If you're retired but never brought a house do you struggle?

[Poolnoodlepoodle]

Just wondering. I once owned a house but got divorced and couldn't buy again on my single salary. I feel like I'll never manage it again. I always thought when I retired I'd have a paid off house but I don't know if I will. Is it possible to have a decent standard of living if you're still renting??

Ooh, you are a lot of miseries here! There are a lot of positives of not owning a property for a woman on her own at retirement age.

First, no maintenance. Something needs repairing, and it’s the landlord’s problem, not yours. Of course, not all landlords manage their properties well, but plenty do, and if you get a duff landlord, you can walk away at the end of your tenancy.

Second, you aren’t tied to one place. If you don’t like the local area, or you get snotty neighbours (or have a bad landlord, see above) you can just look for somewhere else. Of course, it helps if you have already jettisonned 40+ years of accumulated junk. If you want to sell a house to move and buy somewhere else, it is stressful, takes a long time, and costs a lot.

Third, you know exactly how much you are going to spend each month - rent, council tax, bills - so it’s less complicated to budget. You haven’t got a load of capital tied up in a property, so anything that’s left after the bills are paid is yours to use. No buildings insurance, no liability for keeping the property safe, no emergency plumbers etc, and much less responsibility, so you have the headspace to enjoy life.

And if you’re brave, you can house-share. Despite all the horror stories, there’s a lot to be said for having other people around. There are plenty of house shares where all the residents are older, or you can be the mother hen in a house with younger housemates.

I don’t own a house, and don’t want to. Freedom to move around and no unexpected expensive maintenance are the main reasons. Even if I won millions on the lottery, I still wouldn’t want to buy.

@TheShellBeach thats the dream!! No idea how you find such a gem of a place though? How did you!?

Well this is certainly a more positive spin on it thanks 😊.

I should add that I have owned a house in the past, and I rent now, so I know what I’m comparing.

I applied for housing to Argyll and Bute council and there was a bit at the end of the form which asked if we'd accept housing anywhere at all.
So I said we would and they offered us this house six weeks later.

The transport links are awful and shopping is a challenge, but Morrisons have just started to deliver to the village ten miles away.
They come four afternoons a week and we go to their van for our shopping.

Other than that, Amazon etc. is useful.

There are four buses a day and the nearest trains are 60 miles away.

Having a car is essential.

This is similar to what my grandparents ( both born 1902) did. They always rented as they could never afford a mortgage and bought a very small house just before they retired. Perhaps we are going backwards.

I don't want to own a house either!
I left an abusive marriage many years ago and somehow missed the house-buying-boat.

My now DH had various difficulties too.

We've been together 24 years. We've never owned a house. But we feel very blessed to have our bungalow. We've spent quite a bit doing it up. We're not going to be moving anywhere else.

Our children love coming up here to see us. There are plenty of B and Bs and Air BNBs here where they can stay.

I’m not sure I’d sleep if I had a mortgage. Everyone says it’s security but that’s only the case if you’ve paid off a large proportion of it. By the time I was in a position to even consider the possibility I was in my early 40s and single (still am other than a brief relationship). I wouldn’t want the stress of mortgage payments on one wage. What if I got really sick? Or lost my job for some reason? Even all being well I’d have been paying it off till retirement age. With renting you can get a lot of help towards the cost.

A friend of mine bought a shared ownership 1 bed. Fell pregnant with twins then found out she can’t sell because of the cladding used. I believe it’s a battle that’s still ongoing. I really feel for her. I know it causes her huge amounts of stress.

As many pp’s have said, there are social housing options for over 55’s. No government is going to allow a scenario where the streets are full of homeless pensioners. Imagine the headlines!

That's what worries me also. While I like the flat I am currently renting I would like a sunnier more modern one, but this one is fairly certain to be long-term so I really should stay as like you I don't relish the thought of having to move several more times as I age (I'm 63). Governments (I'm not in the UK) should be taking this issue more seriously now. I would be more than happy to go into social housing, but at present I have too much money in the bank to qualify, so the best thing I could do is to spend the money as quickly as possible - which is obviously wrong. There should be some sort of long-term secure rentals available for those who are older, but don't have enough money to buy. Retirement units are big business here, which is good - but only for those with enough money to buy, no-one seems to care about older renters, unless they have no money at all.

Yes, my friend is a benefits advisor and she says it's best not to pay into your own pension or save anything if you're renting because then you'll get it all paid for you.

Exactly, this is the situation many of us are in. If I were young I would do this, but at 63????

so the best thing I could do is to spend the money as quickly as possible

This is an uncomfortable truth. I’ve said it before on threads like these. No point going for a pension that doesn’t give you enough to really benefit you, but at the same time, makes you ineligible for help. This mainly applies to older people who have no pension to speak of initially. They are often urged that something is better than nothing but that isn’t always true.

Any money I put into a pension at this point would only decrease the benefits available to me in old age. Due to my age, lack of prior pension etc. I know people will think that’s morally wrong. It may well be. But morals won’t feed me or keep me warm in old age.

Interesting - in our area, all the family housing is taken up by over 60 singles and couples and the families are having to move away to find suitable housing that they can afford. There's retirement apartments going empty, but the retirees won't move into them, and the families can't!

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

How is the country going to fund a massive rise in demand for housing benefit?

Granted I’m in Australia not the UK, but I live in a rental retirement village. The rent isn’t bad, about $900 a fortnight for a one-bedroom unit, and it covers the water and a cooked meal every day. Means my grocery bill is half what it used to be and the only utilities I have to pay for are my electricity and wifi. There’s a communal laundry, too, so that saves a bit. I’m not on the age pension yet, but on the carer pension, which is about the same.

That sounds ideal. I'm in NZ and I don't know if there are any rental retirement villages here, certainly there aren't any this area.

Try to find a social extracare property. You can qualify over 55. You will pay rent then and a little on top for your care - which if you're not too I'll or frail might just be an hour a week.

I know the rents aren't really expensive because I used to help commission these types of provision.

I just had a squizz and it looks like there are very few - saw one on the map right up the top of the North Island, I think. There are few enough here, too. Most of them are to purchase and for the money they want, and the ongoing fees, I wouldn’t bother even if I had the money!

I'm in the South Island, so that's no use to me. Lots here to purchase, but they aren't cheap!

It's usually a sheltered housing type offer, for over 55's, but there are flats and bungalows as well.

Thought this was an interesting question and discussion and then saw this article, which may be of interest to anyone thinking of buying a retirement flat -

The retirement rip-off: why relatives can’t sell the flats they inherit

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/630eb108-05f3-11ee-b1f9-dbcd37af20fb?shareToken=a89f481b4d13688c4135db1ebcc1822c

I'm in NZ, not the UK, but things are similar here. However, anyone buying these units should be going through everything with their lawyer, and understand the pitfalls. I'm waiting for my Dad's place to sell at the moment, but the peace of mind I got from him being there for the last years of his life was worth it, especially during covid times.

I thought that’d be the case - of course the wretched thing would be about as far from you as it could be!

I suppose I can only hope that by the time I need such a place (in the not too distant future!) there might be something nearer me.