Home - Buy or Rent

[sparkymark75]

Just interested in people's thoughts on this.

My wife's all for buying a house whereas I see myself as being less materialistic when it comes to property and would be happy renting.

 

[krish]

buying a house is not materialistic, it's common sense in many cases
- my mortgage repayments are less than many peoples' rent

 

[Citizen J]

Why rent when you can buy.

If you can the buy.

Can being the important word here.

 

[Deleted member 293381]

Good question.

We've done both and can quite safely say that, over a long period of time, owning a low-maintenance property is beneficial financially. Whereas renting a property is a drain on resources.

However, some properties are high maintenance and can be a constant drain on resources. It all depends on the age and type of property purchased.

The easy way out is renting: can move from area to area more easily if the job demands it. No hassle with regards to maintenance or decoration. No property insurance hassles if a claim is made.

House prices go up and down but over a period of time they generally go up... and up... and up... (!)

 

[SteveCritten]

Prices are so low at the moment that you would be daft not to buy now if you can afford the deposit, I have just bought 6 more in the last year!! Cheap as chips as they say.

 

[steviedog]

My girlfriend and I have been renting for the past 3 years. We've been paying £500 per month for a 2 bed in a nice location (hence the high rent).

In total we've paid £18k in rent and we're due to stay on here for 1 more year (we're both students), so our total outlay of rent over the 4 years will be £24k.

Looking at our example I think it's pretty clear that it's better to buy then to rent. I feel sick just doing the maths but theres no bank on the planet which is going to give a mortgage to two full-time students.

 

[krish]

... theres no bank on the planet which is going to give a mortgage to two full-time students.

which is why some parents agree to be guarantors

 

[steviedog]

which is why some parents agree to be guarantors

Not an option for me im afraid.

 

[cypher007]

read this site housepricecrash.co.uk . i would rent until early 2011 at least, maybe even wait until 2012. youve goto wait for high interst rates, eg. 5%, and mass redundancies in the public sector to winkle people out of there homes due to repossesion. then house prices will probably fall 30-40%.

 

[cypher007]

Prices are so low at the moment that you would be daft not to buy now if you can afford the deposit, I have just bought 6 more in the last year!! Cheap as chips as they say.

are you crazy. prices at the moment are beyond most peoples joint income let alone single income, which is what the mortgage company should be testing it against, eg. 3.5-4 times one persons income not 6 times two peoples. this is why the countries in the doggy doo. its also why they recon there's a mega load of people who will loose there house if interest rates so much as go up probably a full percent.

 

[jassco]

read this site housepricecrash.co.uk . i would rent until early 2011 at least, maybe even wait until 2012. youve goto wait for high interst rates, eg. 5%, and mass redundancies in the public sector to winkle people out of there homes due to repossesion. then house prices will probably fall 30-40%.

yes, because that website is completely impartial

If you can afford it, then go for it. Prices aren't going to change that significantly over the coming years; they're far more likely to stagnate for the next 3-4 years than have a huge crash again.

 

[kBm]

Renting is easy, but its not your home. Its someone else's, and if they wish, they can turf you out with 2 months notice.

Having rented for many years, now i'm a happy but skint homeowner.

 

[SteveCritten]

Cypher I am not sure how old you are but I have been in property (gains and losses) for 28 years in fact the first property I bought when I was 19 was a plot of land and built my own house and I am 99% sure that in my area prices paid will not get very much lower than they are now.

My last property was advertised at £110,000 but I paid £95,000 and that is for a shop with 2 flats above with £1100 income a month and the one I should complete on in the next few days is exactly the same 2 doors up and I am paying £81,000. I honestly think that if new buyers are not available then developers will buy to let as the income is at a point where it is worthwhile and if people are not buying they have to live somewhere so they have to rent!!!

 

[signs]

Mark .,buy ,buy ,buy why give your hard earned to anyone else ?

 

[Miyazaki]

Why rent when you can buy.

If you can the buy.

Can being the important word here.

We mortgaged our house and I regret it TBH.

We are tied to one place, when we would rather move, but can't due to the terms of our mortgage for 5 years. The rate is fixed at almost 7% (from a fantastic IFA just before the bubble burst).

We have about £6k equity, our house is worth about £10K less than what we bought it for so we are in about -£4K negative equity, mortage payments are massive due to the ridiculous fixed rate, and we have to pay for stuff when it goes wrong etc, not to mention the hassle of selling when we finally decide to do so.

I will think long and hard before buying another place.

 

[CraigofScotland]

but in 25 years you have 140K house if you buy

if you rent in 25 years your still renting. Until the day you die.

When you retire, try rent on a pension. Good tactic that

 

[Miyazaki]

I think in Germany the done thing is to rent. Noone buys.

I guess they save the old fashioned way with a savings account

 

[Iccz]

Renting is dead money, buying is an investment.

If you can afford to, then buy

but in 25 years you have 140K house if you buy

if you rent in 25 years your still renting. Until the day you die.

When you retire, try rent on a pension. Good tactic that

Think benefits

Plus no need to worry about expensive repairs

 

[namuk]

Buy and fell good it is your own ..

 

[CraigofScotland]

Yay no repairs . . also no own decor . . . yay or renewal of tennancy after 3 years and the kids like it here and just got to know the nice neighbours . .



I think people that only want to rent say that to make themselves feel better about being prices out of the market

 

[mrapbp]

There is another side to this which is that buying 5 years has nearly destroyed us.

Our house is £70k - £100K in negative equity, we are tied into a mortgage provider that is currently charging us 7% interest so the repayments are crippling. Cant sell and cant remortgage and it is going to take YEARS to even get us back to square one.

We bought the wrong kind of house at the wrong time and are paying the price for that!! We were renting before this place and it was half what we are paying on our mortgage and we werent stuck with a worthless house..........

I realise this is the other side of the coin and a fairly extreme case but I bet we arent the only people.

 

[TheForge]

Thanks to all the greedy sods out there buying to let, the price to let is often just as high as it is to buy!

The Forge

 

[NewfieDrool]

I went a different route and purchased land and developed it into something that concerns a hobby
Purchased for about £1000 and now I have another share in the land. Valued at £850000 with stock included gives me a profit of just over £77000 if we were to sell up.
Best investment so far I have ever made for such a small outlay.
Even better is I have already recieved far more than I paid in returns which is around £7000 and each year that increases.

 

[Deleted member 51156]

We are currently renting ,but it is overpriced and quality properties are at a premium, the quality of neighbours in rentals is different too,landlords are from my experience slow to do maintenance and deal with problems.
And landlords seem to have a problem with their taste in decor and furnishings..

House prices are still too high in my opinion,although there are some lovely properties on the market.
The best bet if you have the skills is to build your own house ,buy some land and build ,much better investment...

Its what we plan to do in the coming yrs ,business permitting..

 

[Dony]

The best bet if you have the skills is to build your own house ,buy some land and build ,much better investment...

Its what we plan to do in the coming yrs ,business permitting..

You don't need to be a brickie to build your own house. I don't have any skills, and during the build of my house all I did was call around about twice a week to check the progress.

My house is now 6 yrs old, and valued at twice what I paid a contractor (including the land purchase).