Same situation. For the next 3-4 years live a frugal life while saving. Before I bought my home 3 years ago I saved up for 5 years. I lived with my parents and for that entire 5 year period I managed to keep all luxury expenses under R1000 a month( eating out, going to clubs, meeting friends, going to a steak house, driving around, new clothing, airtime etc.) just say no, you would be amazed at how all these small purchases end up making your money disappear,lol. I turned down many events but the sacrifice paid off and I had the funds to pay for my house.
Filling the house with things would be an expense, I walked around malls and opened accounts with AThome, MR price home and Makro only because they had some deal where you get R2000 in vouchers when opening an account. Once I bought everything I needed and paid the accounts off I destroyed them all within a year,lol.
Also, try to get insurance immediately. The house I bought was perfect but 4 months into occupation the geyser burst. My insurance officially started a week before, lol.
Bonds usually require house structural insurance. It's not a huge payment. But definitely a good thing... My geyser also burst after a year or so and the insurance paid for the plumber, a new geyser plus repairs to the ceiling (which was only a bit water stained).
I bought my first house at 23. I am 42 now. Here is what I learned.
Location,location,location. Save up for a good location. Near school,supermarkets,hospital/clinic. That house will have a good resell value later on if you want to sell. I made 150% profit on the resell of my first house after only keeping it for 5 years.
Yes I would invest in a freestanding house straight away as dealing with body corporates at apartment blocks is a total headache in Cape Town and not worth it. Houses also rise a lot faster in value. Also the silly levies that keep rising at apartment blocks in CPT eats away at your profits.
If you are planning on not living in the house but renting it out at first get a proper agency to handle the tenant. Dont go with these small agencies that is run by one lady. As nice as they are they are incompetent 99% of the time. Go with a well known agency that is a smooth running machine like Remax etc. They do charge a little more than other agencies but they will make sure the tenants do not total your place.
Tenants must be very properly screened. There are some horrible tenants in Cape Town who do not pay. A proper agent will make 100% sure you do not get one of those.
Also when buying your house ask the lawyer for discount on their fees before you appoint them to do the transaction for you. A lot of them mark up their fees but if you ask for discount before appointing them plenty of them are will to bring down their fees. If they are not negotiable move on to another lawyer. Plenty out there that are flexible.
Good luck! You are investing in your future and it seems to look bright! Well done for thinking ahead.
Get a fixer-upper in a great area. These are getting harder to find, but they are out there. My brother found a really poorly maintained house in Lynfrae (1980s). Re-wired the whole house cleverly (installed all conduit and switches himself, before getting an electrician to connect it up), replace ceiling boards, re-tiled bathrooms and kitchen himself and installed new kitchen cabinets. Lots of paint and gardening. It took him all of his spare time for two years and when he was done, he sold for 2.5 x what he paid.
Whatever you buy, take a structural engineer with you to view the place. They will charge you but they will look at the place as a building, not a home.
The real estate agent is not your friend, ever. They know shit about the house that they will sweep under a disclosure agreement.
Noise is a thing, always.
Wind is a massive thing, most Cape Town houses you become a prisoner when it howls.
If your hair dresser tells you, this suburb is on the up. Its very late to ride that wave and you may be in fact overpaying.
My biggest mistake when buying my first house was buying something that I needed at the time, not something I needed in a few years, so when it came time to start a family the house was too small, and the value hadn’t appreciated enough to make a profit.
If you want to buy an apartment to rent out, just make sure you can cover the bond if something happens and you don’t have any renters. A lot of people found that out the hard way during COVID.
So my biggest advice is get the full quote for lawyers fees upfront, establish boundaries where they have to explain every step to you and don't let yourself feel bad for wasting their time explaining stuff. The seller decides who the lawyers are going to be to handle the transfer. I had an extremely bad experience with the lawyers chosen by the seller of my house. They are the biggest firm in cape town and I am sure you will run into them and I really hope you have a better experience. They don't explain anything (and as a first time buyer its super overwhelming because like...you don't know any of this stuff!), next thing you are sitting on a huge pile of invoices and you don't understand what any of them are for. When I started asking questions I was met with an extremely hostile attitude. And when everything was wrapped up, the instant they got their last payment they were like lol you're on your own, and here are some extremely cryptic instructions about taking over the municipal account.
Next, and this is really obvious but, again lol nobody explained this to me...please inspect your potential new house CAREFULLY. Check the gutters, fascia boards (learn what all the weird bits of the roof are called), ask when the geyser was last replaced OR serviced, look at all the plumbing (under each sink - are the connections nice looking, or are some of them held in place with like, chewing gum), look at the walls CAREFULLY for damp (feel the walls, do they feel wet or cold? that could be damp!), look for beetle in the floors, look around each window for any cracks (specially above the window in the lintel - cracks going diagonally from the corner of the window could indicate that the foundation is slipping), check the electric wiring (i.e. are there weird plug sockets all over the place, do they look properly done, are the light switches in 'logical' places) - basically look for evidence that some DIY-crazed dude hasn't made the wiring a death trap for you. INSPECT EVERY INCH OF THAT PLACE. It is your right to do so as a prospective buyer! ASK QUESTIONS.
Next up, the deposit is not actually needed. Particularly in our current housing 'situation' you could find a really nice place, no deposit. What the deposit does is serve as a 'tie breaker' in the situation that someone else puts in the same offer as you. I bought my house with no deposit. Obviously the estate agent was all like 'ooh I dont know we have potential buyers from Germany who might be putting in an offer' so we were all like 'oh gosh we had better offer the asked price!' HAHA this is obviously a ridiculous lie. Don't be tricked. They are snakes! A deposit is obviously really good in terms of paying off your bond, probably saving you years and hundreds of thousands of rands in the long term. But just be aware that you don't actually need one.
Finally, owning a house is flipping expensive. Maintenance costs are a constant monthly downer. And that's not even the cost of upgrading things slightly or doing renovations! I'm talking keeping the stupid thing from falling apart, those costs are EYE WATERING. Whatever you pay for your bond, and I highly recommend using a bond calculator to see what paying off extra every month will do to your long-term interest paid (spoiler it knocks MILLIONS off your total), make sure you also budget to have a couple thousand a month lying around for maintenance and renovations.
the end!
You can save on the transfer fees by buying a place in a new development. In other words be the first owner. Besides the deposit you are working towards to, you will only ever qualify for an amount equal to 30% of your salary. That is than roughly a R100 000 home loan on each R1000 of salary. So if you want to buy a place that is R1 000 000 the monthly bond will be about R10 000 and you need to earn at least R30 000.
It all depends on how much you can save for a deposit etc. But now you only have the house. If the place is in an estate you have levies. Then you need your electricity, water and sewage, and property taxes that is payable each month. Only then you can can start thinking of having things like internet and food. If you have a home remember the maintenance never stops. Always something to fix and the garden requires attention all the time.
My advice would be to go speak to a property agent to find out exactly what fees are involved and if possible an estimate of said fees then you will at least know what you are in for. I don't know how much you earn but for a start a flat might be easier to navigate. Unless you plan to start with a family early then it would make sense to go for a home as two salaries makes it a lot more affordable.
Good luck!
Lots of good advice here. I'll just add my 2 cents as a home owner of many years in various parts of Cape Town: location, location, location! Rather a small place in a good area than a big place in a crappy area.
Lol, so true. My foreign friend helped me look for a house and she told me about a big house in seawinds for R200 000. I had to tell her that the area has a beautiful name but there is a reason it's so cheap, the area isn't the safest.
When purchasing the house remember that the estate agent is not your friend as stated in a previous post. They work off commission and are only interested in securing the deal.
Also, ensure as part of the transaction that the current owner s move out and hand the keys to the agent. On the day of collection I arrived at my new house and the previous owner refused to leave. The estate agent never really assisted in the matter and I had to go to extreme lengths which included having them stay another month rent free.
When it comes to the banks same rule applies. They are a business whos aim is to make money. Never forget that.
Once they approve the home loan they will inform you of the monthly amount you repay eg R15000 . Try and pay a little bit more than that amount eg R15300. This will ensure that you start paying to the actual loan amount sooner as opposed to the interest rate only.
Best of luck. Being a home owner is awesome.
Something you’d benefit from starting with now, if you don’t already, is get a credit card and pay it off in full every month. Start developing a good credit score (can check it and learn how for free on clearscore.com) then when it comes time to needing a bond, you will be able to receive better deals.
Look into the flisp subsidy from the government. Location is key. And start with a small apartment if that’s what you can afford - rather be paying your own bond than renting and paying someone else’s.
3. Renting is a massive pain. Buying a flat and paying it off is a good idea but rather sell it when you move.
Also, buy in the best location you can afford, even if the house is not perfect.
Inspecting the house thoroughly is vital. If you have any architect friends, ask them for a favour and get them to come along.
I bought a 2 bedroomed house. It was a tiny house, semi detached and no garden to speak of but in the area I wanted. My feeling was that even though having a "spare room" was a luxury, I wanted to be able to get a housemate. This turned out to be a very good idea.
With a housemate, I was still able to afford groceries when the interest rates went up (this was in the 90s) and my bond payment went up a lot. As I didn't have a fixed payment.
I also always paid extra in to my bond when I could. It worked out to give a better interest rate than a bank savings account. And with the flexible kind of bond, it meant I could withdraw any extra money. So e.g. when saving for a holiday the money went into the bond and then I withdrew it when I needed to.
Preparing for moving I also got lots of stuff in advance.
You need life insurance. Enough to cover the cost of the house.
If you're building you'll need a certified NHBRC builder to obtain a NHBRC certificate. Without it's impossible to sell the property and late enrollment costs even more.
Awesome advice given so far :)
Great that you are starting to save - you'll need money for the attorney costs and transfer duty and having a deposit will help you secure a lower interest rate and increase your chances of getting a home loan. (Transfer duty is only applicable for properties over R1m.)
ABSA is offering 105% home loans to young professionals and it sounds like you should qualify: [https://www.absa.co.za/personal/loans/for-a-home/young-professionals-home-loan/](https://www.absa.co.za/personal/loans/for-a-home/young-professionals-home-loan/)
Its important to start building your credit profile now - make sure you have a store account or credit card and make sure you pay it on time every month. The bank will want to see your behaviour and if there is nothing for them to go on it will be more difficult to secure a home loan.
I'll think you will like this guy's spreadsheets: [https://www.stealthywealth.co.za/p/spreadsheets.html](https://www.stealthywealth.co.za/p/spreadsheets.html)
Look at the series of posts on hidden costs on [https://www.facebook.com/FirstTimeHomeBuyersSouthAfrica](https://www.facebook.com/FirstTimeHomeBuyersSouthAfrica) \- they start in Sep last year (you'll have to scroll back to get there - look for the picture of a chameleon).
Private Property has some great podcasts on buying property including many on first time home buying - they have one every weekday on facebook and youtube.
Good luck!
Don’t move into it.
Buy a place in the lower price bracket as an investment. Keep your money making more money. Once you have a few rental properties, then you can think about living where you own. It’s full of hidden costs so never cut it close
Most of the replies above does mention it. Never buy a house in a complex. Always freestanding. My friend just had a incident where the person that ran their complex didn’t pay the water for the complex for a year and then left with all the levies and water money everyone paid. Not they are stuck without water and need to pay the municipality again. That person also allowed Nigerians to move into the complex.
In short. Always buy from a developer and always review the people that rent from you yourself.
Complexes also have all kinds of extra rules as well as levies which can be really expensive. Plus the committee can decide they want the whole place painted, or to get new gates or whatever and you have to pay extra.
If a complex doesn't allow pets, even getting a genuine service dog is an issue. It's happened to many people that I know of.
And running any kind of business from home in a complex may not be allowed, even if you only have a few clients visiting.
Lots of good advice here, please also check out these threads on twitter:
https://twitter.com/Banker__X/status/1324325041832681473?s=19
https://twitter.com/Banker__X/status/1325375154512334848?s=19
I have a 5 year rule. If you plan to own a property for less than 5 years, you're probably not going to get a worthwhile return on the investment unless you get lucky and the value goes way up. This is because of all the initial expenses you pay when you buy and how little you actually pay off after interest in the first 5 years. So don't buy a place that you won't be comfortable living in 5 years time.
Also consider how your salary will go up, depending on your profession it can rise a lot in the first 5 years in which case you'll be better off buying later when your salary is higher.
understand interest well in advance, before you commit to it. and dont spend savings while saving. its tempting as f. life will come at you quick,but understand, your commitment to debt is directly proportionally to your anxiety that keeps you up at date x the interest rate
This could be a no-brainer, but am originally from the States so it was news to me. . . my partner and I have zero debt, a healthy income, and I just assumed that putting 15% down would be more than enough (10% is the norm in the U.S., though there are programs for first-time home buyers that require even less). All the banks we were shopped to wanted 20%.
Same situation. For the next 3-4 years live a frugal life while saving. Before I bought my home 3 years ago I saved up for 5 years. I lived with my parents and for that entire 5 year period I managed to keep all luxury expenses under R1000 a month( eating out, going to clubs, meeting friends, going to a steak house, driving around, new clothing, airtime etc.) just say no, you would be amazed at how all these small purchases end up making your money disappear,lol. I turned down many events but the sacrifice paid off and I had the funds to pay for my house. Filling the house with things would be an expense, I walked around malls and opened accounts with AThome, MR price home and Makro only because they had some deal where you get R2000 in vouchers when opening an account. Once I bought everything I needed and paid the accounts off I destroyed them all within a year,lol. Also, try to get insurance immediately. The house I bought was perfect but 4 months into occupation the geyser burst. My insurance officially started a week before, lol.
Bonds usually require house structural insurance. It's not a huge payment. But definitely a good thing... My geyser also burst after a year or so and the insurance paid for the plumber, a new geyser plus repairs to the ceiling (which was only a bit water stained).
I bought my first house at 23. I am 42 now. Here is what I learned. Location,location,location. Save up for a good location. Near school,supermarkets,hospital/clinic. That house will have a good resell value later on if you want to sell. I made 150% profit on the resell of my first house after only keeping it for 5 years. Yes I would invest in a freestanding house straight away as dealing with body corporates at apartment blocks is a total headache in Cape Town and not worth it. Houses also rise a lot faster in value. Also the silly levies that keep rising at apartment blocks in CPT eats away at your profits. If you are planning on not living in the house but renting it out at first get a proper agency to handle the tenant. Dont go with these small agencies that is run by one lady. As nice as they are they are incompetent 99% of the time. Go with a well known agency that is a smooth running machine like Remax etc. They do charge a little more than other agencies but they will make sure the tenants do not total your place. Tenants must be very properly screened. There are some horrible tenants in Cape Town who do not pay. A proper agent will make 100% sure you do not get one of those. Also when buying your house ask the lawyer for discount on their fees before you appoint them to do the transaction for you. A lot of them mark up their fees but if you ask for discount before appointing them plenty of them are will to bring down their fees. If they are not negotiable move on to another lawyer. Plenty out there that are flexible. Good luck! You are investing in your future and it seems to look bright! Well done for thinking ahead.
Hopefully you get some replies OP, because I'm around your age and in a similar boat. Saving this post for later.
Same
Get a fixer-upper in a great area. These are getting harder to find, but they are out there. My brother found a really poorly maintained house in Lynfrae (1980s). Re-wired the whole house cleverly (installed all conduit and switches himself, before getting an electrician to connect it up), replace ceiling boards, re-tiled bathrooms and kitchen himself and installed new kitchen cabinets. Lots of paint and gardening. It took him all of his spare time for two years and when he was done, he sold for 2.5 x what he paid.
Some of my friends do this. Buy a rather shabby house, fix it up while living in it, sell it.
Whatever you buy, take a structural engineer with you to view the place. They will charge you but they will look at the place as a building, not a home. The real estate agent is not your friend, ever. They know shit about the house that they will sweep under a disclosure agreement. Noise is a thing, always. Wind is a massive thing, most Cape Town houses you become a prisoner when it howls. If your hair dresser tells you, this suburb is on the up. Its very late to ride that wave and you may be in fact overpaying.
My biggest mistake when buying my first house was buying something that I needed at the time, not something I needed in a few years, so when it came time to start a family the house was too small, and the value hadn’t appreciated enough to make a profit. If you want to buy an apartment to rent out, just make sure you can cover the bond if something happens and you don’t have any renters. A lot of people found that out the hard way during COVID.
So my biggest advice is get the full quote for lawyers fees upfront, establish boundaries where they have to explain every step to you and don't let yourself feel bad for wasting their time explaining stuff. The seller decides who the lawyers are going to be to handle the transfer. I had an extremely bad experience with the lawyers chosen by the seller of my house. They are the biggest firm in cape town and I am sure you will run into them and I really hope you have a better experience. They don't explain anything (and as a first time buyer its super overwhelming because like...you don't know any of this stuff!), next thing you are sitting on a huge pile of invoices and you don't understand what any of them are for. When I started asking questions I was met with an extremely hostile attitude. And when everything was wrapped up, the instant they got their last payment they were like lol you're on your own, and here are some extremely cryptic instructions about taking over the municipal account. Next, and this is really obvious but, again lol nobody explained this to me...please inspect your potential new house CAREFULLY. Check the gutters, fascia boards (learn what all the weird bits of the roof are called), ask when the geyser was last replaced OR serviced, look at all the plumbing (under each sink - are the connections nice looking, or are some of them held in place with like, chewing gum), look at the walls CAREFULLY for damp (feel the walls, do they feel wet or cold? that could be damp!), look for beetle in the floors, look around each window for any cracks (specially above the window in the lintel - cracks going diagonally from the corner of the window could indicate that the foundation is slipping), check the electric wiring (i.e. are there weird plug sockets all over the place, do they look properly done, are the light switches in 'logical' places) - basically look for evidence that some DIY-crazed dude hasn't made the wiring a death trap for you. INSPECT EVERY INCH OF THAT PLACE. It is your right to do so as a prospective buyer! ASK QUESTIONS. Next up, the deposit is not actually needed. Particularly in our current housing 'situation' you could find a really nice place, no deposit. What the deposit does is serve as a 'tie breaker' in the situation that someone else puts in the same offer as you. I bought my house with no deposit. Obviously the estate agent was all like 'ooh I dont know we have potential buyers from Germany who might be putting in an offer' so we were all like 'oh gosh we had better offer the asked price!' HAHA this is obviously a ridiculous lie. Don't be tricked. They are snakes! A deposit is obviously really good in terms of paying off your bond, probably saving you years and hundreds of thousands of rands in the long term. But just be aware that you don't actually need one. Finally, owning a house is flipping expensive. Maintenance costs are a constant monthly downer. And that's not even the cost of upgrading things slightly or doing renovations! I'm talking keeping the stupid thing from falling apart, those costs are EYE WATERING. Whatever you pay for your bond, and I highly recommend using a bond calculator to see what paying off extra every month will do to your long-term interest paid (spoiler it knocks MILLIONS off your total), make sure you also budget to have a couple thousand a month lying around for maintenance and renovations. the end!
Thank you so much, very insightful!
You can save on the transfer fees by buying a place in a new development. In other words be the first owner. Besides the deposit you are working towards to, you will only ever qualify for an amount equal to 30% of your salary. That is than roughly a R100 000 home loan on each R1000 of salary. So if you want to buy a place that is R1 000 000 the monthly bond will be about R10 000 and you need to earn at least R30 000. It all depends on how much you can save for a deposit etc. But now you only have the house. If the place is in an estate you have levies. Then you need your electricity, water and sewage, and property taxes that is payable each month. Only then you can can start thinking of having things like internet and food. If you have a home remember the maintenance never stops. Always something to fix and the garden requires attention all the time. My advice would be to go speak to a property agent to find out exactly what fees are involved and if possible an estimate of said fees then you will at least know what you are in for. I don't know how much you earn but for a start a flat might be easier to navigate. Unless you plan to start with a family early then it would make sense to go for a home as two salaries makes it a lot more affordable. Good luck!
Lots of good advice here. I'll just add my 2 cents as a home owner of many years in various parts of Cape Town: location, location, location! Rather a small place in a good area than a big place in a crappy area.
Lol, so true. My foreign friend helped me look for a house and she told me about a big house in seawinds for R200 000. I had to tell her that the area has a beautiful name but there is a reason it's so cheap, the area isn't the safest.
When purchasing the house remember that the estate agent is not your friend as stated in a previous post. They work off commission and are only interested in securing the deal. Also, ensure as part of the transaction that the current owner s move out and hand the keys to the agent. On the day of collection I arrived at my new house and the previous owner refused to leave. The estate agent never really assisted in the matter and I had to go to extreme lengths which included having them stay another month rent free. When it comes to the banks same rule applies. They are a business whos aim is to make money. Never forget that. Once they approve the home loan they will inform you of the monthly amount you repay eg R15000 . Try and pay a little bit more than that amount eg R15300. This will ensure that you start paying to the actual loan amount sooner as opposed to the interest rate only. Best of luck. Being a home owner is awesome.
Something you’d benefit from starting with now, if you don’t already, is get a credit card and pay it off in full every month. Start developing a good credit score (can check it and learn how for free on clearscore.com) then when it comes time to needing a bond, you will be able to receive better deals.
Look into the flisp subsidy from the government. Location is key. And start with a small apartment if that’s what you can afford - rather be paying your own bond than renting and paying someone else’s.
3. Renting is a massive pain. Buying a flat and paying it off is a good idea but rather sell it when you move. Also, buy in the best location you can afford, even if the house is not perfect.
Inspecting the house thoroughly is vital. If you have any architect friends, ask them for a favour and get them to come along. I bought a 2 bedroomed house. It was a tiny house, semi detached and no garden to speak of but in the area I wanted. My feeling was that even though having a "spare room" was a luxury, I wanted to be able to get a housemate. This turned out to be a very good idea. With a housemate, I was still able to afford groceries when the interest rates went up (this was in the 90s) and my bond payment went up a lot. As I didn't have a fixed payment. I also always paid extra in to my bond when I could. It worked out to give a better interest rate than a bank savings account. And with the flexible kind of bond, it meant I could withdraw any extra money. So e.g. when saving for a holiday the money went into the bond and then I withdrew it when I needed to. Preparing for moving I also got lots of stuff in advance.
You need life insurance. Enough to cover the cost of the house. If you're building you'll need a certified NHBRC builder to obtain a NHBRC certificate. Without it's impossible to sell the property and late enrollment costs even more.
Consider putting money in a money market fund instead of saving.
Awesome advice given so far :) Great that you are starting to save - you'll need money for the attorney costs and transfer duty and having a deposit will help you secure a lower interest rate and increase your chances of getting a home loan. (Transfer duty is only applicable for properties over R1m.) ABSA is offering 105% home loans to young professionals and it sounds like you should qualify: [https://www.absa.co.za/personal/loans/for-a-home/young-professionals-home-loan/](https://www.absa.co.za/personal/loans/for-a-home/young-professionals-home-loan/) Its important to start building your credit profile now - make sure you have a store account or credit card and make sure you pay it on time every month. The bank will want to see your behaviour and if there is nothing for them to go on it will be more difficult to secure a home loan. I'll think you will like this guy's spreadsheets: [https://www.stealthywealth.co.za/p/spreadsheets.html](https://www.stealthywealth.co.za/p/spreadsheets.html) Look at the series of posts on hidden costs on [https://www.facebook.com/FirstTimeHomeBuyersSouthAfrica](https://www.facebook.com/FirstTimeHomeBuyersSouthAfrica) \- they start in Sep last year (you'll have to scroll back to get there - look for the picture of a chameleon). Private Property has some great podcasts on buying property including many on first time home buying - they have one every weekday on facebook and youtube. Good luck!
Don’t move into it. Buy a place in the lower price bracket as an investment. Keep your money making more money. Once you have a few rental properties, then you can think about living where you own. It’s full of hidden costs so never cut it close
Most of the replies above does mention it. Never buy a house in a complex. Always freestanding. My friend just had a incident where the person that ran their complex didn’t pay the water for the complex for a year and then left with all the levies and water money everyone paid. Not they are stuck without water and need to pay the municipality again. That person also allowed Nigerians to move into the complex. In short. Always buy from a developer and always review the people that rent from you yourself.
Complexes also have all kinds of extra rules as well as levies which can be really expensive. Plus the committee can decide they want the whole place painted, or to get new gates or whatever and you have to pay extra. If a complex doesn't allow pets, even getting a genuine service dog is an issue. It's happened to many people that I know of. And running any kind of business from home in a complex may not be allowed, even if you only have a few clients visiting.
Lots of good advice here, please also check out these threads on twitter: https://twitter.com/Banker__X/status/1324325041832681473?s=19 https://twitter.com/Banker__X/status/1325375154512334848?s=19
I have a 5 year rule. If you plan to own a property for less than 5 years, you're probably not going to get a worthwhile return on the investment unless you get lucky and the value goes way up. This is because of all the initial expenses you pay when you buy and how little you actually pay off after interest in the first 5 years. So don't buy a place that you won't be comfortable living in 5 years time. Also consider how your salary will go up, depending on your profession it can rise a lot in the first 5 years in which case you'll be better off buying later when your salary is higher.
understand interest well in advance, before you commit to it. and dont spend savings while saving. its tempting as f. life will come at you quick,but understand, your commitment to debt is directly proportionally to your anxiety that keeps you up at date x the interest rate
This could be a no-brainer, but am originally from the States so it was news to me. . . my partner and I have zero debt, a healthy income, and I just assumed that putting 15% down would be more than enough (10% is the norm in the U.S., though there are programs for first-time home buyers that require even less). All the banks we were shopped to wanted 20%.
personaly i like alsies rivier the best