Why don’t people understand that not everyone wants to buy a house?

Heaven forbid someone has to wait for their toilet to be repaired (or in the case of a post from a few months ago where someone complained they had to be there, at great inconvenience, when the housing association were coming to fix her toilet for free).

It may be people have to wait a bit but what do you think those in a private house or rented do? They have to pay and wait, and pay a lot sometimes (often these days) they can’t afford it and have to muddle on. I’ve heard stories from tradies about HA tenants and their expectations or entitlement. People don’t know how lucky they are.

This is what I did, just lived in a tiny rented flat as long as possible then went straight to buying a 3 bed house with garden

I saw too many friends buy flats and struggled to sell /get stung with huge service charges

@Blueyshift have you allowed for stamp duty, service charges & if you had the deposit in stocks and shares it might have had gains?

Obviously depends on the Landlord. HA and LA perform maintenance on a non profit basis and have their own teams of workers. Much cheaper and more tax efficient than an individual arranging it for themselves. Large institutional landlords can do the same. Also much more straightforward than an individual trying to find a reliable worker in many parts of the country.

Smaller landlords pay higher maintenace costs. They will try to pass on these costs via the rent - but they are usually unable to do that in full. Most are no longer making any profit and that is why they are exiting the sector in droves. Fine if their offer is replaced by decent quality HA, LA, large investors - but the key will be the timing.

Oh I agree. I would never buy a flat . Leasehold properties are a nightmare

Quite a few of my younger colleagues & family have rented for a few more years, skipped the flat stage & bought a small house. Stamp duty makes moving ££££ too

I've always found this puzzling. Are you allowed to do the maintenance yourself? Like you would if you were paying the mortgage or are you then liable if it goes wrong?

I thought I would look at this. Numbers are a bit clumsy. I have probably got something wrong, but in my mind.

If a 500k flat with 10 percent deposit was purchased at an interest rate of 2.5 percent 5 years ago. That would be approximately £2000 pcm. I appreciate the interest rates are now more than that.

After 5 years they will owe 380K according to MSE mortgage calculator. Presuming there is no increase in property prices.So they will have equity of 50k initial deposit and 70k.
They will have spent 2000x60 which is 120k.
So will leave with 50k. Costing them 70k for the 5 years.
Now if they were to sell they would need fees say 5k. Only would need stamp duty if they bought again.

Now the price of rent is what impacts the calculation. Estimate at 1500 rent pcm. It will likely be more but the total payment is 90k.

So if they were to leave after 5 years and start afresh with the mortgage they paid out 120k made 70k back. ( won't include the deposit) so have cash of 50k. So total cost of the 5 years from their pocket 70k.
Renting at 1500 cost them 90k
Renting at 1000 would cost them 60k
Renting at 2000 would cost them 120k.

So there is a point it is cheaper. I am just not sure rents are that cheap. Maybe they are.

Now if the house was to lose 100k in value for 5 years. Now it has cost them 120k minus the loss in selling so they would make 20k. The whole 5 years has cost them 100k.

Now if they stayed as a forever home. A mortgage of 450k for 25 years would cost 605k. After 25 years you would own this 500k property. Presuming no increase which is unlikely so cost 105k. All appreciate your relatives get the locked in 500k as you need a place to live. The cost of a home hs stopped and you are now sheltering for free.
The rent would cost over the same period ( presuming no increases, again unlikely)
at 1500 pcm is 450k
at 2000 pcm is 600k. Then you still need to pay it after 25 years.

Long term buying seems to be better. Renting only short term and if can get cheap rents. Seems more economical.

Now preferances of not being locked in etc or being able to decorate without permission on the other hand. I get that but financially it really depends.

Just in case someone doesn't realise this poster is on the wind up. You can't just get a housing association house. And when you do you will be treated like crap by the housing association, your toilet will take ages to be fixed, the leaking roof that has damaged the kids ceiling will take months to even be looked at and the broken gutter might be fixed within six months. Housing association management are literally scum of the earth.

But you pay maintenance costs to your landlord in the inflated market rent, they are making a profit from you. You aren’t getting maintenance for free

I see rent as wasted money because at least at the end of your 25 years you will own your property and not have to worry about renting in retirement. Also the uncertainty of being asked to leave. In my older years where I might have ill health I don’t want the stress

repayments are around 1270 a month with Barclays (first search result I found). The same property is being advertised at 1200pcm to rent

This is where the system breaks down. I know more than one person who would love to buy. They pay £££ to rent and never missed a payment. Mortgage would be around the same, but banks won't give them a mortgage because they feel like the monthly payments are too high.

My best friend was looking to buy some years ago. I asked how she picked the bank. She said that only one would give her a mortgage to buy a house big enough for a family of 4. She doesn't make enough as a teacher and they wouldn't take her contractor husband into account cause he doesn't have a monthly salary.

I have an opportunity to buy the flat I live in now. One bank said that after calculations, they feel like monthly payments would be too much so they wouldn't lend me money
I think the quote was "so you would have enough money to live on and do fun things besides mortage payments". I would have had £1400 left over after the mortage and monthly flat maintenance fees. Im lucky that my rent is 1/3 of what a monthly mortgage payments would be. So I can sit tight and save. There aren't cheaper places around unless I move to a fixer upper or further away from the city.

I really don't think it is as simple as "just buy". I mean obviously you can just move away to a different area (my grandma's village you can buy a studio flat for £6k but im sure you can imagine the quality of life there) and all of that. But location and living quarters are significant factors in quality of life. Sometimes renting will provide that even if you can technically afford to buy.

As for op. If peole want to rent. Let them rent. If you think it is waste of money, then buy a house. It is ok if someone wants to rent and it has minimal effect on anyone else's life.

In an ideal market the cost of buying (and maintaining) a property would work out the same as renting that property over the years. Renters who behaved decently (paid rent on time, no anti social behaviour) would have the same security of tenure as those who had bought. That is the case in some countries in Europe.

The UK market is distorted - largely because the government has failed to ensure that there is sufficient housing to meet the need. There are too many small landlords who can not offer security of tenure because their business model is wrong and too many people who see home ownership as a form of long term profitable investment.

I think the market is shifting now because many small landlords are leaving the sector as a result of changing legislative and tax requirements ( a good thing if they are replaced by institutional landlords) and many home owners are waking up to the fact that home ownership is very costly in the longer term.

I have a single family member who bought their HA property many years ago. While, on paper, it is worth a lot they picked up all the maintenace costs (expensive and hard to organise), the house is being used to fund care costs (at 2x the rate the LA pays) and when they die (single parent) the estate will pay inheritance tax. As investments go, the long term return is very poor. They would have been far better off continuing to rent from the HA.

It honestly works really well. Plus, it means I get to go and experience things now - concerts, holidays, I get to live my life!

That seems totally sensible to me!

But will they have lost more money than they would have paid in rent?

Buying flats has always been riskier than buying houses. Houses generally sell more quickly than flats, and of course you’ve got leasehold issues and yearly increasing service charges, which need to be paid for all the time you’re living there, as well as paying for maintenance. I would never buy a flat, regardless of location and price.

Because if you bought a flat for £500k and sold it for the same value a couple of years later you will still have been financially better off owning vs renting in that time period even after accounting for selling fees.

Like anything else in life, you are free to make choices depending on your priorities, but I think a lot of people value the security and permanence that home-ownership brings. I've seen so many threads on here from renters who are genuinely shocked and aggrieved when their landlord gives them notice, like it never occurred to them that this day could come. "This has been my home for X years, how could they do this to me??" etc. Of course some people have no choice, but if you could afford to buy and choose to rent I would assume you're someone who is comfortable with potentially having to up-root yourself fairly regularly at a couple of months notice. Many people would find that prospect hugely daunting especially as they get older.

Oh I agree.
I would never buy a flat . Leasehold properties are a nightmare

I think the main issue is that here tenants have very little security, you can be a perfect tenant paying the rent on time and looking after the property and still the landlord can hoik the rent up significantly or decide they want the property back

If there was rent control and more security for tenants then I think more people might look at property the way you do, particularly in a climate where prices are stagnant or falling in some places

I don't worry about retirement...I am retired now. Been in this place 5 years and expect to stay here - unless I change my mind, of course. There are plenty of beautiful rentable places which carry a lower rental price for over 60 year olds anyway, so I can afford to live here on my state pension. (And yes, it's private not HA, lovely converted country house with grounds, quite idyllic)

Really @Allisgoodtoday ? You can afford this privately rented home and your possible future home with a lower rent with only a state pension coming in? No savings, no benefits, no private pension?

The reason to buy is because one day you will own outright. I was mortgage free at 49, how? Because I bought a zone 4 flat in 1995, which I then sold (before prices went crazy) for a house elsewhere in the U.K., which I then sold 3 years later for a house in another city (all job moves) then finally sold that due to divorce, I then bought with my now dh a much more modest house than we could have bought based on income outright 50/50. It’s simple now, our monthly expenses are only a few hundred so retiring early is going to be possible

My mortgage is less than £700 a month. To rent my property would be in excess of £2,000 a month.

Buying is always better OP if you can afford it.
Get rid of that chip on your shoulder, save up and buy. You’ll have security and own that property one day.

People really can’t understand that I’m 26, can barely afford rent and can’t afford a mortgage because my salary is so low.

My parents are happy having me at home. I do all my own shopping and cleaning etc., have my own life, while living at home. People can’t understand that this makes us all happy and why it works for us.