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

Hm I see your point OP. It’s retirement that would worry me. But everyone is so different in their circs that maybe you have a plan?

I agree being a council tenant is really good- secure tenancy etc. Lots of my family live in CH with no intention of buying. I agree it’s best for them.

Hahaha.

I'm glad my parents had their own house as I benefitted in the run lol.

Long term.it gives you security. No landlord is ever going to want their property back, leaving you without anywhere to live.
You can do what you want to your house, but have to ask a landlords permission.

Feel the need to make one more point. On my street there is a house for sale and one for rent. Very very similar houses (same number of bedrooms, same style, similar garden). Assuming a 15% deposit on the “for sale” house I’m getting mortgage figures of between 1300-1500. Rental house is up for 1800 a month. Buying normally pays in long run

I remember watching a news report on 2001/2. People had sold their homes and were renting as they were certain a crash was coming and they would cash in. Would love a follow up and no meaningful crash happened. 2008 stalled things a bit but that’s it

Actually when I bought my first place it was commonplace to have an interest only mortgage with a separate endowment.

I have really no idea or interest in London rents but I do know that the majority of elderly people I know who are elderly renters get help with rent.
And the home owners often struggle with upkeep and repairs to their places so swings and roundabouts isn't kt

We bought our house in zone 2 a couple of years ago. The price has probably dropped but it still makes sense for us to have bought. We have dcs aged 3 and 7 and it's reassuring for us to know that it's their home for their childhood, and we can plan the layout and refurbs to suit their needs as they grow. I like that they are building memories here and they will always be able to easily get to their school which is a 5 min walk away, and not potentially have to move to a different house which would be further away or even have to move school. We can think ahead to secondary and transport routes without doubting whereabouts in London we might be in 4 years.

Financially I'm not concerned about the house price now as we have no plans to sell for at least 15 years, and we had a big deposit so a lot of the rent vs mortgage comparisons don't apply to our specific situation. However, I agree that other asset classes are outperforming property right now so although we have a good chunk of cash, we have opted not to overpay the mortgage but we are investing in equities instead.

People have been saying this since 2001. I remember watching a new report on it!

Of course its not the whole story, its a snap shot of the last ocuple of years for zone 2 for the 'average' price, incorporating all types of properties

The picture of the last decade is still an 8% rise year on year, averaged over that time. That is a substantial increase.

For me the bottom line is this though, even if the property price remained the same, no one can tell me how to decorate it, no one can tell me who I can have living there, no one can tell me whether I can have pets and then once I have paid off the property, its mine, no one can take it away from me, no one can give me notice, but more importantly I dont have any monthly payments to make. That money that I was paying in mortgage I will never have to pay again, I could retire earlier, I can spend my income on prostitutes and coke and then waste the rest, I can go on a lifetime cruise etc etc etc, blah blah blah.

The freedom I felt when we paid off the mortgage was amazing.

Yes, but if you buy, then your payments go towards something you end up owning.
If you rent, you are often paying for someone else's mortgage. And you will never own the property. You could end up paying more overall than you would if you bought.

But some people prefer to rent. It suits their lifestyle.

I’m not quite sure that those statistics paint the whole picture… there’s a huge increase in subdividing leaseholds and a rolling replacement of new build flats.

Terraces and other freehold houses remain exceptionally desirable and continue to rise/sell v quickly!

I hate the argument that rent is dead money. Oh sorry, having a roof over your head is wasted money? How?!??

Yes this annoys me! I've got a three storey, three bedroom house. I'll be living here alone once the last teen flies. I'm mortgage free and enjoying life. I have the cash to maintain and do what I want to the house.

But everyone wants to know why I have stayed in the same house, wouldn't I prefer to be detached, don't I want a bigger garden...

Why would it be different if you lost your job and you rented?
You will still need to find a new job to cover your expenses and living costs regardless.

If only all the people who had their properties repossessed in the 90s had known it’s so simple……

Im not confusing anything. I saw you refer to interest but only an idiot would get an interest only mortgage on a property they live in.

The interest on a repayment doesnt stay the same in any case, it goes down as a proportion of your payment each month so you pay off more capital.

When I rented, the landlord turned up whenever he wanted to do random jobs, he'd knock on the door when he was passing to tell me to weed the path and I was forever worried that he'd sell it next week.

25 years later 😅 I now just pay a few hundred a month in bills, can choose to cut my working hours to enjoy life more, have had spare money to help with the uni years. I wouldn't like to think that I had to pay unpredictable amounts of rent for the rest of my life, especially with pensions forever at risk.

Yes, so the only direct comparison I could find in my area without searching and calculating all night is a 4 bed house for 260k, assuming a 10% deposit, repayments are around 1270 a month with Barclays (first search result I found). The same property is being advertised at 1200pcm to rent

So fairly even stevens except that of course you're paying equity off and acquiring your asset and you dont need to worry about being moved out

I also saw another property nearer me (I had to expand the search for rent out quite a lot beause there are literally no houses to rent within a mile radius of our house which is another problem with renting, you have a limited pool), and the rent was 1500pcm, but there was a minimum income requirement of 45k a year. Very limiting.

I’d most worry about affording it when I reach pension age. Spending monthly on a mortgage rather than someone else’s mortgage alleviates that concern.

If you loose your job you find another job, any job that pays so the mortgage can be paid.
There is always buyers, even when house prices are high people are still buying

Renting in zone 1 thought is incredibly costly……it would cost me about £3800 to rent my flat, whereas my mortgage is £1500……of course variables such as deposit, interest rate etc….but I actually couldn’t afford to rent where I live! Especially in retirement….

Perfect.

I know people living in different European countries, and each one is so unique. It would take ages to write about the best and worst aspects of their rental legislation.

Compared to a third-world country, I know people in Brazil who live in rented flats, and their rental legislation is far more advanced and well-organized than ours. For instance, tenants have numerous rights that protect them in situations where we lack similar protections in our country.

It will happen. Especially now there is a Labour government.

If a mortgage would be £2k and rent is only £1k then yes absolutely buying in a falling market is mad.

But if they're both £2k then some of that mortgage payment is capital. At that point you're gambling on how much the market is going to fall and whether it is worth chipping away at the capital.

And if rent is more than mortgage then you're completely mad because you are paying a premium for unsecure housing. Which is bonkers.