That was pretty normal back then - Extra could be added for double glazing / central heating etc.
For those in the know - You could get a ( Free ) grant to do the same thing
I got my first mortgage at the end of the '90s by saving like fcuk, old banger motor, no foreign holidays, full time job with all the overtime going and 80 to 90 days a year with the TA (no support from my employer who still liked to claim that they supported Reserve Forces.)
Admittedly I had no commitments family wise and was lucky to be able to move back in with the folks for a time with the specific aim of saving money to fund a deposit - I acknowledge that not everybody has that advantage. I managed to scrape together about £20k and with the help of my then boss who upped my salary and overtime on the mortgage paperwork, managed to get a mortgage and bought my first house. My boss on learning how much deposit i had saved said "Why don't you buy a new car with it?"
Paying the mortgage was then a matter of eating cheaply, no holidays, more old bangers and watching every penny. Until I got married, and for some time afterwards, things were a bit tight but there was the satisfaction of seeing the loan slowly decrease. When 'er indoors and myself gradually got better pay over the years we overpaid the mortgage and avoided the temptation to remortgage and withdraw equity when house prices rose, except when we extended and in doing so added more value.
An old mate who is in his forties still doesn't have a house. He was in the regulars for over a decade, single and on far more money than I was, married a girl with a well over £50k income when he left, enjoyed foreign holidays, p!ssed it up etc. To be fair he acknowledges that he could have saved a bit more but says on the other hand, at least he had a good time and was not watching an old black and white telly that came with the house (try convincing TV Licencing that you really don't have a colour telly) and eating beans on toast.
Swings and roundabouts but I know where I'd rather be now. Similarly, "youngsters" I work with moan about not being able to afford a house but have car loans of £250 plus a month, holidays and weekends abroad at every opportunity, phone bills of £30 plus a month, eating out every weekend etc. Most of them are living at home at low rent or rent free but seem to have put owning a home as unobtainable and say they may as well have a good time while they can. Understandable I suppose.
I was very lucky to buy when prices were relatively low and then spiralled and have had unprecedented low interest rates, and know that young people today have an entirely different scenario to contend with, as well as wider factors like Covid and its legacy. However I feel that financial management or whatever you want to call it should be an integral part of the syllabus in schools.
Just finished my bowl of gruel so off now to stag on in the salt mines.
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