Why do people prefer to rent rather than buying a house?

There would probably be no one to inherit from DS if he did buy. He is single, gay, so unlikely to have DC, the state would probably end up with it

We used to save between 1000 & 1500 a month I think it was - no kids at the time! Also put it in a Lisa so we got a decent top up in the end

i don’t see the rent as was throwing money away though tbh it was a lovely flat that we had for years in an amazing location that we couldn’t have afforded to buy in 🤷‍♀️

Let me guess....Sydney?
Second guess is San Francisco.

Neither of my parents needed to pay for any care so I inherited everything. It's really the luck of the draw.

Why would you need two homes?

The majority of people in the UK dont/wont need care though, there was a good thread about it recently

Just a warning, do not assume the house will be passed to your children.

Like many others I had to sell my childhood home to pay for care home fees. In the end, I actually sold my own home and bought my childhood home myself (much Court of Protection hassle) so that it wasn’t lost, but if I hadn’t been in a position to do that it would have gone

Now it's not a low amount.

Even back in the day people have had complex lives and made decisions for a whole range of reasons. There isn't 1 reason. It isn't because people don't want financial security. It isn't because they are lacking in information or intelligence either.

The reasons are as complex as the lives those people have lived.

What was your salary?
We savec £2000 on a joint salary of £9k.

op.. you needed to save 5000 for your deposit - I needed 37k

so yeah that wasn’t easy while i was also paying 1800 rent
my mortgage is not actually cheaper either I pay 1900 so what you are saying is nonsense to be honest and you haven’t a clue what it’s like to try and buy these days

There are lots of great flats on the market with no issues for people looking to buy. A colleague has just purchased her first flat in central London and it's gorgeous. She looked at dozens of properties before finally making her choice.

Well people move across the world all the time and make a positive life, many of my friends and colleagues are from eastern Europe/Asia

I’m so thankful that DS didn’t buy a flat because of this

Moving home is a lot easier when renting.
No unexpected costs if something breaks.
No real commitment with the partner you live with, if you split it's easy to take someone off the tenancy whilst the other stays there. With a mortgage/own home it's likely the house would need to be sold which makes things a lot more complicated. Both partners will be eligible for the mortgage so are tied in debt together, so if one wants to leave but the other doesn't want to separate it can be very messy.

DS rents a nice city centre flat. There is no way he would buy one of these. The houses he could buy are all out of town and he doesn’t particularly want one, he prefers flats in the centre as he is single and he can move easily if he wants, he earns about £70k

There is currently an active thread about a poster’s landlord trying to break contract by insisting the tenant leaves the property every time there is a viewing as the house is being sold. I think you have to be lucky to actually get a good landlord.

I think i know what the OP means.
I've seen a couple of posts on MN recently where a couple are divorcing, at least one of them are high earners, yet they rent and i can't fathom why.
I have my own theory why people don't buy which i have shared before and been accused of all sorts. So hard hat on.
I bought my first house at 20 with my ex in 1989. I will be first to admit house prices were proportionatly much lower then, but i sm pretty sure we would have done the same regardless. Buying s house was regarded as very much a priority and all my friends followed the same path.
I started work at 18 in a very low-paid role, my ex earned more. But we allowed ourselves one pay packet before we started saving. From month two, we both saved a minimum of half of our salaries each.
We did this by both living at home and only spending money on neccessaties. We both ran small second-hand cars but rent to our parents and the cars was pretty much all we spent. No holidays, no popping in for a coffee, no meals or days out, packed lunches for work. We were obsessed with getting that deposit together but all of my colleagues and friends were the same. It was the 'done thing'.
We then married and moved into the two bedroom terrace with one sofa, a bed and a table and chairs. There was a cooker in the house and we were bought a tv and a fridge freezer as wedding presents. We bought a washing machine on 0% credit.
Three years later, we moved to start a family to a three bed semi, then eight years after that into a 4-bed new detatched.
Compare this to what seems pretty much standard today among couples who 'can't afford' to save a deposit. School til 18, year off, uni til 22, meet someone, possibly go travelling, move into rented house together, children, wedding, then at 30+ think about buying a house.
Because there are children, the family needs a bigger house, so are entering the property ladder about three rungs up.
So societal changes are a big part of thecrenting culture, plus lifestyle creep, where families are trying to save for a deposit withut impacting their lifestyle, so days out, holidays, two new cars, new clothes.dog grooming and kids' activities and treats are all paid for first then they wonder why yhey can't afford to save. Take soft play as an example. In the 1990s, it was very much a treat. For birthdays and holidays only. Now it seems to be pretty much a weekly visit. Often with lunch thrown in.
High expectations and entitlement, plus a sympathetic public ear to their plight are both at play here.
When Dubai was attacked, there was a family on the news moaning they had to use their savings to get home. They had been saving 'for years' for a house deposit, said the bloke, knowing that would fall on sympathetic ears as the rhetoric is very much that young families are struggling so much more now and they are victims of this. But ... they were on holiday in Dubai!
No doubt i will be accused of being a greedy boomer (I'm not) or a selfish pensioner (not that either) but the simple fact is, if you want to buy a house, something has tovgive and there is hardship somewhere along the line.

Because we cant afford to buy. I'm the sole earner(on a low wage), DH is disabled. We have a good amount of savings(inheritance) but by the time we had it, couldn't get a big enough mortgage. We only have 20 years left to pay off a mortgage now, so it just isnt going to happen.
We do have a council house though. Which is fairly common where we live and isnt looked down on, like it is in a lot of places.

I imagine the people who bought flawed flats in flawed blocks wish they’d rented instead now they’re faced with remedial costs of tens of thousands of pounds and unable to sell until the remedial work is done because no one wants to buy them before it’s rectified. Lots aren’t mortgageable anyway due to building problems.

There’s a block near us. Owners are basically trapped as only cash buyers can buy them as mortgage firms won’t touch it. Nothing to do with cladding either - it was built long before they started cladding. It contains asbestos. Needs demolishing really as costs of removing the asbestos is more than they’d be worth once done. They sell for stupidly low prices.

£9000 for a deposit in 1981? Where/what were you buying?! My first house (3 bedroom maisonette, £15 pcm service charge) in 1984 cost £18,250 and I got a 100% mortgage - I didn't need a 50% deposit!

I'd also say that back in the 80s we were looking at those who bought in the 70s (people 10 years older than us) and thinking how lucky they were to have bought in the 70s when a house was so much cheaper

An unfortunate and major change in circumstances saw off any money I had for a deposit and reduced my income.

As a now lone parent to a primary school aged child, I can afford to rent a house with enough space for toys and for them to comfortably play and a nice garden, but not buy one. Once they're older and toys and running around a garden isn't an issue, I'd be able to buy a flat.

My aunt (now almost 70) has preferred to rent. It was familiar and didn't require the sacrifices of saving up a deposit or going without little niceties or worrying about being repossessed and all the money she could lose on a dream. One of my cousins was a home owner for maybe 9 ? yrs until the payments ballooned & they couldn't afford or remortgage. Cousin says was a HUGE relief when they defaulted on the mortgage & moved back into rented accomdn. So aunt feels vindicated. I doubt cousin will every try to buy again, too.

Precisely why my son prefers to rent, despite my offering to help with a deposit. He loves the freedom. I used to worry but now I'm quite envious 😄 he works for the NHS so could probably transfer to another part of the country if he wanted to, or even a different country.

I’m currently selling a house and the buyers have a mortgage which requires only 2% deposit. The repayments must be insane.
The housing in this country since Thatcher and the tories screwed it up is insane.
Renting is a luxury in London.

I asked my mum this to get a different opinion and she said the main advantage of owning a house rather than renting is so you don’t have to worry about affording rent when you only have a pension coming in.

Also in my own experience, the main downside of renting wasn’t decor, it was honestly shit landlords who were unwilling to fix things. I had to deal with disgusting ovens, exploding light bulbs, non working fridges and washing machines, holes in our wooden front door that lead into the living room so it was always cold, a leaky bedroom ceiling, landlords breaking our stuff and denying it, old fashioned heating systems. Decor was the least of my worries.

I currently rent because we have a good deal and a long term lease on a fantastic house we wouldn't be able to afford to buy. We also rented when our kids were younger where the rent was very low for a gorgeous house. In short, we've rented when it's given us a better quality of life than if we owned.

I understand the need for long term security and do own a property which we also rent out but which, for the time being, doesn't suit us as well as the one we live in. I know other people who've gone down this route too. It can work well if you're living in a rural area where there are decent long term rentals available on country estates.