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How old were you when you bought your first home?

29 December, 2015

For many looking to buy nowadays it feels a world away, but once upon a time buying your first home wasn't the extravagantly priced procedure it is now!

So, how old were you when you bought your first home? Tell us below!

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Comments (119)

Tess Wijy
19
3 April, 2016
PRO
Linda
27 - 3 bed end terrace house in slough
3 April, 2016
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Yes, but it also take a special kind of arrogance to override an architect's vision for a particular development. For example, my parents' housing estate was designed with no garden walls at the front so that the houses would seem as if they are almost in a park and there would be an expanse of green all the way along the roads. Then a few territorial types took it into their heads to build piddly little garden walls so now the road is a hodge podge of some green with a few silly walls around some gardens. There is no design consensus so the street doesn't look as good as it could look. Anarchy in design doesn't usually work. Usually it looks better when one person makes the design decisions and one, cohesive vision is expressed. For example, would you employ a different interior decorator with wildly different styles for each room in your house? It might work, but there's a greater chance it will look like the hodge-podge that it is. Would you have one dress designer make your whole dress or would you ask for pockets and collar to be cut by someone else? In some cases, a good result can come of an individual resident on a street making their own strong statement with the exterior of their house (we're not talking about subtleties such as colour of doors etc), but they are definitely the exceptions that prove the rule. I can think of many examples of tasteless 'improvements' made by individual residents to their properties (e.g. the one pictured above, frankly) and only a few good ones.
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sianember - Love the mirrors! They bring back happy memories. I have a business 'upcycling' furniture - although I've been doing it for over 20 years now and recycling was hardly a thing, let alone upcycling, in those days :D - but I started out selling mirrors on Greenwich market. A friend and I would find old mirrors in junk shops (this was in the halcyon days when every high street had at least one, sadly they are few and far between now) and we would 'pimp' them and sell them. We were particularly fond of using shells as they were free, meant we got to spend a day at the seaside and we could use the children to collect them!
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Roxane Romero
50. Bought 3 bed semi in Wimbledon. Needed £300k to get in and make it liveable. Given it is a 25 year mortgage, I will be working until I am 75 if I expect to ever own it outright.. Took forever to get that kind of cash together with student loans and dealing with layoffs taking up all savings. I guess this is what is in store for our young people today.
3 April, 2016
Kailani Knight
32, we complete on friday! Couldn't have done it without the help of our generous parents and a lot of saving!!
3 April, 2016
Adrienne Shaw
21 - a new build by RB near Manchester in 1981. Total lack of character lol
I'm now in a 1930s home where I'm trying for an art nouveau inspired home but keeping it relatively authentic - I think I'm just confused but happy
3 April, 2016
k11agl
30, thanks to an economy crisis at the time
3 April, 2016
Rachel Oakes
20, just before house prices went crazy. We bought a modern 1990's 3 bed house. Bought for £40k and sold for £136k. If we hadn't bought so young, we would never have been able to afford our current 1930s 4 bed; a nice house in a decent area. Feel so sorry for friends who bought their first home later on and who are now in negative equity in rubbish areas. We still have around £80k in equity in this house.
4 April, 2016last modified: 4 April, 2016
Tsara Taylor
22, in 2003. 2 bed terrace with a cellar that I later converted.

Getting on the property ladder is still doable if you're careful in choices, I am not from a well off family and have worked since a paper round at 13. Now own a 2 bed garden flat in London...can only dream of a house here at the mo' but extension plans underway so fingers crossed it's next step!!
9 July, 2016
shari39
23........with a 100% mortgage. Makes you feel quite old!
9 July, 2016
PRO
ownessence
Wow times were sure easier in the 70's and 80's. 34 and still renting:(.
9 July, 2016
clwyd
Bought our first home at 21 years old. It was £5,300!! A largish 3 up 3 down!
7 August, 2016
Irene Spinks
27. We bought a small terraced house for £21,000 our parents thought we were mad to pay that much for a terrace, we had to scrape together a deposit and bought it with an endowment mortgage. We sold it 2 years later for £40,000. The endowment was never worth the paper it was printed on thank goodness they don't do them now.
7 August, 2016
sanbak
18, 1981 one of the first Equity Sharing deals - worked brilliantly for us.
7 August, 2016
Sara Foster
23 in 1997.
7 August, 2016
dancespin
23 years old in 1985-2 bed maisonette flat in East London. Sold it before the property crash. Best decision ever. My 23 and 25 year old still living at home!
7 August, 2016
Louise
24, bought a two bed flat in London (thanks to 100% mortgages in 2006) have moved three times since then but we are absolutely in our forever home (until we retire and move out of London!)
7 August, 2016
Dundrum 16
I was 25 - bought a 2 bed terrace for £6850. Sold 2 years later for £15,000... My daughter (with my help) bought her flat in Glasgow at 20 in 2011.
7 August, 2016
Karen Mason
25
7 August, 2016
PRO
AlenaCDesign
29!
7 August, 2016
verdigrisjane
21 in 1974. We bought a 2 bedroom flat in north London for £9,750.
7 August, 2016
Doe Stewart
21 in 1974, bought a 3 bedroom terraced house on the Wirral for £6750 !!
8 August, 2016
herbie19730
22yrs old mid 90's 2 bed house £59950 moved 18mths later to a 3 bed detached £79000
8 August, 2016
Roger Ramsgate
25... 10 years on and still not broken even putting it on the market this month. Was probably the worse decision i ever made
8 August, 2016
Louise
19 in 1983 - two-up, two down Victorian semi Suffolk/Essex border, cost £22.5k. Sold 3 years later for £46k.
8 August, 2016
Tess Wijy
bought mine in 1993 in Edgware 52000, sold 3 years later 130000 not bad at all!
9 August, 2016
rona7770
24 - one bed £36.5k in Watford 100% mortgage sold 18 months later moved to two bed Hendon 80k moved after 5 years £100k Woodford
19 August, 2016
angelavdavis
27. 3 bed semi in North London for £92k.
21 August, 2016
louisecampbell09
I was 23 (19 years ago) and now my monthly council tax bill is the same as my mortgage!
22 August, 2016
Geoff Lewis
19. £52,000 end terrace ex-council. Sold 2 years later for 92K. Bought at 103K sold 7 years later.... 103K! FYI 1st house was about 8 x income. Mortgage was about 5 x income.
13 September, 2016
clairef09
I've just bought my first house at 25. A 3 bedroom bungalow with a sea view :)
14 October, 2016
Daisy England
I was 20 and the house cost a small fortune of £5,500. It was a lot of money in 1974.
14 October, 2016
Vickie Bracken
21-straight after I graduated from uni as I worked hard throughout saved my student loan to use as a deposit.
15 October, 2016
hrhjoie4
25 - Early '80's. Terraced house, paid 11K. Was made redundant late 90's paid off the Mortgage. It has been totally renovated throughout. Lovely house, beautifully decorated; still have it today, wouldn't part with it.
15 October, 2016last modified: 15 October, 2016
Sandra
19 when I married in 1973 a new semi at a Very Expensive £7400
16 October, 2016last modified: 16 October, 2016
PRO
Adaliza
23 - a Victorian cottage in Winchester, bought for £22,500 in Winchester in 1983. It was on the market recently for £400,000. Fortunately we managed to move up the chain a couple more times in Winchester, to our present home. We wish our kids could afford to make property investments themselves instead of just paying rent.
1 November, 2016
Lucy Mackie
23, 5 yrs ago we bought a 2 bed semi in SE London, luckily we bought at the right time and were able to up size to a 4 bed semi in a nicer part of the same area 4.5 years later.
Both times we've had to buy places that need a total refurbishment, stressful but at least you get to pick everything brand new!
1 November, 2016
liafruit
35, in London, 2007. Smallish yet gorgeous, held its value all through the 2008 crash, then soared again - nuts really. 8 years later it enabled me to buy a 4 bed semi-D Victorian house in Dublin! Refurbished almost entirely from salvage, by my own hand. Loving it even more than the last place :)
30 November, 2016
hortonhearsawho2013
23 in 2008. 4 bed detatched that needed total refurb!
30 November, 2016
amandajones0510
32
30 November, 2016
PRO
fiftypointeight Architecture + Interiors
19
30 November, 2016
aoibheann1
Just before getting married, I was 23 and he was 26.
30 November, 2016
PRO
Peden & Pringle Ltd
27
30 November, 2016
Kelly Dowd
we were 19 when we bought it and 20 when we moved in.
30 November, 2016
Heather Toal
25. A new build garden flat. Sold it on less than 4 years later for more than double the price originally paid. Obviously this was pre 'economic downturn'.
30 November, 2016
K Fitz
Just turned when 23 signing contracts and finally completed 18 months later (new build). Finished self build of 3rd and hopefully last home at 37.
30 November, 2016
Claire Robertson
I was 24 and my husband to be 32, back in 1978, we paid £19,500 for a 3 bed terrace in south London. Our eldest son bought in 2001 when he was 19 and on a small Royal Navy salary whist at university, sadly he sold it to pay for his wedding and hasn't got back on the ladder since. Our middle son bought aged 23 and our daughter with her then boyfriend bought their first flat at 21 and 22 straight from university in 2008 with one of the last 100% mortgages, they move next week into their third property aged 29 & 30. It's always difficult to get on the ladder but the sooner you start the better. We all live in Surrey by the way and nobody has been funded by the bank of mum and dad.
30 November, 2016
Marych O'Sullivan-Sanford
63! We moved in just three months ago and are having our House Warming on Sunday. So far 70 people have accepted. We intend to celebrate our socks off!
30 November, 2016
acew1234
28.... A year before the 14.5% interest rate in 1989.... Interesting times!
30 November, 2016
Steve Smith
22 days before market collapse on 2008 whilst at uni struggled for 3 years on a fixed rate. now much more financially stable and looking to move up property leader on 2017
1 December, 2016
westcorkfarmhouse
28 - it was in 1998, about 6 months before we got married, a small 2 bed cottage in Dublin 7.
1 December, 2016

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