How do most people get their deposit to buy a house?

brbf

Just something I'm wondering... When people are buying houses, how many of them get help vs saving the whole thing themselves? I see loads of people buying 350k-400k+ houses and I have to wonder how they got 30-40k for the deposit?

I'm very lucky to be in an very well paying job - but up until now I have no real savings. I'm now saving hard but still it's going to take me a long long time to save that sort of money. I cant get any help I'm on my own in that respect.

How did you guys save your deposit? Knock all luxuries on the head for 5-10 years? How much does your average person save for how long?

Saipanne

Save a grand a month for 30 to 40 months.

Skatedude

A grand a month? i'm on average industrial wage and thats more then 50%. also takes years to actually get your wages up to that level.

Saipanne

Skatedude wrote: »

A grand a month? i'm on average industrial wage and thats more then 50%. also takes years to actually get your wages up to that level.

Yep. I was definitely addressing you. Fact.

MarkAnthony

brbf wrote: »

Just something I'm wondering... When people are buying houses, how many of them get help vs saving the whole thing themselves? I see loads of people buying 350k-400k+ houses and I have to wonder how they got 30-40k for the deposit?

I'm very lucky to be in an very well paying job - but up until now I have no real savings. I'm now saving hard but still it's going to take me a long long time to save that sort of money. I cant get any help I'm on my own in that respect.

How did you guys save your deposit? Knock all luxuries on the head for 5-10 years? How much does your average person save for how long?

350K-400K is more like a 70K deposit very shortly. Most people wouldn't be FTB at this level. If they are they're a well paid couple. Under the new rules they'll need to be earning 100K between them, not hard to save 70K over a couple/three of years on that salary.

Many people have help from their parents, some have saved since day one of job one, my best mate saved from the age of 16 but that's an extreme case.

If you're a singleton on 35K you're looking in the 150K range. That's a 2 bed in Crumlin and nothing to be sneezed at.

miezekatze

It's a lot easier for a couple where both are working. We are in our thirties and have both been working for over 10 years and always saved a little bit every month. It adds up over time. Once we knew we wanted to buy a house, we cut back on expenses and saved more. We got some help from our families too, but we would have had the deposit without their help.

You can't really expect to live frugally for a year with no savings to begin with and then have 30k or whatever in the bank (unless you earn a lot of money). It takes longer than that usually.

gerrybbadd

Myself and my wife saved 125 a week for 2 years or so. Got us approx 15k saved. We only needed 12k for a 10% deposit on our house.

We bought back in April

BenIrishHome

brbf wrote: »

Just something I'm wondering... When people are buying houses, how many of them get help vs saving the whole thing themselves? I see loads of people buying 350k-400k+ houses and I have to wonder how they got 30-40k for the deposit?

I'm very lucky to be in an very well paying job - but up until now I have no real savings. I'm now saving hard but still it's going to take me a long long time to save that sort of money. I cant get any help I'm on my own in that respect.

How did you guys save your deposit? Knock all luxuries on the head for 5-10 years? How much does your average person save for how long?

Gift from parents is the most common unfortunately. I'm 30 and from the UK but I know very few of my peers over here who manage to save anything from any standard salary. What with rent being sky high and living expenses in general, while salaries are still down.

The only people I've seen do it is couples of both live at home with parents and aggressively save for a few years. I.e. Earn net €2500 each, save €1-2,000 per month for 12-24 months. Hard to eschew luxuries or general living expenses consistently for that long but well worth it. I helped 2 friends buy their first house in Rialto last year, they got married and bought a house in 18 months by being focussed on their goals. Incredibly satifying to see them buy their first home.

MarkAnthony wrote: »

If you're a singleton on 35K you're looking in the 150K range. That's a 2 bed in Crumlin and nothing to be sneezed at.

You'll bel icky to get a two bed in Crumlin under €200,000 now unless it is an absolute tip.

Aircraft Freak

Saved €600pm for 5 years from 2004, had the guts of 40k to buy a house after the crash, but no tracker available still bought though.

La_Gordy

I'm on 2K a month and renting for 550e. I don't have even go out that much and I've nae clue how people can save so much.

wandatowell

Lived at home with my parents till I was 28. They charged me feck all rent on the basis that I saved up for a deposit on a house.


Bought in 2011 and should be mortgage free within 9 years.

accensi0n

La_Gordy wrote: »

I'm on 2K a month and renting for 550e. I don't have even go out that much and I've nae clue how people can save so much.

With that salary and that rent I'd say saving 500pm is reasonable. So divide the first part of the second post by 2 and multiply the second part by 2.

cookiecakes

We saved a grand a month for a couple of years. We were getting married and buying the house around the same time so we just lived frugally and saved every penny we could. It wasn't easy but it was so worth it! We bought around this time last year.

tigershould

For our first we borrowed 5k from the brother, 20k from the credit Union and scraped a few grand between us. Good times!

Saipanne

tigershould wrote: »

For our first we borrowed 5k from the brother, 20k from the credit Union and scraped a few grand between us. Good times!

That scenario won't be repeated for the foreseeable. Borrowing your deposit, I mean.

on_my_oe

We paid the lot ourselves on 50k/pa.

We worked out all of our expenses weekly, monthly and annually, added 10% to cover increases and unexpected bills and then set aside a set amount each week to cover all outgoings (and ran a surplus). We then split the rest in half, with one half going to savings and the other half going on rent, food and entertainment. We didn't have any debts or loans.

We saved almost 30k for our first home, and by sticking to our 'old' budget, we will overpay and clear our mortgage in half the time.

eviltwin

We saved for about 4 years. We were lucky his mother gave us a room and didn't charge much rent while we were saving. We put every spare penny away, no holidays, no nights out, no treats for the whole time. It was hard work but worth it. We bought 12 years ago.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

TonyStark

brbf wrote: »

Just something I'm wondering... When people are buying houses, how many of them get help vs saving the whole thing themselves? I see loads of people buying 350k-400k+ houses and I have to wonder how they got 30-40k for the deposit?

I'm very lucky to be in an very well paying job - but up until now I have no real savings. I'm now saving hard but still it's going to take me a long long time to save that sort of money. I cant get any help I'm on my own in that respect.

How did you guys save your deposit? Knock all luxuries on the head for 5-10 years? How much does your average person save for how long?

Parents usually gift it, or else an inheritence from a grandparent.

For those that don't fit into the above usually think smarter and acquire the money by some other means. :-)

Best advice I got was to talk to a good mortgage broker.

Kintarō Hattori

You need to save and for as long as it takes to acquire your deposit, solicitor fees and stamp duty. Between my partner and I we have a modest but reasonable combined income. For us it was a case of saving hard but still enjoying life a little. You can't become a total hermit or limit all luxuries.... unless you're incredibly determined.

Save as much as you can and in a few years you'll be enjoying your own home and all the benefits/drawbacks that come with it

Alf Veedersane

I always tried to save a minimum of 250 a month but worked out on average about 400 a month. I had been doing the SSIA so I just continued with saving that amount. Did that for about 5 years. The savings dropped a little when I moved in with herself and our rent was higher but still saved 250 a month for the next 3 years or so.

She got some help from her father but we paid a deposit of 33% in the end but I could have paid the 10% myself. I just always saved from the first month I started working.

sozbox

on_my_oe wrote: »

We paid the lot ourselves on 50k/pa.

We worked out all of our expenses weekly, monthly and annually, added 10% to cover increases and unexpected bills and then set aside a set amount each week to cover all outgoings (and ran a surplus). We then split the rest in half, with one half going to savings and the other half going on rent, food and entertainment. We didn't have any debts or loans.

We saved almost 30k for our first home, and by sticking to our 'old' budget, we will overpay and clear our mortgage in half the time.

Can I ask how long that took you? Are you both on 50k/pa?

pwurple

Saved it for first house which was on the low end of things. Terraced house in a crappy area.

Overpaid that mortgage as much as we could for about 6 years... worked our asses off to get promotions and increase wages. Eventually ended up with 60% equity in that, even though the value had dropped during crash. Sold house, used proceeds as deposit for a decent one.


Never got parental gift. Worked and saved. Drove (still drive) crappy 10-15 yr old cars. Have the house we want now... saving for car upgrades.

Larbre34

Sorry, but locking yourself away for the most enlightening and interactive years of your life is just too much of a compromise. That sort of grind just isnt what life should be about. And its not what we should be teaching our kids to aspire to either.

Renting may be dead money, but at least you are living in the world.

Saipanne

Larbre34 wrote: »

Sorry, but locking yourself away for the most enlightening and interactive years of your life is just too much of a compromise. That sort of grind just isnt what life should be about. And its not what we should be teaching our kids to aspire to either.

Renting may be dead money, but at least you are living in the world.

I save a grand a month, and I still have a social life. I'm going to Thailand in a few weeks! Yay!

eviltwin

Larbre34 wrote: »

Sorry, but locking yourself away for the most enlightening and interactive years of your life is just too much of a compromise. That sort of grind just isnt what life should be about. And its not what we should be teaching our kids to aspire to either.

Renting may be dead money, but at least you are living in the world.

I only had to do it for 4 years, it wasn't that big a deal. We still had a social life, we just did it very frugally.

Kintarō Hattori

Saipanne wrote: »

I save a grand a month, and I still have a social life. I'm going to Thailand in a few weeks! Yay!

I'm fairly sure he wasn't tarring everyone with that brush but rather the not inconsiderable number of people who do essentially lock themselves away and save feverishly.

AndyBoBandy

Luckily I had been working abroad on full expenses for about 7 years, and had saved up about 100k (could have been a lot more had i not been buying so much crap over the years)

bought a house last summer for €249,000, so the 100k was a nice wedge to get started with (used €85k as my deposit, borrowed €165k)

lima

I've been saving a grand a month for three years. Before that I was contracting in London for a year on e600 a day, before that I took a strategic voluntary redundancy and got some $$ from that. Now I have a six figure deposit. Point is that everyones different but you also have to take a risk and find your luck and look for opportunities to make more money.

Where I grew up many got mammy and daddy to pay their deposit during the boom to make them look like their kids were a success. That didn't turn out well because property values went down and they lost that money and then some. Also loads of them lived at home until late 20's to save and now they live mundanely in the suburbs

lima

Larbre34 wrote: »

Sorry, but locking yourself away for the most enlightening and interactive years of your life is just too much of a compromise. That sort of grind just isnt what life should be about. And its not what we should be teaching our kids to aspire to either.

Renting may be dead money, but at least you are living in the world.

"Rent is live money because you are actually living" - (c) Lima 2015

Sala

I know in theory how people save but when it comes to putting it into practice we are rubbish Trying to save 2k a month but it could (should) be more. I'd love to be like you eviltwin! If I cut out a lot of drinks, nights out, treats, we'd be doing great.

AndyBoBandy

lima wrote: »

Where I grew up many got mammy and daddy to pay their deposit during the boom to make them look like their kids were a success.

Same here, While those around me were buying shlt houses for 300-400k in 'boom' times, I was in Qatar/Spain/anywhere in the world plugging away building my deposit.

Then when I did move back to Ireland into a lower paying (but Irish based (home based)) job, I was browsing for houses while they were still at rock bottom prices.

I know a lot of people lost out big time in the 'boom/crash', but some of us did alright out of it. and I'm not going to apologise for that.

desertcircus

If you're on 2k a month after tax:

Rent a room within 10km of your workplace for max 500 per month; if you're a couple on 2k each, rent a one-bed for 1k. There's nowhere in Ireland that isn't within 10 kilometers of places for that price.

Buy a bile on the cycle to work scheme: get a decent one, as this is your new commute. Get raingear and the like in Aldi or Lidl, who do bike gear sales every few weeks. Cost: max 700 or so once-off.

Start making porridge for breakfast in work, and bring in your own lunch. Cost: less than 50 a month.

Keep your bills low and set aside 100 a month, possibly 150.

For groceries, start cooking your own meals. Avoid eating out more than once every week or two. Cost: maybe a hundred a month.

Set aside another hundred for bits and pieces (clothes, electronics etc).

Your basic spend every month is now 900 quid. Set aside another hundred a month for a nice holiday, and you're up to a thousand. Save 500 of it and do what you like with the rest; you're now saving six thousand quid a year.

LaGlisse

Plenty of "adults" out there who get a "helping hand " from there parents
Translation: Plenty of entitled manipulative schemers with the emotional maturity of a 12 year oldv who feel that personal responsibility and patience isnt their bag and lean on their parents to shell out the deposit and more. Same Gowls then whinge to all and sundry when their dream goes sour (negative equity). There are some horrific people out there

MarkAnthony

[QUOTE=BenIrishHome;93827284You'll bel icky to get a two bed in Crumlin under €200,000 now unless it is an absolute tip.[/QUOTE]

There's plenty out there that need minor work at 150K mark. You're not going to buy a walk-in at this price level.

Patww79 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

If you can't save 20-25K a year on 100K then I've no sympathy for any predicament you find yourself in.

Saipanne

desertcircus wrote: »

If you're on 2k a month after tax:

Rent a room within 10km of your workplace for max 500 per month; if you're a couple on 2k each, rent a one-bed for 1k. There's nowhere in Ireland that isn't within 10 kilometers of places for that price.

Buy a bile on the cycle to work scheme: get a decent one, as this is your new commute. Get raingear and the like in Aldi or Lidl, who do bike gear sales every few weeks. Cost: max 700 or so once-off.

Start making porridge for breakfast in work, and bring in your own lunch. Cost: less than 50 a month.

Keep your bills low and set aside 100 a month, possibly 150.

For groceries, start cooking your own meals. Avoid eating out more than once every week or two. Cost: maybe a hundred a month.

Set aside another hundred for bits and pieces (clothes, electronics etc).

Your basic spend every month is now 900 quid. Set aside another hundred a month for a nice holiday, and you're up to a thousand. Save 500 of it and do what you like with the rest; you're now saving six thousand quid a year.

Yep. What some people fail to realise is that all these little changes add up, over time.

eviltwin

LaGlisse wrote: »

Plenty of "adults" out there who get a "helping hand " from there parents
Translation: Plenty of entitled manipulative schemers with the emotional maturity of a 12 year oldv who feel that personal responsibility and patience isnt their bag and lean on their parents to shell out the deposit and more. Same Gowls then whinge to all and sundry when their dream goes sour (negative equity). There are some horrific people out there

What's wrong with that?

I didn't get any cash help but we did get help in the form of minimal rent while we were saving. Adding that up it would have amounted to a fair amount of money. I know of other people whose parents take minimal rental from them while they are saving or help them out with childcare etc.

eviltwin

Sala wrote: »

I know in theory how people save but when it comes to putting it into practice we are rubbish Trying to save 2k a month but it could (should) be more. I'd love to be like you eviltwin! If I cut out a lot of drinks, nights out, treats, we'd be doing great.

It helped that we had a young child so nights out were rare anyway. Most of our friends were in the same boat, just starting out and crippled with rent or mortgages so it was a bit of a social wasteland. I bought my house at 24 so it was the best years of my life in many ways I was saving for but I more than made up for it in the years that followed

Alf Veedersane

LaGlisse wrote: »

Plenty of "adults" out there who get a "helping hand " from there parents
Translation: Plenty of entitled manipulative schemers with the emotional maturity of a 12 year oldv who feel that personal responsibility and patience isnt their bag and lean on their parents to shell out the deposit and more. Same Gowls then whinge to all and sundry when their dream goes sour (negative equity). There are some horrific people out there

Bt harsh. Plenty of people who save but don't earn enough to save enough and whose parents are in a position to offer a few grand to help them out.

drumswan

eviltwin wrote: »

I only had to do it for 4 years,

"Only"!

Saipanne

drumswan wrote: »

"Only"!

In fairness, if you can't save for four years, then you shouldn't be taking a 25 year mortgage.

Dog of Tears

Live frugally and save, ideally with a partner who's as committed to the idea as you are.

Work out how much of a mortgage you're comfortable taking on based on stress-testing yourself against drops in income and interest rate rises. Under no circumstances should you base your borrowing on how much a bank is willing to lend you.

eviltwin

drumswan wrote: »

"Only"!

If you want something you have to make sacrifices. That's just how it is.

Alf Veedersane

Just as well #YOLO wasn't around back in the day or I'd be sleeping on a step.

hardCopy

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

Bt harsh. Plenty of people who save but don't earn enough to save enough and whose parents are in a position to offer a few grand to help them out.

And plenty of parents who actually want to give their kids a leg up, no manipulation involved.

elly123

We have saved the guts of €20k in the last 7 months. We save 2k a month and put whatever extra money we both got over Xmas from O/T or small bonuses into the savings. Our joint salary gross is about €85k
We started with a 10k lump sum from the sale of my husbands house that he owned with his sibling.
We keep €500 each per month from our wages.
1k each into savings and then the balance goes into a Joint account for living expenses, petrol, food, mthly direct debits etc.
We are living with my parents at present and we pay them rent and contribute towards electricity and gas. Since moving in with the parents we are also living closer to both our jobs which has cut travel costs by circa 600 per month between us. i.e less petrol, no tolls etc.
It is not ideal living with my parents as its a very small house and we are recently married with a two year old so we have our own little family, but in order to buy a house in the area we want to live we had to make sacrifices.
We are sale agreed on a house since Oct, so fingers crossed we'll be closed by the end Jan.
Its not easy living with your parents and we often have to bite our tongue, but we couldn't have saved as much as we have without them.
We don't deprive ourselves of too much, we eat out once every two weeks or so, but we are not big drinkers, don't smoke and try do stuff that doesn't incur a lot of cost.
Moving back home is not for everyone but it was our only option and thankfully my parents welcomed us with open arms

Call me Al

We bought our first house in 2002. We were mid 20s, renting in Dublin for years, both independently and together, and not earning huge money. We saved as best we could, but were fortunate enough to get fairly decent bonuses that we could put fully towards our deposit. We sold three years later and used the sizeable equity on a new house.
Our parents never had it to give it tbh.

dutopia

Think of ways to boost your income.
Cut any unnecessary expenditures.
Budget yourself 'pocket money' you can use for entertainment, etc.
Come up with a target saving amount and DD that amount into a savings account every month.
Be realistic about what you can save and what property you can afford.

HerrKuehn

We had a approx 190k when we bought in summer 2013. The initial 40k was saved separately (before we met). I had 30k saved over 3.5 years in a job paying 32k. I was renting a room in a house in dublin for about 400 per month IIRC. My wife had 10k previously saved. We then saved ~150k over the following 5 years together. There were no gifts from parents towards the deposit. We bought a house for 440k and used 150k from our savings as deposit. The rest was used for solicitors/stamp duty/furniture/renovation.
We were just very careful with money over that time. We had no car for a number of years. Then we bought an old cheap car for cash and we still drive it. My salary increased a lot through the years and we were basically maintaining the same lifestyle. The decrease in rent around 2009 helped us a lot too (about 350 per month decrease I think it was).

Sala

LaGlisse wrote: »

Plenty of "adults" out there who get a "helping hand " from there parents
Translation: Plenty of entitled manipulative schemers with the emotional maturity of a 12 year oldv who feel that personal responsibility and patience isnt their bag and lean on their parents to shell out the deposit and more. Same Gowls then whinge to all and sundry when their dream goes sour (negative equity). There are some horrific people out there

That's very judgmental. I know lots of people whole got from a couple of grand up to 100k from their parents. They all still worked hard, and saved a lot themselves. None leaned on their parents - the parents had the money and wanted to help them out. Plenty of people saving also move in with their folks to save on rent or get a grandparent to mind kids to save childcare- this is exactly the same as these things have monetary value.

LaGlisse

Sala wrote: »

That's very judgmental. I know lots of people whole got from a couple of grand up to 100k from their parents. They all still worked hard, and saved a lot themselves. None leaned on their parents - the parents had the money and wanted to help them out. Plenty of people saving also move in with their folks to save on rent or get a grandparent to mind kids to save childcare- this is exactly the same as these things have monetary value.

Some things need to be judged.Theres alot of entitlement out there, loads of these people who got it handed to them now hardly paying anything towards their mortgage and the Banks are letting them away with it ,i know a few like this myself. Entitled immature children