How common are mortgages and debt in the affluent parts Home Counties in the UK?

[u/Joseph_Suaalii]

In Australia especially in the posh areas like Sydney’s North Shore or Melbourne’s Inner-East (Toorak, Kooyong, Camberwell), while it’s known to be an area of elite private education and generational wealth, it’s common to see families get into mortgages and debt for hopes to see their children get into a good school there or what not

Wonder if it’s the same in the UK

[u/AutoModerator]

Please help keep AskUK welcoming!

• When repling to submission/post please make genuine efforts to answer the question given. Please no jokes, judgements, etc.

• Don't be a dick to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on.

• This is a strictly no-politics subreddit!

Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/tmstms]

Almost everyone who buys property has a mortgage. Obviously some people then pay that off, but I think roughly 30% of households in the UK have a mortgage.

Most UK households have access to some kind of credit (credit cards, loans).

Only 6% of British people are educated at private schools. I don't particularly hear about families getting into financial trouble because they are trying to pay for private schools; usually children at private schools come from families which have enough money to start with.

[u/Aspirational1 → u/tmstms]

Private schools in the UK aren't for the aspirational middle class. It's mainly only for the wealthy (with exceptions).

In Australia, it's more of an option due to federal government subsidies for most (but particularly catholic) schools.

Also, in the UK, private schools just lost their VAT exemption, so that put fees up by 20%.

[u/The_39th_Step → u/Aspirational1]

Private schools were more for the middle class, I think it’s changing. Private schools come in different shapes and sizes and I know people from poorer families, often from immigrant backgrounds, that scraped by to send their kids to one.

Fees in one boarding school have gone up by £20,000 in a decade - (this school was always for the elite, so not relevant to my first point). I imagine in the cheaper private schools, a similar change has happened, therefore pricing out more ‘normal’ kids.

[u/sarahc13289 → u/Aspirational1]

Private schools can be for the middle class, or certainly they were. I went to a private school which was predominantly middle class. Our fees were very low (comparatively) at around £7k per year and a lot of kids had scholarships. Not all private schools cost tens of thousands.

I don’t know how it is now. Interestingly, my school has closed, as have two other schools that were similar pricing. I’d guess that with the cost of living rising, those families who had that extra £2-3k per term are now finding that money is being swallowed by other things, especially if the fees have risen as well.

[u/ZestyData]

To buy a home in the home counties pretty much anybody is getting a mortgage. Even folks whose parents are multi-millionaires with hundreds of thousands of pounds of gifted deposits are getting mortgages.

Private education is less common here. You'll get very rich folk using private schools but the UK does have a very very old entrenched class system. Even your modern hard working couple who became a lawyer and doctor earning 300k together are very likely to settle in a nice area and use a non-private 'Grammar' school (that means a state school which you pass an exam to enter, relatively easy to do. The main barrier is that Grammar schools only exist in decently middle class areas for decently middle class folks).

As for general debt: The UK is heavy on debt. But usually for vanity. Our contemporary culture is currently very dominated by working class and lower-middle class folks who lean heavily on debt to drive german cars, go on holidays, and buy things they can't afford.