Saving for a deposit on a moving target

The biggest purchase you will probably ever make is buying your first home, but as fast as we try and save on top of paying out for rent and .... well living.... the goalposts just keep moving!



This is basically what is happening with us!  House prices move at such a fast rate I just can't keep up!  The price of a 2 bedroom FLAT down my road is £250,000.  A first-time buyer would need to save up £25,000 for that flat, and not all mortgage lenders will go up to 90% mortgage.

I often see on money-saving websites that first-time buyers are now asking their parents to put up the deposit.  Is this now the only way anyone will be able to buy?  What if their parents don't have that sort of money (like mine didn't), what if those working hard and saving hard don't have parents to call upon?  I really dislike that option on websites!

Shared Ownership Option

This is the one option that pops up on saving websites that do interest me but not without its concerns too.

The government's help-to-buy website will guide you through the steps needed to see if you qualify for this scheme, and if you are accepted you can then start to look on developers websites for new builds and apply for one.

I think this is a great scheme for those who do not have the 10 - 20% deposit but do have a smaller percentage.  This is actually a great way to get on the property ladder.  You will own a % of the build and over time can purchase more from the developer.

As you will be renting a part of your home I don't know if you'd be able to restructure and decorate as freely as you may like (or as I'd like, some days I long to tear a wall down).  I'm guessing not!

Often the homes are purchased off plans, this does worry me as you are purchasing your most expensive item and you haven't even seen it!  What if the house is too small?  What if there is a small garden with 6 houses overlooking yours, what's in the house, what's not in the house, what if the house isn't quite built correctly?

I have no idea of the answers but can only speak from experience that we were sent plans for a build a couple of miles up the road from where we are now.  I read the plans and got my tape measure out and it turned out that 2 of the rooms were smaller than the other houses due to it being the corner house in an L-shaped block.

The house build was the first of 4 stages, and on looking at the plans the back garden did indeed have 6 houses backing onto it and overseeing it - does this make me sound ungrateful or fussy?  Maybe but it's important to me, we are going to settle down here for a long time, I need to know I'm going to be happy here.

What if there is something wrong with the build?  Well, I won't know until the mortgage has gone through and we move in as that is when the build would be finished, all I can think of is to ask the developers if they are using a reputable building insurance company that will cover them for any structural damage and will do in years to come once we've moved in!

I don't have the answers to how to save for a deposit.  I can only go on my experience, and as such we are saving but maybe not as fast as the houses are rising and I'm regularly reviewing the Help to Buy website which has the most new builds.

Which comes first, who knows, but I can't wait to get a place I can put our own stamp on, to put my interior design course to its test and of course give it its own geeky stamp.