It all started so well. Back in precredit-crunch 2006, my boyfriend, Andrew, and I eagerly bought a two-bedroom flat in leafy Epsom, Surrey, for £220,000. Smug to be first-time buyers while only in our twenties, and desperate to escape awful landlords, we were too happy to be ascending the first rung of the property ladder really to consider what we were buying... and how we were buying it.
We weren't alone. Many other unmarried couples - certainly most of our cohabiting friends - were equally as keen to buy into a long-term mortgage commitment before house prices rose even more steeply. Asking prices for flats increased by nearly £10,000 in the three months from when we made an offer to moving in February 2007.
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