As you leave uni and enter the world of work, one thing on your mind - beyond landing your dream job and possibly enjoying a new city - might be to start saving some of your money for your first property. We have put together a list of the various tools, tips, and techniques that you can use to get you on the property ladder and make saving a deposit that little bit quicker.

Save Regularly

The first thing to do is realise that saving one large amount is very difficult unless you get a one-off large lump sum. Saving little and often means you will be chipping away at the total amount you need to save little by little.

Save Then Spend

Once you start getting a regular paycheck you will feel really flush. You'll wonder how you ever survived as a student! One thing that everyone does is change their spending habits in line with their new found income. This simply means that you end up at the end of the month with no money left to save. The simple way to get around this is to do your regular saving at the beginning of the month when you get paid and think of it like another bill! If you do this then you can’t spend it and you will just adjust your spending habits for the month.

Help To Buy

Everyone has their opinion about Help-to-Buy (H2B) and it is the first product many people will look at when starting out on buying their first house. Whether or not it’s good government policy you would be silly not to use it. Here are a few points that you should be aware of before you use H2B. ‍

1. Invest up to £1200 when you first open a Help-To- Buy ISA.
2. You can only save up to £200 a month after this.
3. You only get the 25% bonus AFTER you complete on your first house so don’t expect to put the bonus towards the actual deposit. However, you can use it for some furniture or anything else you need for your new home.

  As you can see there are a few caveats of H2B ISA’s and you are rather limited if you are able to save more than £200 per month. Which leads us onto a product you may be less familiar with but could really help boost your savings if you have more than £200 to put away.

Work Smarter Not Harder

There are a raft of new FinTech startups that are designed to help you save and become more financially secure. Cleo, Plum and Monzo to name a few. Some of these offer bank accounts that are fully controlled by their apps. No more calling customer services to block your card! Others connect to all of your accounts and consolidate your data. This gives you great snippets and facts about your spending habits and how they compare to other users. You can even message them questions such as “How much did I spend on coffee last month?” and they will tell you…Pretty neat. If you want to make saving even more seamless companies like moneybox allow you to round up all of your purchases to the nearest pound so that you save change every time you spend…great for those who make a lot of transactions!

Use A Property Crowdfunding Platform Like UOWN

Once you have a certain amount you've set aside, you want to ensure it’s earning a good amount of interest. Ensuring you're not left behind by the housing market is really important. This is where something like property crowdfunding could keep you ahead of the game. Platforms such as UOWN allow you to buy shares in a house and earn money from rental income – this can be as high as 7% in some cases and the real beauty is that because you own part of the house, the real beauty is in the fact that your original investment tracks the property market as house prices change, so if they do go up you aren’t being left behind. With house prices being high, you may need to set realistic expectations as to what property you can afford. Therefore setting realistic expectations on how much you need to save. When it comes to saving a deposit it's not easy and it won't happen overnight but the sooner you begin the sooner you will get there. Do you have any more deposit saving tips for university students and graduates?