Couple with two kids lived off one salary to buy first home with £100k deposit – but still had to move back in with parents
JOHN Wark and his family finally got onto the property ladder last year after living off just his wife’s salary for two years – but they still had to move back in with parents to do it.
It saw the couple up-sticks from London with kids Isabel, three, and Sebastian, 12, and move in with John’s mum and dad for two years to cut down on rent and bills.
John, 33, and his wife, 37, also had to ditch luxuries including holidays, meals out, and new clothes in order to put together their deposit.
Thanks to this, they managed to save almost £2,000 a month on rent alone and they cut back another £500 a month on everyday spending.
They’d already started saving two year’s prior to the move back home and by the end it meant they’d stashed away a whopping £106,000 over just four years.
This meant that after more than a decade of renting, the couple could finally buy their own four-bedroom house in Oxfordshire for £421,000.
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They believe they’ve hit the property jackpot and now don’t plan to ever move unless they win the lottery.
We spoke to John, who works in marketing, for this week’s My First Home to find out how him and his wife bagged the home of their dreams.
What’s your new home like?
It’s a four-bedroom detached house in Oxfordshire. It has a big garden, two bathrooms and one downstairs toilet.
There’s a living room as well as one big family room.
We bought it because we don’t have to do anything to it. The previous owners did everything – it’s been done up nicely.
We literally only painted the walls in one room, and that’s because it was going to be my son’s room and he didn’t want pink walls.
How much did you pay for it and how big a deposit did you put down?
We paid £421,000 for the house and put down a 25 per cent deposit of £106,000. We then got a mortgage for the remaining £315,000.
To get the mortgage we used a mortgage broker and ended up with a NatWest home loan fixed over five years at a rate of 2 per cent.
We would’ve put less down as a deposit but the bank said the maximum it could lend us was £316,000 and we really wanted this house.
So we used more of our savings than we had planned, and put down a bigger deposit.
How did you afford to buy the place?
We started from scratch when we began saving in 2013, but we managed to save up £106,000 in just over four years.
In the two years before my daughter was born in January 2016, we saved my entire salary and just lived off my wife’s.
I was earning roughly £60,000 a year as a marketing director in London, but my wife earned less so we lived frugally.
It meant we had to cut out holidays, which we used to go on at least a couple of times a year.
We also had to ditch new clothes and eating out. It was hard initially but you get used to it.
And it wasn’t sad to do because we knew what we were saving for was worth it.
When we had Isabel my wife stopped working, so we needed to completely live off my salary.
That’s when we moved from our rented flat in Shepherd’s Bush in London to my parents’ house in Buckinghamshire for two years.
I only really did it because my dad works abroad so much, and he has a really big house. So it was almost like having your own bit of the house.
And I was also able to keep my job in London and work remotely, and just go to the city for occasional meetings.
We paid £1,980 in rent for our two-bed maisonette in London, so we managed to save all of that every month.
We also carried on with our strict budget, and continued cutting out holidays and meals out.
Plus, while living with my parents, we didn’t have to pay rent, council tax or any other bills.
We offered to pay for loads of things, but they didn’t want anything so we only really paid for food.
I guess that was their way of helping us.
Did you use any government schemes?
Yes, I’d put £4,000 into a Help to Buy Isa over two years before we bought the property.
But then the house ended up costing more than what’s allowed under the scheme, so we didn’t get the 25 per cent bonus.
If it was in London, we would’ve got it as the limit is £450,000 for a house.
But outside of London it can only be used on homes under £250,000.
I only found out I wouldn’t get the bonus when I first spoke to a solicitor about our property purchase.
It was annoying but there was nothing I could do.
We didn’t get a Lifetime Isa as that didn’t exist when I first opened a Help to Buy Isa.
How did you furnish the place?
We’d been renting unfurnished places for the previous 12 years before we bought our house.
So when we initially moved from London to my parents, we took the furniture with us and stored it in their garage.
As we moved from a two-bed flat in London to then buy a four-bed house, we had roughly half of the furniture and had to buy the rest.
We probably spent between £5,000 and £10,000 on furniture.
We used cashback website TopCashback on everything we bought to get some money back, as well as on all the bills including insurance, gas and electricity.
How did you decide on location?
When we finally bought our house, it was all based around our son Sebastian’s school.
We wanted something that was in between where we are now and where my parents were, so he wouldn’t have to move schools.
It was a longer commute while we were at my parents, but now it’s actually the local secondary school for him.
We also wanted to move out of London to provide a better quality of life for the kids.
I wouldn’t live in London again for all the money in the world.
Do you think you’ll stay there for long?
Yes, that’s why we went the extra mile on spending for the house.
We didn’t overspend but ideally when we bought it, we would’ve liked to have a pool of money left but we actually spent almost all of it.
We did that because we thought it was our forever home.
It had everything we wanted, and unless we win the lottery, I don’t think we’d move.
It’s more than big enough, we’ve got a spare room and it’s huge downstairs. Plus, we’re not planning to have any more children.
What do you wish you knew before you bought your house?
I had no idea what you had to do with solicitors and conveyancing and getting surveys done.
And the estate agent simply told us: “You just go and instruct one”.
They didn’t really help at all. So I just went to my dad and did whatever he told me to do.
More on first-time buyers
Have you got any advice for first-time buyers?
We wouldn’t have been able save up for our deposit so quickly unless we stopped renting and moved back in with our parents.
I know a few of my friends who’ve done the same thing.
It was weird doing it after living away from your family for 17 years, but it really does accelerate the savings. Every month you can see it jumping up so much.
I’d say if you can and you have that option, you should do it.
What help is out there for first-time buyers?
GETTING on the property ladder can feel like a daunting task but there are schemes out there to help first-time buyers have 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 – This is 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 their 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 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 on the Starter Homes website.
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