So I am not sure how much is doable here, in UK from what I understood you do not really buy a piece of land but sort of “rent” from the Queen (King now), I am again not 200% sure but my uncle was telling me that basically he sort of rent the land from the Monarchy and pay a rent to keep it and then they build his house on top of it, if when he die no one pay for that land it goes back to the King.
Also he build his house probably more than 30 years ago, the only way to build an house here is to go outside London (where the most jobs are concentrated) otherwise there is literally no space, London is pretty much build with those victorian houses that are falling apart and they keep to renew them (big failing on it) or the new fashion thing is to build skyscrapers with thousand apartments inside, mostly one bedroom (this is what is happening in my area, lately they sort of build 10 buildings full of apartments, is impossible to even see the sun now).
This is why a life outside London is supposed to be easier (wish for a seaside town), as said in those town to find job is a bit more harder, my girlfriend as a very good job in here and she loves it so it will make me feel sad also to ask her to leave, she can’t travel hours every day to get to work and then home, this is why I am sort of stuck here.
We tought to go maybe in zone 6 (so far away from the center) but the situation is not much better honestly and the train monthly ticket is insane.
It is a bit weird how London work as you said it is literally to be trapped in the system and is hard to get free of it
Buying a house with a loan isn’t always a bad thing, I mean it really depends on the terms you can secure and your long-term goals. A mortgage lets you build equity while living in the property, which is better than throwing money away on rent for years. The part that trips most people up is not the loan itself but the rates, closing costs, and hidden fees that add up fast.
That’s why getting a clear picture before you sign is crucial, so a site like MortgageQuote.com is useful since you can run numbers, compare options, and see your borrowing power without messing with your credit score. That way you know what you’re getting into instead of walking blind into a 30-year commitment
Similar story for me. Bought my first house at age 23 while working 50-60 hour weeks running a small business. Was condemned, 440 square feet, built somewhere around 1907, and completely falling apart. No bank would finance it due to the condition and size (most lenders back then wouldn’t write a loan for anything smaller than 500 square feet). I used all of my savings and borrowed against the small business I owned to pay cash for it. My fiance at the time thought I was insane for buying it. Stripped it to only a dirt floor, four walls, and a roof, and then spent a year of evenings and weekends rebuilding until it was mostly good enough to live in. Moved in right after getting married. It didn’t have a proper kitchen at first, we used stacks of milk crates as cabinets and a utility sink in the back yard for washing dishes for about a year and a half until we saved up enough money to buy cabinets and build a proper kitchen.
When we were expecting our first, we realized we needed more than 440 square feet, so I drew up plans, pulled permits, and started building an addition, once again built during evenings and weekends. Finished the addition shortly after our first kid was born, thanks in part to the help of a few friends donating time, which over doubled the square footage of the home.
When we had a third kid on the way, we realized that the house was once again going to be too small, but we’d pretty much maxed out the building size on that lot while still maintaining a functional yard. So, we bought another fixer-upper. Not condemned and didn’t need nearly as much work, but was still in rough shape. It took about 4 months of evenings and weekends to get parts of the house livable enough to move in, and another 18 months to get the whole house in livable condition. But, as many of you probably know, these types of remodels can be never ending, and almost a decade later we’re still making upgrades.
