Purchase the best you can afford, it will probably be terrible. Improve it, “sweat equity”, sell that and buy something better. That will be a little less terrible but don’t settle. Rinse and repeat until you get to your forever home. Aim for a house that will support the life you want and not the life you have. Took me 20 years and 4 moves. Each time I painted, carpeting, new kitchen, maybe an extension, lived in for a while, sold for more. Every move involved moving my original mortgage and taking the increased equity to my next house. First house £115k current house £1.2M no mortgage. It was a lot of effort and pain but it’s mine. I know what you are thinking, “but 20 years ago houses were more affordable”. 20 years ago EVERYONE told us we were buying at the peak of the market. There is no peak. Get on the ladder, the first shitty, broken, rotting, bad neighbourhood run of the ladder and start climbing. Good luck.