Couples 'find it easier to get mortgages and buy nice homes'
Published On 2 March 2008
A couple will find it much easier than a single person to get a mortgage and onto the property ladder, an industry expert has said.David Kuo, head of personal finance at Fool.co.uk, explained that couples were able to pool their finances and salaries to get a larger mortgage and this means that their "market just opens up very, very widely".
"I think the market is such that a single person on a single wage will [find it] impossible to get onto the housing ladder. In London in particular, you're talking about ten times the average salary just to get onto the housing ladder," Mr Kuo added.
"So this is where two people, when they club their finances together, will find it a lot easier and will find [that they have] a lot more choice."
Despite this, Mr Kuo said that single people could find themselves better off in the long term if they saved the money they would have spent if they were in a relationship.
He pointed to recent data which showed that the average single Brit is £255.42 per month better off than those in a relationship.
"If he or she puts away the £255 of savings they make every month into an investment that is earning, say, eight per cent, which isn't that unreasonable at the moment, then after about ten years that person would have a pot worth £47,000," he concluded.
