit from a relative then I would have larger deposit but technically no longer a first time buyer anymore as property would become mine/shared between others before being sold. I love watching house auctions on TV but need to know a builder for that. Work colleague bought with her brother, another had a good financial advisor who bought a place at auction for 50k in Yorkshire for them to rent out. Rather stay at home and save than share a house at half my wages. On minimum wage the council said I earn enough to rent privately so not eligible for social housing and now I have more than 16k savings.

[@WhichDoctor1]

The fact these schemes only apply to newbuilds suggests that this is simply a way of funnelling taxpayers money into the pockets of housebuilders. If they cared about people owning homes then the schemes would be open to any home within the price range.

[@Phiyedough]

Yes, like everything the Tories do, these schemes will mainly be set up to benefit their cronies.

[@johntom5049]

It's actually a program to keep people in building related trades employed, the scheme is designed to increase the sale of new builds at the expense of older properties. Those new builds have to be built by someone, so if new builds are cheaper it increases the volume sold, than people have to be employed to build them, in large part it's a government subsidize jobs program. It's also a program designed to increase economic activity in the country, the criticism of austerity was that the government should of done the opposite and increased spending instead of cutting spending, to increase economic activity in the economy.

[@eattherich9215]

@@Phiyedough: '... so if new builds are cheaper ...'. Except that they are not cheaper than older homes, both in terms of price and 'running costs'. New builds are hastily built and plagued with shoddy work, which come to light sooner or later. I have lived in Edwardian conversions and if I knew then what I know now, I would have continued buying this type of property.

[@joycemcaree5888]

You can use it for any property up here in Scotland

[@andrelee7081]

After becoming a subject of the Queen, Evan seems to have accelerated his descent into actually being British. And Im here for it lol

[@e1c129]

Awww damn when he was talking about the "go back in time scheme" I was like shit that sounds perfect! Then I realised he was being sarcastic. He outbritished me.

[@evan]

Hahaha

[@allykat100]

Hi Evan, shared ownership london owner here just wanted to clarify some of your points -shared ownership resale properties do exist so you don't need to buy a new build, in fact I would advise u don't buy a new build, I didn't - shared ownership mortgages which means u don't have to fulfil the same criteria as a normal mortgage, with my mortgage and rent combined are still significantly cheaper than if I had to rent in the same area

[@hannahbee567]

the idea of having to pic a new build stressed me out. thanks for the heads up 👍

[@Rosiepedia]

Same here, but do be careful about who the owner of your property is. The joys of being an L&Q tenant and a home owner are definitely not numerous…

[@eattherich9215]

@@Rosiepedia: 'The joys of being an L&Q tenant and a home owner are definitely not numerous…'. You are in my prayers.

[@danielaltmann1308]

The Quality was on 720p for a few seconds and looked like it was 8K. Jesus big time now with these Edits. Thanks Evan for the last 6 years with me being with you all the time every Sunday.

[@hedgehog_1086]

This is so terrifying I think I'll go live in the woods

[@matthewsimpson9490]

Hello and welcome to a guy trying to explain the broken and overly confusing UK financing schemes

[@eattherich9215]

Evan did it very well. The man is part angry polemic and part comedian.

[@JivanPal]

4:30 - Correction and more info: for a property valued at £500,001, the Stamp Duty is £12,500, not £15,000. (Well, really, it's £12,500.20, but they round it down.) The reasoning for the sudden jump is that first-time buyers get a Stamp Duty discount, but only if the property is valued at £500,000 or less, since the expectation is that first-time buyers won't be interested in properties more expensive than that, and/or that a first-time buyer acquiring such a property is rich and should be taxed as such. For someone who isn't a first-time buyer, the Stamp Duty on a £500,000 property is £12,500, and for a £500,001 property is £12,500.20 (but again, that's just rounded down to £12,500).

[@cpmahon]

Welcome to British problems, you're truly one of us now! On a serious note, there really does need to be a complete change of direction so that prices aren't kept artificially high. As a nation we are storing up major issues for the future if things aren't changed soon.

[@ChillEllenChill]

Yup, but our economy is so reliant on the housing market they'll never let it stall out or drop. And annoyingly for everyone the stamp duty holiday just made a load of properties sell earlier than they should and pushed the prices up by 10% because of the sudden artificial demand!

[@nicktrains2234]

Prices will always be high because many people want to live in Britain, far more than we have houses, and building more houses means destroying the environment, which is also a problem

[@04nbod]

Absolutely, it's a ticking time bomb. Prices can't come down because you put millions of people in negative equity. But if young people never buy, when they retire the tax payer will need to pay their rent on Housing benefit. The state pension doesn't cover rent.

[@eattherich9215]

People keep talking about the housing bubble going pop, but the government is never going to let a 2008-style crash happen.

[@KB42moomoo]

I love following youtubers my own age for years, to the point where they make videos about buying houses at the same time as i'm working on that for myself! we've come so far!

[@TopMarcus99]

I remember when I bought my house in west London for £200K in 2008 I paid £20K deposit. My mortgage is now £838 a month but when you include insurance it’s about £1000. I don’t like new builds and the shared ownership/schemes they trap you in contracts as there more like leasehold than freehold. The housing market doesn’t help young people trying to get on the property ladder nowadays!

[@callumdl2703]

You didn't mention LISAs... They're good for saving for and increasing your deposit!

[@ultraevilvampiregirl]

i kept waiting for him to mention LISAs but he never did! out of all the schemes, it's the only one that can really feasibly help anyone get on the housing ladder, but no one seems to know about them!

[@kirstyphilp664]

The idea of LISAs sounds good but I want to know why don’t most high street banks do them

[@craig19]

@@kirstyphilp664 I believe the main reason why not a lot of banks offer LISAs is because they’re not very profitable for the bank. However this shouldn’t put you off them because almost all cash LISA accounts are FSCS protected, meaning if the bank goes bust the government would compensate you (but importantly FSCS doesn’t cover any losses from a stocks & shares LISA, because you are accepting the risk in hope for a bigger reward)

[@oliverfairgrieve1480]

LISAs really should have been mentioned in this video, probably the best savings vehicle for getting a house that doesn't come with any catch further down the line. Also way better than the former Help to Buy ISAs.

[@jminsh463]

@@kirstyphilp664 Skipton building society do but they only have a few physical banks I know of.

[@spazzohawk9591]

With your job couldn’t you live outside the city and just take transport to the city when you want to hang with friends

[@HonestWatchReviewsHWR]

This is exactly what I was thinking too. You could save yourself a fortune.

[@littlehellkitten9682]

Transport, that’s why. Hardly anyone can be arsed to travel to see some friends just because of the river divide.

[@sharxx112]

'outside the city' could mean hours away from the parts of london he wants to be in

[@camdened123456]

Time and cost are the two main things. For evan it might work but for a normal person pre covid the cost of a season ticket can be really high (4, maybe 5 figures a year)

[@lynnhamps7052]

The issue with this, which I have found by experience, is that once you leave London 'proper' it is really difficult to move back onto the property market there again if you wanted to, you simply get priced out.

[@arrgghh1555]

Why do you find everything is too expensive? Because you're competing against couples with 2 incomes.

[@Serenity_yt]

Yeah add a few kids on that single income and you are pretty much screwed without the possibility of inheriting a property from somewhere. Or even finding an affordable flat anywhere near your target region. (And I live in rural Germany property prices are quite tame here in comparison to even just cities)

[@clsisman]

Not just that though! The median salary for Londoners is £33,280, which is a take-home of roughly £26,324.28 a year while the cost of living is VERY high: I was living very cheaply in a house share until recently and still spending roughly £22,000 a year on just rent, bills, travel (to work), food, etc. Let's say you never went on holiday or went out for a drink or visited your parents or did anything, and you were in a couple, the most you'd be able to save is £8,650 per year. More realisticly it'd be £7,500, and that's still without holidays or any luxuries renting a couples room in a house share. Tiny studio flats in London start at £350k and for a deposit you'd need 35k absolute minimum if you take advantage of all the schemes, more likely you'd need closer to 70k. Not to mention most young people looking to buy their first place are not earning a median sallary! That's why people say it's too expensive: it's not the money, it's the 10-15 years of never going on holiday or having a car or a pet or a child, never being able to go to the theatre and rarely able to go out to dinner. It costs time!

[@samanthaanne2212]

I did help to buy and finally completed in March and it took me 6 months from offer accepted. It was the most stressful thing ever! But it was so worth it!!

[@themartinebunny]

London is losing all of its communities. I was born and raised in London. Nearly everyone I grew up with has been priced out of London now. It's quite sad. There needs to be scheme to help people who just want to continue to live in the place their families have lived for generations. That said, I do quite like living by the seaside now. I just feel down about not really having a choice in the matter.

[@eattherich9215]

Even local authorities are exporting their tenants out of the borough. If you don't take up the offer, you are deemed to have made yourself intentionally homeless. 😡

[@greenvector]

Exactly my situation and feelings on the matter

[@NatalieAbb]

When you mentioned houses basically being handed out in the North it made me giggle because I own a 3 bedroom house in West Yorkshire and it cost £64000 :)

[@bloosy1771]

Where in West Yorkshire?! I'm in Leeds (not central Leeds, I should add) and for anything sort of nice it's £120k+. Still much better than the half a mil houses cost down south...

[@dannycostello]

I'm looking around Wakefield and Leeds and 64k is cheap as hell you buy that 10yrs ago something? Lol

[@arturdobrzynski6531]

Wow, down south I wouldn't be able to buy a garden shed for this kind of money. £350k for 3 bed.

[@jminsh463]

But wages are like tuppence 😄

[@MichaelNealeYT]

I really hate the housing situation in the UK. I used to live near London, but moved an hour north and bought our first house for less than half what it would cost in my home town which is crazy because I'm now living in one of the biggest towns in the UK instead of a dead end town that only has cafes and restaurants.

[@melodiousramblings8470]

Hello everyone and welcome back to a man giving american energy to british problems.

[@thebugbear9198]

Non

[@melodiousramblings8470]

@@thebugbear9198 pourquoi pas?

[@creativedesignation7880]

To be fair, the British themselves have been introducing a lot of American energy into their problems in the last couple years.

[@thebugbear9198]

@@melodiousramblings8470 c'etait ne marrant pas, a mon avis

[@melodiousramblings8470]

@@thebugbear9198 ah, c’est bien

[@lynnhamps7052]

Three observations..1) Full of passionate, informative content. 2) Visual clarity, WOW, amazing! 3) Evan needs a haircut...lol :) Having lived in London between 1982 and 2001, I can't believe the ridiculous property prices, in 1992 we bought a Victorian terrace house in the London Fields area of Hackney for £82,000, we sold in 2001 for £950,000, it has recently changed hands again for £1.5m! How can anyone afford that for an 'ordinary' house? ..Mind you, I wish we'd had a crystal ball back then and bought two...lol

[@LaraGemini]

I would have loved a Crystal Ball. We were looking around Bow in 1993, our Budget was £45k, so could only get a 1/2 bedroom basement flat. We wanted a house, so bought a 2 bed in Barking. Right decision for us at the time, but not in hindsight. Our friends borrowed a big deposit from their families and bought a 2 bed in Bow for about 70k, which doubled in less than 5 years. I do worry how my Gen Z Children will ever afford anything.

[@lynnhamps7052]

@@LaraGemini Hindsight is definitely a wonderful thing...both my sons ended up leaving London, they both served in the RAF and when they left just found the house prices beyond them, one ended up in Surrey, admittedly another expensive area but he built up to it by flipping flats in cheaper places like Portsmouth, and the other moved to the Isle of Wight where I reside....there are still some London gems to be found needing 'doing up' as elderly residents pass on but it has to come to a stop sometime...hope your kids find their way .. :)

[@pseminario4279]

Makes me want to cry! I moved to London in 2010 and I always say that I arrived 30 years late... should've bought when I was not even born! The prices and schemes are crazy, so discouraging"

[@eattherich9215]

Us oldsters have benefitted from the exponential rise in property prices. If only I had stayed in my first floor two bed Edwardian conversion in Brockley, but what did that 20-something know about anything.

[@channul4887]

@@lynnhamps7052 "by flipping flats in cheaper places like Portsmouth" The irony of people's outrage mixed with their pride that their children were able to make it by gentrifying "cheaper places" shouldn't be lost on anyone... In fact, it's priceless.

[@ChillEllenChill]

I'm buying at the moment in Surrey, where you get the crazy high prices without the London boosts for schemes. It's a truly horrendous system. One small good thing - First Time Buyers still don't pay Stamp Duty on the value up to £300k, then you pay 5% for £300k to £500k. So painful, but not as painful. Good luck on your search, hope you get there in the end!

[@Nicholas.Tsagkos]

But now you have to pay stamp duty again, right? A tax that was created to fund...the war? And it's still on for....what? Just to make money for the government?

[@hz4a225]

I bought my first house in greater London in 2010 when I was 27 years old on a £25k salary, and my friends thought I was crazy. I put down a 30% deposit which was money I saved (no bank of mum and dad unfortunately :( )from holding a job from when I was 16, holding 2 jobs whilst I was at university and working full time during Xmas, Easter and summer holidays. I put that money in a high interest ISA so the money can grow. I also made sacrifices in my spending when I found a full time Job after graduating, spending only on necessities and no holidays for a number of years. Playing the Long game (no pain no gain) for the bigger reward was well worth it and I bought another property in greater London a few years ago through saving a portion of my salary every month. Though my salary has increased over the years, I worked hard to move up the career ladder to support myself and my family financially to put more money aside for another house. Keeping positive, hard work and not giving up is the key and I wish good luck to any first time buyer out there.

[@eattherich9215]

I bought my first property in the 80's with a 100% mortgage. The interest rates were eye-watering but over the years, I benefitted from the exponential rise in property prices until I am now mortgage free with a two bed maisonette an approx 20 minute train ride to the London terminals. It's a different world and I feel sorry for those that have come after me.

[@anne501s66]

I'm 43 seconds in and am blown away by the clarity of the video quality. You're popping out of the screen like one of those magic eye images. 🙂👍🏾

[@evan]

Thanks!

[@vickymc9695]

They're called white goods because fridges, freezers, washing machines, tumble dryers ect normally come in white.

[@elizabethgrosvenor153]

And tvs, stereos, computers, games consoles, dvd players, etc, are -- or at least used to be -- black. Hence the term 'black goods' for those things.

[@nicolassamanez6590]

fun fact: they're called "white line" products in spanish too

[@laurengrant1904]

No shit Sherlock

[@sharonjay3841]

really love this type of content, so helpful to know. love that I can come to this channel for laughs AND life advice

[@Lee-70ish]

Never mind about the average Londoner Evan , most Brits cant afford a London pad specially as they dont get London waiting and their wages tend to be lower.

[@Kay-ly3hb]

The next video: Evan gets sued by his landlord for slander 😂

[@sarahkendall5714]

I am trying to get on the property ladder as a single woman just outside of London and working in Cambridge and it is absolute hell. Don't even bother buying in Cambridge, even a studio flat is about £200k and often reserved for those renting the property out to students, the rest of the properties are Shared Ownership which are ridiculous scams in my opinion. Mortgage brokers are not all that helpful either with some not even bothering to help you unless you earn more than £36k. What's worse is that because I am single it sometimes feels like the world is trying to push you into a relationship of convenience just so that you have a roof over your head! In conclusion, I would like to "speak" to the person who came up with the idea of Buy to Let mortgages and perhaps introduce them to the guillotine.

[@leoniicliffexx]

New homeowner here 👋 Just to add to that help to buy scheme, after the 5 interest free years you have to pay back the 20/40%, but you have to pay back 20/40% of your property at that time. Not the 20/40% when you originally bought the house. So if your house doubles in value you got to pay a lot more back and with interest. If anyone uses this scheme, after 5 years speak to your financial advisor and remortgage to avoid help to buy interest

[@airpoint9715]

Absolutely false lol

[@steanthony6219]

My fiancée is from Hampshire, I’m from the North East, and people still wonder why she moved here instead of my going down there. We have a 4 bedroom house with minimal financial stress here, where a council rented property down there costs twice as much on rent/mortgage each month.

[@theteatree2457]

I love your channel SO MUCH. I am from the US but I’ve wanted to live in London since I was five years old. I am finally about to apply for college in London as a marketing major. My end goal is to live in England permanently and get citizenship . Your videos give me so much hope that my dream can materialize. THANK YOU!

[@RedemptiveChief]

hey Evan, there is a youtuber called 'Self invested' who has done a ton of videos on buying a house in the uk. he'd be a great collab if you want to make this a series.

[@johnymudly7182]

Agreed. Would make a really amazing Collab. Even just an America vs UK on Buying houses with Self Invested would be interesting to see.

[@Silverthorne94]

Thanks for this video Evan! Over the past year I've been researching and trying to get my head around all these schemes. Trying to explain these to others is next to impossible so this video will come in handy for that! 😁 Good luck with your mortgage application!

[@blacklionvisuals8849]

Great video as someone who moved to London 6 months now I’m loving your videos very informative

[@violetskies14]

Wow glad I don't live in London lol. The help to buy scheme is actually pretty useful outside of it and my grandma bought her home that way and we're a pretty poor family.

[@kevsm]

It's really not, help to buy is nothing more than a scheme to keep the prices of new builds high and let building companies make artificially high profits dressed up as a scheme to help ordinary people.

[@pjani14]

@@kevsm Help to Buy is a money maker for the builders but there are deals to be had if you shop around and keep your eyes peeled. Due to crazy London prices nearly all those deals are outside London now but they are definitely out there. Try the growing markets in and around Leeds, Sheffield and Greater Manchester for example. Obviously if you can afford to buy outright that would most likely be the best way to go (although beware very cheap older properties because they'll be very cheap for a reason or three).

[@camdened123456]

BTW the stamp duty holiday was NOT TO HELP FIRST TIME BUYERS. It was to stop the expected reduction in demand due to Covid. Also the tax free allowance for first time buyers is much higher (300/350k, I can't remember exactly)

[@joyridgway6398]

I would never buy a house by shared ownership because it is not easy to sell the property and the other reasons you mentioned. nor would I buy a house in London. Where we used to live there were people travel to London because the houses are so much cheaper.. We sold our house in Nuneaton for 160 grand it was a 3 bed house, 3 large double bedrooms with a large garage and large garden. We've brought a 3 bed (small doubles), small garage and garden (Court yard), for 90 grand.Both houses are freehold. I would never buy a leasehold property for the reasons you mention and you have to ask for premission to sell the property. But for the price of a small flat in London you could buy a big house elsewhere. The further north you go the cheaper the house are, thought some of the bigger cities are on the dear side.

[@emiller760408]

Very interested in this topic. Thanks for doing the research!

[@RedemptiveChief]

also Evan, fellow Hounslownian here. there are a few developers in Brentford and isleworth in the next 18 months. honestly the only best strategy is too buy together with someone (which has it's own set of pros and cons) but together you have a better chance of being able to afford a mortgage in this dystopian nightmare cosmopolis. You could also buy a poperty on the pplanned route of Cross raill/the Elizabeth line. which are currently somewhat available but will sky rocket in value fairly soon.

[@cholloway0046]

HOUNSLOW MEANS HOUNSLOW!

[@rainthedaymusic]

hey Evan your pros and cons video is what first made me look into living in london and now I'm in a middle of actually moving there!! thank you for the inspiration :D

[@zwergnase1989]

Last time I visited London, I saw a sign offering parking spots for a monthly fee that's higher than my mum's entire rent. While I see the advantages living in London can have, I think there are many beautiful cities in the UK that are much more affordable.

[@Johnsmith47890]

The UK is experiencing a housing crisis. Unfortunately our generation will be the generation where owning a home will become a dream rather than a reality. Affordable housing or council housing is usually really low quality with people living in dire conditions with their homes covered in mould or the homes are made from unsafe materials. House prices are rising but incomes aren’t growing. I hope things will improve because the current situation is not looking good

[@merissamakesstuff]

Thanks for the music tip. I will keep it in mind after I start making content again. They've got some good stuff.

[@a22258461]

Wow that is great analysis thank you sos much for your time. Now I am more understanding about the buying house in London with that knowledge.

[@user-di1nt4fm3f]

a £125k mortgage shouldn't be £800 pcm. I pay about £800pcm on a mortgage in the £250k range.

[@ellietheverysmellybellybea7984]

You could buy a shed to live inside of in london and it would cost £100,000

[@evan]

Where that cheap?? Got a link?

[@lunalaws]

Moor luck with a boatshed.

[@MsLoma1212]

Thank you mate for sharing all this info👍

[@amy-jobreach7106]

This was so so helpful! I’ve been trying to understand these schemes for months😭

[@JuliePGUK]

Post covid with people realising they can work from home i can see london property prices dropping through the floor

[@TheHermesfrancisco]

Here in Brazil, we also call the fridge and other home appliances with something close to "white goods" (Pt-br: eletrodomésticos da linha branca / "white line home appliances") Probably because It is very common for its color to be white.

[@rianmilit]

Kudos for the well organized video, as always, you've looked into this in depth. I don't live in the UK, I don't plan on living in the UK and I plan even less to buy a house there, but I watched the whole video with interest, which isn't common for me, but hey, I do enjoy your style and you're funny. Oh, and you look especially adorable in that shade of yellow. As you mentioned, those schemes aren't sounding very accessible, indeed. I'm also looking into buying an apartment in my country, but the government has a more useful scheme, I think: we also need a 5% minimum deposit, plus whatever taxes there are, you get reduced VAT, and the bank you get the loan from covers all the rest of the cost, but then you end up paying monthly to the bank for the next 20-30 years, depending on your income. Oh, and the interest is reduced and controlled.

[@amberprophet]

Great video. A couple of years ago I was able to buy my flat in South London. I did it by being lucky to be able to live somewhere for 10yrs with stupidly low rent (£600 in Streatham!) So I was able to save and then using my Help to buy ISA/LISA bonus to help with the deposit. You didn't mention that but it's worth looking up.

[@silviasanchez648]

TL;DR "If you're not rich, you cannot live in London"

[@silviasanchez648]

@@dannyw9364 Oi, no...! It's not a shithole! :-S

[@opaqueentity]

And yet people do. Weird isn't it.

[@tbr7035]

@@silviasanchez648 Yes it is. Outside of a few rich areas most of London is bloody awful.

[@silviasanchez648]

@@tbr7035 Matter of preference, I suppose

[@capablancauk]

@@opaqueentity They are!

[@rikkibattle5272]

I live north of London and commute in. When me and my partner started looking we first looked at help to buy, and even though we had more than the 5% deposit we couldn’t get enough on the mortgage to cover the rest. For the Help to buy where I am they seem to add on an extra 100K. We ended up going for an existing build and got a lot more for our money and for a better quality build

[@joshuaayres8932]

Waiting for the discussion on Stamp duty tax. Thank you James Acaster

[@ChrissieSM]

Evan, you don't have to buy in London. In most parts of Surrey, you are less than 30 mins from Waterloo station and the properties are nicer and cheaper than in central London.

[@avremke24]

Aside from liking your hair at the moment, I moved to Berlin 7 years ago and I still can’t afford to buy my own home. If you can do it in London, of all places, good luck to you! ❤️

[@Amy-wv8pz]

Definitely look in Isleworth and Brentford - you can still enjoy Chiswick/Richmond for a fraction of the price!

[@andremp03]

Intermediate Rent, London Living Rent? Okay they definitely kept these schemes hidden because it's the first I've heard of them - thanks for the tip Evan!

[@evan]

Hope they help!

[@chinacetacean]

You managed to make that topic interesting! Thanks for the info

[@evan]

Glad you liked it!

[@MrSammotube]

The best way is to save up a ton of money - very helpful advice there. Unfortunately true though. Buying with a partner or friend obviously doubles your spending power. Probably the most realistic option for many. 3 of my uni mates bought a 3 bed house together and they have lived there for many happy years, while living comfortably. You have to get creative sometimes.

[@vonder7]

It only doubles if your partner earn as much as you which is not happening often. Also when you have a kid one of the partners won’t be able to work full time for sure.

[@ricardo34979]

A beautiful teardown of the true absurdity of all of these schemes, bravo 👏

[@charlestaylor3027]

We had a great landlord in Edinburgh. In 3 years he never mentioned a rent rise and every time we saw him in a pub he bought us beer. Of course early on in the tenancy we met him in a pub with his "niece". Lovely girl.

[@goosex3644]

This is great content Evan, very insightful yet entertaining!

[@evan]

Thanks!! 🙏🏻

[@goosex3644]

@@evan omg 😳 your welcome bro

[@jonathaneduardo7332]

YOU LIVE IN HOUNSLOW!!!! ME TOO!! excuse the yelling, I got excited since I started watching your channel when I moved to Hounslow!

[@meredith1313]

Thank you for using my comment 😭❤️ I’m honored! Love u Evan!

[@sophieconstant7427]

Lol that comment about Hounslow 😅 Also thnx for the London rent tip! Like I'm literally from the Whitton/Hounslow borders, lived in the same 5 square miles and have never heard of this scheme!

[@TheAsakiti]

This is super interesting!! ❤️

[@FISHGOMOO4321]

Unless you're already weathy or on an extremely high UK salary, buying in London is impossible. Just look outside of London and commute in if you have to.

[@vickypedias]

Omg you're such a star to help is with this!!

[@erin_the_extra2329]

The video quality is insane well done sir

[@evan]

Thank you! 😁

[@TheMissWin]

The housing market is broken, for buying and renting. I'm moving soon, hopefully, and renting is impossible as there are too many people and not enough properties. Each house I've applied for has had at least 10 other applicants, some without even viewing. Buying is much the same. Some people say its because people are moving out of London as they can now work from home and so can live somewhere much cheaper. It then means people with London wages are now competing with people with a lot less money. It's crazy competitive and I am going to go insane / homeless!

[@hajarhajar8906]

This guy gives a lot of positive energy

[@nodakjak]

My best mate was born and raised in Hounslow. We used to stay at a hotel in Hounslow the first times we came to London to visit. When asked at by the border person at Heathrow where we were staying and we said Hounslow, she replied "not very pretty innit".

[@BBThemes]

As a follow up, maybe deposit help schemes, like LISA etc (i have no idea what the ones currently out there are), then you`ve covered deposit and house buying schemes

[@matthewh8986]

Buying a house sounds like hell

[@georgecarroll8530]

good video. thanks

[@coleyt2]

Hey Evan/whoever else wants to buy a house. A scheme that could help is a Lifetime ISA it's very similar to the help to buy ISA from a while ago

[@sambam9120]

I live in a high rise flat in east London and it’s pretty great. I prefer it over the places I’ve lived in south and west London.

[@richwind85]

Hi Evan the Stamp duty isn't Tiered any more (it was previously) it changed to a band system like income tax a while ago. In October 2021 you buy a house for £295,000. The SDLT you owe will be calculated as follows: 0% on the first £125,000 = £0 2% on the next £125,000 = £2,500 5% on the final £45,000 = £2,250 total SDLT = £4,750 Keep up the good work really enjoy your videos!

[@martine6007]

A further point to note on shared ownership is you have to pay the legal side of things for each percentage you purchase which is the same as a 100% house purchase for each % purchase thereafter. Hopefully that makes sense.

[@julia2jules]

In 2004 I bought a flat with the workers for key services shared ownership scheme. Bought 80% with deposit plus mortgage Remaining 20% owned by builder On selling profits or losses split 80:20 I was very lucky to find that scheme as admin wasn’t a keyworker but I worked for the NHS a key service Mine also had no rent on the 20% and if you stopped working for the key service it didn’t matter. Some keyworker scheme you have to move out if no longer a keyworker! I had a mortgage promise from my bank an ten minutes after advertised I emailed my application. I was fifth application in that ten minutes. I was the first with a mortgage promise already sorted so I got the flat! Loved it, lived there ten years before moving to a new town. Sadly most schemes have some difficult terms in them. Worst was that after ten years you had to buy the remaining 50% (even if this meant selling the property)

[@patsmith4863]

We do have stamp tax in the US. If you look at old deeds, you can see the stamps. We now commonly call it transfer tax.

[@stentsx]

The idea of the help to buy equity loan scheme is that you would have your mortgage for 5 years, you will have hopefully paid off enough capital to take additional borrowing on your mortgage or remortgage to another lender to pay off either part or all of the HTB equity loan. This is referred to as staircasing. If you didn't do this, the mortgage takes into account the HTB equity loan and the mortgage would still be affordable for you after 5 years unless your circumstances have changed.

[@mahimakhurana8199]

These schemes are for people buying with a partner. I’ve had to look way outside London just so I can find a place I can buy on my own. And I earn a touch above the London average you talk about!

[@cameronjowers7]

Those maths degrees really putting in the work

[@TristanBailey]

Or you could move out of london like we did. With that go back in time feature of 17y but still not super affordable like when parents where younger

[@murtzia]

I feel your pain mate. I have a shareownership flat in East London. Good point about don't staircasing if planning to shell 👏. If you need any details of the whole process let me know I'll help if I can

[@BonitaDarcy]

It's nice to see Ireland isn't the only one with a useless help to buy scheme 👍 Oh the joys of capitalism 💕

[@MrGonzonator]

Smartest thing I ever did was jump on the housing ladder when I was only 24. It was a tiny little place but without its equity I couldn't have ever afforded the family home I now enjoy.

[@e-jthompson6322]

If you don’t mind me asking, what year was it you bought that first home?

[@ruxiist]

And where abouts in the country? Don't need the postcode, just the general area/county :)

[@MrGonzonator]

@@e-jthompson6322 2005, Scotland.

[@JoyandSerenity.]

Yeh in my area, you can get a decent three bed for like 150k-200k, with a garden and parking, and that is considered high end.

[@An19941]

Evan Editor is a genius pun

[@gizmomypet4359]

Not sure if anyone has mentioned it but with help to buy whenever you sell the property you have to pay back the % amount of the loan. So if the price of a 200000 property went up to 300000 you'd borrow 80,000 but you'd have to pay back 120,000. Also you have to pay back the loan once the mortgage term ends and you cannot pay it off in smaller monthly chunks. Last i looked it was in chunks of 10%

[@john_smith1471]

Try and buy freehold not leasehold, with leasehold you don’t own the land and have restrictions on what you can do and ground rent, so you can end up with another version of an oppressive landlord.

[@mypradasatthecleanerss]

Evan providing a real service here

[@Daisy-vv2yn]

The first video on this I've seen that I can watch to the end because we share the same levels of rage at purchasing property in London...

[@evan]

Ain’t it shit

[@JennaGetsCreative]

I know London is the expensive of expensive, but dang. My husband and I bought a 4 bedroom detached house in 2016, we're a 20-minute drive from downtown in our province's capital city, and converted to GBP the purchase price was £98k. Before that we were renting a 2 bedroom basement apartment under the landlords in their 3 bedroom main floor of a detached house, and that was £461 per month. (Newfoundland, Canada)