"I'm a first-time buyer at the age of 48" - Times Money Mentor (2024)

First-time buyer Kat Holmes explains to Times Money Mentor that age is just a number when it comes to getting on the property ladder.

After digging herself out of tens of thousands of pounds worth of debt and saving for seven years, Kat has just bought a two-bedroom flat in London for £650,000 at the age of 48.

In this article we explain

How Kat managed to get on the property ladder
Weighing up the different asset options available to her
Whether you are too old to get a mortgage

"I'm a first-time buyer at the age of 48" - Times Money Mentor (1)

Chasing a dream

The director of data governance for a corporate firm says she didn’t buy a home in her thirties because all her time and money went on pursuing her dreams of being a film-maker.

Unfortunately it didn’t work out and left Kat with £56,000 worth of debt.

But she managed to pay off all her debt and pull together a 15% housing deposit in seven years.

She is clear-eyed about not taking a conventional path: “As an older first-time buyer, the best advice is to buy something you can pay off quickly. I haven’t necessarily taken the most sensible option – but it’s the best option for me.”

Find out more: A simple guide to buying your first home

Having an asset

Kat, originally from Melbourne, Australia, moved to London at the age of 41.

“I knew I needed to get serious about building wealth and fortunately I always had my corporate career in parallel to film-making. I decided to start again in a new place, pay off the debt and decide what asset to invest in.”

For Kat, home ownership was never a given and was something she pondered for several years while paying off her debt.

“I just needed an asset – and I wasn’t sure that property was it; there’s a good argument to put money into a pension and investing.

“I also thought about buying a ‘fixer-upper’ home and paying off the mortgage in five to ten years. A buy-to-let somewhere in the UK, or back home in Australia, was considered too.”

Find out more: Buy-to-let: 10 things you need to know

The importance of financial education

A high salary and frugal living over seven years helped her pay off her debt and raise the £97,500 deposit she would eventually need to hand over to her mortgage lender. She puts it down to financial education.

“I don’t believe you necessarily need a plan at the age of 20, but you do need financial literacy and to be disciplined in your money habits. I taught myself with books like Rich Dad Poor Dad and have done frugal living before, so I had no issue with a lot of salary sacrificing.”

Having a financial safety net

She now has a 21-year mortgage term that will take her up to the age of 70, but has various financial safety nets in place to help:

Her earning power
Rebuilt her emergency savings pot
Income protection insurance, due to having fibromyalgia
Is considering taking in a lodger
Used to frugal living
Has two small pensions

Kat believes property is ultimately just one option for building wealth for later life.

“We are socialised to want to own a property, but getting on the property ladder is so hard for so many. I’d say to anyone: carefully consider all options.”

Find out more: Money SOS: “I’m almost 40 – is it too late to build a decent pension?”

What Kat did to get on the property ladder

Secured a high-paying job
Salary-sacrificed a lot for seven years
For the first four years she mostly paid off the debt while saving
She then “hardcore saved” through my employer’s payroll before it paid the money out in a lump sum
Took five years to decide to buy in London
Spent two years falling in love with various properties and missing out on buying them for various reasons before finding the one

Find out more: How to retire early: the FIRE method

What worked for Kat

Taking several years to decide what to do with the wealth she was slowly building up
Being disciplined in her money habits, saving around 50% of her take-home pay while living on the other 50%
Learning about finance in her twenties put her in good stead even when she got into debt during her thirties.
Slowly increasing her budget from £400,000 to £650,000 to be able to buy her property
Putting buying on hold in 2020 when coronavirus hit due to the uncertainty
Supportive friends to see her through property disappointments
Prioritising building her emergency savings back up again after spending much of her money on a deposit, stamp duty and other fees
She believes a property in London will always hold value and can always sell and downsize if necessary

What didn’t work for Kat

She felt she was too old for flat-sharing
It was time, she believed, to have an asset
As an older first-time buyer, the best advice is to buy something you can pay off quickly even though she admits that ultimately that didn’t work for her
If she was to do it all again, she says she would split money between savings accounts, Premium Bonds and a stocks and shares ISA

Find out more: Everything you need to know about stocks and shares ISAs

Am I took old to get a mortgage?

It depends how old you are. Each bank and building society will set their own upper age limits to apply for a mortgage:

How old you are when your take out a mortgage – the maximum age range can be from around 70 – 85
How old you will be when the mortgage term ends – usually the average age limit is between 75 – 95

You have to ask yourself anyway, do you really want to be making mortgage repayments into your 90s.

Kat, at 48, was also too old to benefit from a lifetime ISA. This is a special ISA used for buying your first home or for retirement savings. For every £4 you put in, the government will top it up by £1.

The maximum you can put in is £4000 each tax year, meaning a £1000 bonus, however you need to be under 40 to open one.

Find out more: Different types of mortgage: which one is right for you?

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