Want to make your dream home a reality? Providing your dream home isn’t a palace constructed of gold, there are ways to afford your ideal property on an average wage. Patience is key – good comes to those that wait. Here are just a few strategies…

Saving up

Your dream home probably isn’t cheap. You can spend years saving up – or you can get creative and invest. Most investments are a risk, so you’re best seeking out an investment broker or taking the time to educate yourself first, especially if you’re venturing into stocks. There are various savings accounts that are risk-free investments, although they can often come with catches, or may be slower to make a return. Another investment strategy is to work your way up the property ladder. If you don’t want to be retired before you obtain your dream home, this may require making some sacrifices in terms of stability as you’ll have to buy and sell fast. With children or other commitments, this may not be possible.

Shopping around for a mortgage

Affording your dream home might also require getting creative with a mortgage. Your dream home will be somewhere you want to stay rooted, in which case it may be worth finding a mortgage that allows you to lay down a low deposit and pay off over a long period. This may come with a lot of interest, you may only pay it off when you reach retirement. But if you can make this sacrifice, it could be worthwhile. You should use a mortgage loan calculator when counting up costs. Also consider hiring a mortgage broker, as well as targeting specific lenders that allow personalised mortgages.

Considering renovating

Your dream home might not exist out there, but you may be able to use another home to sculpt your own property around. When shopping around, stop seeing properties as finished products but as shop dummies that you can accessorise and fashion to your liking. Consider extensions that can be made, walls that can be knocked through, fittings that can be replaced or relocated. Hire a surveyor whilst shopping around properties that can help you with the practicalities of your renovation ideas, so that you know what work you can realistically do and how much it will cost to transform each property into your dream home.

Considering a self-build

Another option is to build your dream home from scratch. A self-build is generally cheaper than buying a property of the same size and quality. This includes all building and legal fees, as well as the purchase of land. Buying land can be a difficult task – even if you find the right patch there may be legal restrictions of what you can build there. Look hard until you’ve found the perfect piece of land that meets your building requirements, and then get building. Just like buying a home, you can take out a special self-build mortgage, cutting down initial costs. Being your own home, you also have the freedom to make it as energy efficient as you like – saving costs later down the line.