This week, we’re in south London chatting to Steven who bought his Deptford flat last year.
He shares the highs and lows of his property-buying journey and reveals some of the problems he and his husband, Santi, have faced since moving in.
This is what Steven has to say about getting on the ladder…
Tell us about yourself.
We are Steven (32), Santi (40) and Chichi (12) – our dog. We’ve been married for 13 years and have been living in London together for almost nine. One of us runs a design agency and the other is a materials engineer. We are currently based in South East London.
Where abouts is your property? What do you think of the area?
We are based in Deptford Foundry, really close to New Cross station. We have slowly fallen in love with the area: it’s full of character and genuinely cool. There’s a feeling of change and transformation in the air, we are pretty sure that this area will be unrecognisable in five years time.
When did you move in?
We moved in early summer 2021.
How much does your property cost?
We purchased our apartment for £600,000 – £30,000 under asking price.
How much was your deposit?
We ended up paying a £60,000 deposit.
What is the monthly cost of living here now; both mortgage and bills?
I’d say around £2,000.
How did you save up for your deposit?
Lockdown helped in many ways. Having to stay home saved us a good amount of money and, from a business perspective, things took a turn for the best as soon as the first lockdown started.
What was the process of getting a mortgage like for you? Did you find any parts challenging?
It was scary at first, especially as one of us is self-employed. We’ve heard many horror stories about the process and were expecting the worst. The reality was that it was much easier than what we’d imagined.
The biggest challenge was the constant wait, sometimes having a feeling that there was no progress at all. Then suddenly everything will fall into place within a day or two.
