How do you afford an apartment on your own?

You get a job and you either pay rent or go to a bank (or other financial institution) and get a mortgage. There are different kinds of rental agreements some which allow you the option to buy and different kinds of mortgages. Or you can do what I did which was save 50% of my income for 5 years and then buying a small flat which I rented out while paying rent myself. After another 5 years I'd saved enough money such that after selling the initial flat and combining my savings I was able to buy a very nice 3 bedroom detached cash down (at a huge discount too because cash).