To give you an idea of the costs, I recently bought a one bedroom shared ownership flat in East London. Shared ownership is a scheme that allows you to own anywhere between 25 and 95% of a property, with the rest being owned by a housing association from whom you rent the remaining percentage.

I bought 30% of the flat which was valued at £425k overall, with a mortgage of £116,500. This required a deposit of £10,500 excluding all legal fees and moving costs. All told there were an additional £3k of fees to pay, and then even more to actually furnish the flat.

My monthly costs are now: £540 in mortgage repayments £750 in rent and service charge to the housing association £130 in council tax £100 currently for energy bills though I imagine that is going to skyrocket shortly.

Funnily enough there are identical flats in my building that have been rented out and cost about £300 more than what I am paying now.

Shared ownership is probably the only way for a single person in London to get on the property ladder if they’re not being bankrolled by a wealthy relative. I was lucky in that I had been able to save loads during the covid lockdowns and was the only way this option became available.