Since I left university and joined the world of employment I have lived a fairly nomadic lifestyle. The nature of my career has seen me required to move at short notice for unspecified amounts of time.
This has given me the opportunity to experience living in a variety of different types of accommodation. Within the last five years I have rented rooms in Bristol, shared a house with colleagues in Cambridge, lived by myself in Hitchin and now I reside with my partner in a rented flat in Bedford. It has not been an easy transgression, as my career has evolved I have seen my wages increase but the opportunity for saving towards a deposit become more difficult. The need to pay rent, run a car and have a social life has meant that finding extra cash to save has not always possible. Deposit
I've been with my partner for three years and we decided to move in together after six months. As we both worked in different locations we decided to choose the middle point between the two and settle there, as a result Bedford became our home. This had the added benefit of allowing us both to at last start saving towards a deposit, but still not at an effective rate. Our combined income is now at a healthy level, but even still it took a concerted decision by us both last year to really start seriously saving for the deposit. Then we had to decide where we actually wanted to live, this actually proved far harder than I could have imagined. As we have enjoyed living in Bedford it did make sense to stay but we also considered Milton Keynes. After visiting a series of frankly inhabitable houses we decided on an area of Bedford as our preferred location. However, we soon discovered that we were not the first to identify this area as ideal for a young professional couple. This made our choice difficult as every new property that entered the market place already had an extensive queue of other potential buyers. Popular
In Bedford the property pages come out on Friday and then the rush begins. We decide to put aside one weekend to really blitz the market place, and as luck would have it I spotted a property which I had not seen before on the market. We went for a viewing and instantly fell in love and placed an offer immediately.
The current owners were looking for a quick sale as they were perched on the end of a chain. As we were first time buyers, we were able to be as flexible as possible and in turn were able to secure a nice discount on the asking price. Despite our hard effort of saving up for a deposit we still did not have the 10 per cent required. As we are both graduates and earn decent wages we visited our bank and explained the situation. They were very helpful and offered us a 100 per cent mortgage on the property.
In the course of our mortgage investigations we were surprised by the large difference in the amount lenders were willing to offer people in our position. But we both decided that the bank's offer was genuine and gave us the freedom to use our savings for the inevitable hidden expenses of moving house. We are still waiting for a confirmed move in date, but we hope it will be soon. I think it is important to remember that first time buyers can really be in the driving seat when it comes to the property ladder. We have the capital investment that the rest of the housing market desperately needs and therefore the added power that this brings. Read other case studies >>
Have you had problems getting on the property ladder? Have you just got on it? If so, how did you manage it? Do you want to upgrade but will have to move away from the area to do so? Tell us your experiences using the form below. | 
