Can you reasonably afford to buy a home/apartment in your desired area in your country?

29 comments

1. Lol. No. I can not.

   If you have earnings and don’t need to live in a particularly desirable area – I know plenty who’ve managed by 25, but most of them have already been working since they were 18-20. For students it seems to be more like 30.

2. I except to be able to when we’re both done with uni and have worked a couple of years, yes. “Desired” would be more central, but I’ll probably have to make do with the outskirts, greater area or “suburbs” (I guess. Don’t really know how to describe them. You could be in the center in 20-35 mins). It is cheaper to buy than rent, and although it’s bad, Copenhagen is not nearly as bad as other bigger European cities. Two people with a reasonable steady income, can buy a two or three room apartment.

   House though, lol never.

3. LOL, no.

   A couple of years due to my father’s illness we had to buy him a new house. It took a significant chunk of my savings, my sister’s savings and my parent’s savings.

   Now, granted, we did it without selling our parent’s old house, but neither me or my sister could do it alone (we were 40 and 37 at the time).

   Now picking a less desirable area, we might swing it and we could probably do it by 35. My sister could probably do it alot sooner hadn’t she had serious health issues that cut on her savings and ability to work for a long time.

4. Nope. I would never be able to just buy it without taking out a lifetime loan. I’d need to work for 60 years to buy it at today’s prices and I honestly don’t think I’ll live that long.

5. I don’t know from desired area but from my home ”city”, definately.

   Apartment ownership can range from 10 000€ to 60 000€ so it’s not an issue at all for many people.

   As for houses, there are a lot of ”Frontline man’s houses”, which are wooden homes built after the war by returning soldiers and evacuated people from Karelia. You can definately get one for below 100 000€, and some for just 10-40k.

   From what i know from the housing market in Finland, it’s expensive in the few big cities and ridicilously expensive in Helsinki, but everywhere else, houses are stupid cheap.

6. Well, here the housing market is cheap for european standards,but expensive for our salaries.

   A 1BR in Bucharest is around 35k-40k a 2br can go up to 60k and a 3br can go upwards of 80k.

   Keep in mind that here the average salary is 800€ and most people have to get a morgage to buy an apartment.But also home ownership here is one of if not the highest in EU,because people got apartments during communism for almost free kept them and passed them on to the next generation. The number of people staying in rent is quite low.

7. No. I wouldn’t be able to buy my current place even though I make quite a bit more money than when I bought it.

8. Yes, definitely. Looking into buying an apartment here in the coming months, and the next step from that will be a house slightly further out from the city (Stockholm) centre. At the moment we’re in Solna and will be buying an apartment here, and the house will probably be in Sollentuna (but with luck we might find something in Solna even). It’s hella expensive though.

9. Alone in inner-city Stockholm? No.

   But together with my GF yes and we are selling my apartment atm to buy an apartment in the city.

10. Yes. In my 40s, with two incomes and an inheritance from my maiden aunt and debt into my 70s.

    Otherwise not a hope in hell.

11. Probably not in my desired area, as home ownership in Zurich and it’s surroundings is far from affordable even with a better than median salary. In rural Switzerland it might be affordable some day (still expensive!), but commuting 1,5h to work everyday is not what I plan to do.

12. Yes, home ownership is the highest in the world in Romania.

    While it is generally common to rent until you finish your studies and get your first job, almost everyone close to 30 will either already have purchased a place, or are in the process of doing so.

    Renting when you have a family is extremely, extremely rare here.

    While the prices are steadily increasing, the minimum and average wages have increased by over 300% in the past 10 years or so, making home ownership more affordable now then it has previously been.

13. There is a town that’s in one of the most isolated regions in the country and quite frankly the town is dying.

    I can’t even afford a rent there.

14. I can’t. I have a good salary but I’m single so … My parents bought their house at 28 and paid for half of it outright and financed the rest. Unthinkable for me.

15. Ish. I was a first-time buyer at age 44, but not where I’d lived for almost half my life (buying in London? I’m not a millionaire). While I like the town I’ve moved to, there are probably nicer places that don’t have the facilities this town does.

16. It is a bit difficult. In our capital city apartments go from 80k to 250k €. Depending if it’s a soviet block/new build/historic building. A house can even be 400k+.

    But people manage. Taking loans for 30 years and their family helping with a down payment. I have been able to get a 1br apartment in a historic district. But me and my SO have good (international) jobs and even then it is not cheap.

17. Ireland: We have a combined income of 93,000 euro and we can’t get our own place. We can’t pay rent and save for a mortgage and live. It’s fucking killing me busting my arse to financially secure my landlord’s children. Everything in ireland is one sided: you have or don’t have and those that have rip the utter piss from those that don’t. It’s sickening to think I’ll have to wait for both my parents to die before I can get my own place.

    Not a day goes by without me thinking of hanging myself or taking a hundred xanex. Im fucking miserable with zero security.

18. Yes, home/apartment ownership is fairly easy for most educated people. Even in big cities you can find great deals if the place is rundown and you’re handy.

    Also there are a ton of IT jobs that pay very well (for here, not considered that high internationally) so you’ll often see younger people (25 or so) who’ve been working just a few years already have enough to buy a new apartment.

19. In Prague, with an average salary you need to not spend any money for 14 years (i.e. no rent, food, etc.) to buy an apartment. So for most people, it means 40-50 years

20. I own two apartments in the city and a small house in the country side of my region. I guess, I could afford it. But the prices skyrocketed during COVID, and mortgage rates are way too high right now. Technically I still can take a mortgage and buy another apartment, but that would be a tiny apartment in a not so nice place, and that would be a terrible financial decision and I’d have to cut back on family expenses, waste my savings , and the prospects are very dim.

    With the official average income there’s no way you can afford an apartment in Moscow, though.

21. In my village it would take around 10 years worth of average wage to get you a small house.

    Generally if you have partner, both of you have stable job and some savings. So usually late 20’s/early 30’s is the time when you will be afford to get mortgage.

22. I live in a big (popular) city, and a small 1 bedroom apartment is 200.000€ jminimum and the average salary for people living here is 1800€… I earn much more then that and could probably buy, but the average person no they cannot. The rent here is very high also, so even just being able to live is a struggle for many.

23. 🇫🇷 France

    I am in rural western France. Whilst property prices shot up during the Covid years they are slowly settling back now. It is possible here to buy a house – cash if you don’t mind a restoration project – or with a mortgage if you want a newer build. Mortgage rates are good compared to the UK but not as generous as they used to be (especislly considering the generally lower incomes here). The fact the rate can be fixed for the life of the mortgage is helpful though and I do see youngsters (mid-twenties) buying in our village.

24. No, 25, work full time, but because I’m single it is undoable, even with no debt and with savings, renting is also almost impossible to find.

25. No, you don’t earn that much more than the average income as a lawyer in Norway, if you’re lucky enough to get a job after your almost lifelong studies. Renting in Norway is also less an option since the entire housing system is based upon home ownership. Renting has always been an afterthought, scarcely regulated, ridden by sketchy landlords and left out for the last percentage who can’t buy a home themselves.

26. Generally no. With a very good salary, a crippling mortgage and family support it is possible, but not easy. I bought my 46 m^2 flat for 80k eur, inheritance and 10 ears of mortgage, and I’m lucky.

    Houses in the suburbs are significantly more expensive.

    The larger cities are not much cheaper.

    At the countryside there are some astonishing deals, mostly end of the world villages where the family built a multi-generational house, the children moved to the west and the parents are getting old, or even died.

    [example](https://ingatlan.com/33666673)

27. What would be considered reasonably? I’d need a loan 30-40 times the amount of money to do that so no.

28. Me and my spouse can and did with some help from parents so I don’t take a loan out for the deposit (even though I could have with not much hastle). Here the loan conditions are pretty loose so you can take out the depost as a loan and just pay more for the first 5 years and then start paying only the mortgage. I dont know why people in other countries dont do this. I have to say that I did this at 28 as a college dropout working in IT and my wife is a dentist.

29. Could I pay the mortgage for a flat? Yes. Will I ever have enough money for a down payment? I doubt it.