Christian McArdle wrote:
Forgive me if I fail to have any sympathy whatsoever for people who
get themselves into unsustainable debt through greed.

What about those who just want to buy a tiny flat and have to pay 5
times their salary to do so? Is that greed?

Exactly - basic 3 bed semi in Guildford, Surrey outside of high crime
Council Estate = £220k (inside said estate about £190k). We sold our 2 bed
maisonette (in high crime Council Estate) for £135k a year ago. Have now
seen the downstairs 1 bed maisonette going for £145k.

On my salary alone we had to borrow 6.8x income (would have been 8x if we
hadn't made some money on our flat). On joint income, its more like 4x
joint income. Though being married to a nurse doesn't bring in bucketloads
of cash, nor does having an unexpected baby arrive!

Whilst we could have rented - the rent on a similar place was more than the
mortgage.

So I take issue that it is greed. We moved because we were unhappy with
neighbours kicking their doors in, bashing up their wives and kids riding
motorbikes around. We knew we wanted a family at some point in the not too
distant future and that we'd outgrown the 2 bed flat - so 3 beds was the
most sensible option. We wanted to save on fees so didn't want a stop-gap
move (ie. pay estate agent fees, solicitor fees and stamp duty) so moved to
a 3 bed place. As it turned out we bought pretty much the cheapest 3 bed
semi we could (with horrible stone cladding and misted/rotten aluminium
double glazing) for £204k a year ago.

David