The nightmare of the first-time buyer

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As the average price of a London property breaks the quarter of a million mark, stepping on to the property ladder has never been harder. With housing so expensive, being young, talented and employed full-time is no guarantee of finding your first home. Andy Jones talks to three couples trying to do just that in very different ways, and another that gave up on the capital altogether.

All warm and cosy with your council

Merryn Gamba, 32, and Andy Kidd, 29, both professional classical singers

If you’re prepared to compromise, there are options out there for you.

Freelance professional singers Merryn Gamba and Andy Kidd (pictured) have unpredictable incomes, so they entered a shared-ownership scheme with Wandsworth Council. Without its assistance they would still be renting, says Gamba.

“In the scheme we entered into, you can offer to buy anything from 40 per cent to 70 per cent of a property,” she ­says, “and then you just pay rent to the housing authority based on the remaining share that you don’t own.”

Gamba qualified for the scheme because she already rented in the area and could satisfy the necessary £28,000 salary qualification. “Without it we would have been looking at a mortgage for somewhere horrible –­certainly not somewhere in Wandsworth. Our price range without a shared mortgage was £120,000 and so the only places that were remotely ­affordable were hideous or in some remote place way out of London. We have to live here because, as classical singers, this is where all our work is.”

The downside of a shared ownership scheme is having to wait for a suitable property to arrive, but Gamba avoided that by finding her own ­property online. “I actually found the property by accident on the internet when I was doing a random search,” she says. “The property itself didn’t even ­exist then – it was still just a plot of land – so trying to find a mortgage was a little difficult and we took a bit of a risk.”

After locating the property, Gamba approached Wandsworth Council, which accepts deposits as low as £250 ­provided you have the requisite salary to maintain your part of the mortgage.

“When we decided to take the gamble, I emailed Wandsworth and asked if there was any chance they could help us out and they agreed. As it was only a plot of land, it could have developed into something tiny and horrible, but the gamble has paid off and we now have a lovely property as a home.”

Searching for a wreck

Jennie Hill, assistant psychologist, and Jon Wragg, an aerospace insurance worker, both 25

Jennie Hill and partner Jon Wragg are renting in West Hampstead but are looking to buy. Despite having good salaries, it’s proving a struggle. The nature of their work means they are limited to finding a property in central London, which on their budget of £230,000 –£250,000 is no easy task.

Hill says: “Because of the way the property market is moving in London, a lot of the properties are going above the asking price. So even though it may be close to our limit we know that we won’t be able to get it to start with.”

Having started looking in Hampstead and Kilburn without success, the couple switched their search to Highgate, Muswell Hill and Crouch End. Still unable to find anything within their budget, Hill and Wragg resorted to trying to unearth a “rough diamond”– a property that requires a lot of work but is in a good investment area. Some diamonds, however, are rougher than others.

“We found a property in Highgate for £250,000 that needed a complete renovation,” says Hill. “It had no central heating and needed ­rewiring, a complete re-plastering, a new kitchen and a new bathroom. The owner hadn’t touched it for 60 years and so the only heating in the house was a 1960s gas fire.” Despite the disrepair, the property had potential and character and so the couple placed a bid – only to find there had already been a ­deluge of offers.

“It went to a sealed bid process,” adds Hill. “We had originally bid £257,000 but, with some help from family and friends, we managed to stretch to a fresh offer of £270,000. We thought we were bound to get it but it went for £295,000 – almost 20 per cent more than the ­original asking price.”

Even if they do eventually acquire a property, they know that their troubles­ may not end there. “What worries us is that two or three years down the line when we lose our fixed interest rate we’re suddenly going to find ourselves not able to pay off the mortgage,” says Hill.

“We’re trying to make sure that when we make an offer we’re keeping at least £2,000 aside in savings so that if we do find ourselves in that position, we can put it on the market straight away and hope that it sells quickly.”

Jennie Hill and Jon Wragg have been property hunting with the help of Halifax, www.buyingyourfirsthome.co.uk

Buying a home unseen

Stephen Roberts, 26, a banker, and his wife Madoka, 25, a sales advisor

Stephen and Madoka ­Roberts settled on a flat in a new development because they were priced out of the house market. “We set out a budget of ­between £170,000-220,000,” says Stephen. “But we quickly realised that that wouldn’t be enough for what we wanted.

“When we couldn’t afford an older house, we began looking at these flat developments. ­Ideally, you always want a ­bigger place but you have to manage on what you can.” The couple decided to buy a flat on the Linden Homes development in Downham, near Bromley. Though the flats aren’t built yet, the couple  felt that what was being offered was too good to turn down.

Stephen said: “It’ll be within a three-storey complex with one en suite bathroom, an extra bathroom, and an open-plan lounge. It was very impressive compared with other new buildings and it has a balcony, which is an added bonus.”

Their search for a flat has, as with many Londoners, been a disenchanting one. “When you walk into somewhere and think, ‘I can’t live here’, it becomes heartbreaking,” said Stephen. “The worst place we saw was one in Bromley costing £130,000. It basically was a box and there was barely enough room for one person to live in let alone the two of us.”

While they now have their property, they are staying at Stephen’s parents’ house during its construction. They know there is also no absolute guarantee that the flat will look as they envisaged. “It is always a little bit of a gamble because you’re ­going into the dark. But we also feel we have got value for money. That said, we looked at an identical Barratt development round the corner from the one we ended up in, but that was some £100,000 more for exactly the same standard.”

Stephen and Madoka Roberts have bought a flat on the Mono development in Downham near Bromley. For details of Linden Homes properties (two bed flats range from £184,995-£214,995) see www.lindenhomes.co.uk 

Five top tips for that first time buy

The other option: leave town and commute