I moved to London from a regional city almost a decade ago. By then I had already been ploughing money into the rental market with regret for years. The prospect of owning my own home in one of the world’s most expensive cities seemed something of a pipe dream, reserved for those with exceptional salaries or inherited wealth.
I had always been a regular saver, and had been putting aside money, including any bonus payments I received, since the start of my career in order to save for a flat deposit. However, I still didn’t have the funds needed to buy a property in London. It seemed like an impossible goal as the years went on, and my savings progress seemed to be outpaced by the continuous growth in property prices. Six years of flat sharing later and I decided enough was enough – it was time to take action and formulate a plan of how I was going to escape the rental market.
I started researching the costs of one bedroom apartments in London, used mortgage affordability calculators and took stock of my current nest egg. There was still a gap between what I could afford and the price of central London flats. I set out a plan to continue to save all bonus earnings, but also save as much of my monthly income as possible. This meant creating strict monthly budgets and tracking my weekly spend in spreadsheets – to monitor where my salary was going, make adjustments and ultimately accelerate my savings plans.