Those saying house prices are cheap must not live in the South East of England (or other hotspots like Aberdeen or Bristol) where to buy a house that isn't in a dive you'd need to be earning 50k collectively at the very least. It's why I plan on moving up north as soon as I can as we have no hope of buying a house outright here =)

That's where I'm lucky! I live in the north east! :)

I was earning about £23k when I bought my apartment. It was on a part-buy part-rent scheme so I own 50% and the government owns 50%. It was a new build so I had to pay 25% deposit but it was still affordable. I didn't know I was going to do a PhD 2 years after buying it and I didn't know my postdoc would take me 500 miles away but I love my home so I don't regret buying it. I need a stable base or I can't function and renting for me is not stable.

I think that with so many people on fixed term contracts or in insecure jobs now, it is a little short-sighted of banks to automatically rule out PhD studentships, rather than looking at the cases individually. It doesn't surprise me though.

I've had my mortgage for 15 years, and have never missed a payment. In that time I've had periods of unemployment, zero-hour contracts etc. A couple of years ago, I wanted to move to a new place with my partner, so I approached the bank about transferring my existing mortgage towards the new place (it says I can do that in the terms of my mortgage). They explained that if I changed address, they would treat me as a new customer and would decline me, as I did not have a permanent contract at that time. Yet they were quite happy for me to walk out of the door with my mortgage intact, as long as I stayed in the same flat!

My salary is quite reasonable and as a student I don't have to pay council tax so my bills are less than most peoples.

As for why I bought, quite simply its cheaper than renting (deposit aside), rent of a flat like mine is double what I pay in my mortgage. When I finish, if I do move I can always sell it or rent it depending on the housing market at the time.

I really love to know how PhD students in UK can afford paying mortgage while studying. I was getting paid $ 22,000 as a PhD student (ranges were usually between 21K to 24K) and we were leaving in a small rental but all the money I was receiving were just enough to live a bare minimum. Note that the average house (including apartments) in Canada is $350,000 and as a first time buyer, it is expected that you put 20% down payment which is $70,000. I did not know any student that could afford putting down payment and pay mortgage. I have visited UK few times and every time I was puzzled how people can afford to live in such expensive places (compared to the US and Canada) with the advertized salaries. I think I read somewhere that most people live on credit but this is not the case at least in Canada.

My 1 bed flat was only £67,950 (I live in the North East so house prices are much cheaper) but I did still need a 20% deposit and I was fortunate in that I came into some inheritance at the right time. My mortgage is about £260 a month and my stipend is £15000 a year tax free so it works out rather well.
It is silly now that thet don't accept stipends as an income for mortgages. While it is only temporary I'm far less likely to get made redunant at short notice and my mortgage is still affordable even if I have to work for minimum wage after my PhD.

We are not living on credit, well at least I am not. In my case, I didn't go straight into a PhD so I had a few years to save up for a deposit. Mortgages are generally cheaper than renting, in my case 1/2 the cost, so once you pay the initial outlay for the deposit you are financially better off. Having said that, most students who started their PhD straight from undergrad won't be able to afford a mortgage for years, as they can live well on the stipend, but it doesn't allow for much saving, unless they have help from the bank of mum and dad of course... Plus UK students aren't paying tax or health care or life insurance etc and most don't have cars so living is comparatively cheap.

Also. having lived in the US for a while, I was quite shocked at the difference in lifestyles of US and UK students. Here, we economise, that's how we get by, and it works out pretty well most of the time. There it seemed people took out student loans to pay for a high standard of living that they were accustomed to but really wasn't required and wasn't affordable. PhD students on stipends seemed to have similar economical lifestyles to people in the UK though.

The thing is unlike European countries that people can get a range of lifestyles, there is only two types of life styles that you can get in North America, you either are super-rich (1%ers which are not the topic of this conversation) or the rest... 99%ers. The high standard of living you are indicating is the way of life here and you cannot downgrade it because there is no alternative. It is actually much more expensive to live European style here as compare to super-sized culture we have. In my city the average house area is 2300~2500 sq.ft and smaller houses that are closer to European taste are usually older but much more expensive because they are located in older inner city rings. Cars are "must to have" because the public transportation is not anything near what you have in Europe. So people do not have any other options but to follow the current life-style which may seem shocking to European eyes.

I agree that lifestyle boundaries are more defined that Europe, but more like super-rich, rich or poor. I disagree that this can't be downgraded though. Students do not need a $5 starbucks every morning, a $6 sandwich for lunch and new clothes from JCrew every month. Students do not need to have cars on credit. What's wrong with a $500 car like mine rather than using your student loan to pay for a $300pm car lease? These things can be economised but people are choosing not to.

And it's not like we live in the style of houses we like - we live in the style of housing that is available.

I also disagree that the public transport is worse in the US than in the UK. From what I saw, it was a myth. I had a bus to the city centre that went from outside of my house every 10 mins and a bus to the next big city every hour. That is the same as the UK and furthermore it was cheaper than UK prices. What I did notice was that the only people that took these buses appeared to be poor or young, so I assume this myth perpetuates because the only time Americans take buses is when they are in Europe!

I think it's hard to generalise the US as it's massive and each state is so different. I went to a conference in the north west and it had amazing public transport that was super cheap. But a lot of the other Americans from other places were amazed and said it was nothing like that where they lived. But there was a different attitude there where public transport was 'cool' whereas they said in other places it was seen as only a last resort. House types and prices will vary vastly from state to state too! And I know students here in the UK that have new cars and get starbucks...I don't know how they afford it as I don't have a car, bring my own lunches and never buy coffee and barely scrape by..depends on their priorities I guess!

@TreeofLife: Though most of the things you are mentioning are your personal observations so it is hard to argue but there are few things I can add based on my personal experience.
1) Most of the Europeans and uk'ers when they cross the big pond they see only big cities, NYC, Chicago, NJ, Toronto, Montreal, LA, SF and Vancouver. Although generally speaking life in the US (and Canada) looks more or less the same to many Europeans but people in bigger cities tend to spend their money differently (more trendy stuff, more fashion etc). In the mainland things are a bit different and we spend our money differently (i.e. less fashion clothing and less brand drinks). 2) In the Canadian mainland winters lasts 7~8 months and temperature can go down to -40°C and we have 230 days/nights below zero temperature. A $500 dollars car would not even start for most of the year so you would need a reliable car. 3) For the same reason you only can be exposed to extreme cold for 10~15 minutes before frost bites appear on your skin, then you say to hell with public transportation, that's why you only see poor and kids in buses.

Although I have to say that in order to have an economized life style like you have in the UK, you have to grow up in one, the environment must be more pleasant and the distances must be more manageable than what you see as inter-state or city distances for most of the US and Canada area.

Really interesting discussions. I was just startled by the mortgage discussion because in Germany buying a place is something you usually do when you have kids or are at least 35+ years old. Before that, most people just rent a place, which also makes much more sense to me, as a PhD student is usually at an age where a lot of things will change again (partner, job, potential offspring etc.). I don't really get why someone would do that at this age. Of course you can sell the place again, but this is cumbersome and you always have the potential risk of losing money due to decreasing house/flat prices.
There are also some studies that show that buying a house/flat is overall a luxury and not something you financially benefit from. Most people rather lose money compared to people who rented their whole live. Even if it is paid, it keeps on generating costs that often exaggerate the rent. Probably country specific.

I think you guys sound a bit arrogant about US citizens just eating expensive fast food, buyin starbucks coffee and driving expensive cars ;)

Really interesting discussions. I was just startled by the mortgage discussion because in Germany buying a place is something you usually do when you have kids or are at least 35+ years old. Before that, most people just rent a place, which also makes much more sense to me, as a PhD student is usually at an age where a lot of things will change again (partner, job, potential offspring etc.). I don't really get why someone would commit to such an investment at this age. Of course you can sell the place again, but this is cumbersome and you always have the potential risk of losing money due to decreasing house/flat prices.
There are also some studies that show that buying a house/flat is overall a luxury and not something you financially benefit from. Most people rather lose money compared to people who rented their whole live. Even if it is paid, it keeps on generating costs that often exaggerate the rent. Probably country specific.

I think you guys sound a bit arrogant about US citizens just eating expensive fast food, buyin starbucks coffee and driving expensive cars ;) It is not that easy.

Interesting conversation, has anyone tried to remortgage recently with a PhD stipend as income? I'm going to have to switch my mortgage to a buy to let as I'm moving down south for my PhD. I'm getting a really decent stipend, which is pretty much double the going rate for stipends in the UK but am a bit concerned from the chat I'm seeing here that it won't be enough... Anyone got recent experience?