owning a house is a waste of money

[0karen]

Forked from "thinking owning a house is a waste of time, as it just gets takenoff you when you get old/put in ahome by ohnanaWHATSMYNAMEohnana"

Do not know whether owning a house is a waste of time, but wondering if it is a waste of money

My house is a money pit

Insurance, rates, water rates on top of that maintenance

The cost of materials is silly, do B&Q, Homebase and Wicks and all the other places that supply building material do not know about China?

Then the rip of hourly rates of so called trades men, joiners, plumbers and worst of all electricians!

AIBU in demanding that their charges should be halved

Had a new boiler fitted just before winter the installer charged £800 labour for about 15 hours work and the electrician £300 for about 4 hours.

The heating engineer arrived unexpectedly early and banned me from my kitchen. Eventually needed access; tapped on the door no reply, so pushed it open knocking down his fire extinguisher over and I thought he was going to snap my head off

Then had to have him back twice because the heating would not work.

Now the shower went pop, wonder what that will cost

I thinking of buying a big Mercedes and a caravan

Anyone want to buy a house, I guess not these days

I spot a green eyed monster

home owning is a massive scam, you struggle to pay for a mortgage over all those years and then you live in the house til you die. you then pass on some of this house or money to your children who then go on to do the same.

People buy houses to pass on to their children who pass them on to their children while no one really benefits from having the house at the time they do, its always safe guarding the next generation who use it for thier children.

you dont need to own a house, your home is wherever you make it.

I dont want to buy a house, I think for most people who arent super wealthy its a waste

Currently we rent a six bedroom farmhouse in a national park,I love renting because I dont want to be tied down. I could not afford to buy a house like this so feel lucky to live here. I understand what others mean about the advantages of owning property, but its not for everyone.

What happens to people who retire on state pension who rented all their lives. The state pension won't be enough to cover the rent (if it can even cover utilities or if it still exists by the time we retire).

Do these people end up getting housing benefit to pay for 100% of the rental?

blueshoes yes they do. Or at least they do for now. Who knows what will happen in the future!

The usual arguments from the self professed property smarty pants who keep blabbing on about how "properdee always goes up" "you can't lose on bricks and mortar" bla bla bla. I rent. I have purposely not bought (a choice since 2003) because the price of property in this country is over inflated and unsustainable.

Fact is that all the chat of my house is now worth £xx is conjecture because its only worth what someone else will pay you for it and its only your house once you have paid off the mortgage. For the majority who have made money on their homes it has been nothing more than being lucky enough to have bought at the right time in the cycle and for those who now have the cash from selling in their hand, being in a position to sell up.

Also, for us, renting is WAY cheaper than buying and has been for some time. To buy the flat I live in would double my outgoings and then some. Yes it would be nice to have a home of my own, but I won't be doing it until the time is right. And I won't be mortgaged to my earlobes either.

As long as you do not have a burning desire to own a property, it is preferable renting. DH has this desire to own his property.

DH and I first rented a three bed country cottage from a farmer, with a large garden and beautiful views. Although it was dated (1970s kitchen and bathroom, single glazed windows), our landlord always emptied septic tank, serviced boiler, checked the electrics every five years, and did any necessary repairs (rot in windows etc). We also had a logburner, and bought logs from the landlord.

We paid £450 pcm rent (this was 2008). If you have a good landlord I think renting is great. You always get a much nicer house for your money, renting than paying a mortgage, and its so much easier to move home.

I should add, we now live in a property we own with a mortgage. We had help from parents in buying this property.

thanks, scooby

Renting would be a good option if you had some rights as a tenant. Until you can get long term tenancy agreements as standard and a guarantee that you can get your LL to do any repairs renting will be an inferior option IMO.

We've had terrible LL's in the past - one of whom turfed us out to sell up and several others would not make urgent repairs. We lost all our furniture in one house because it went mouldy

BTW - I'm not sure you can get HB in older age to cover your rent if you have savings over a certain amount?

I think if we still had huge amounts of social housing, renting would be a more viable option. I know lots of people who rent, but the vast majority rent from private landlords, and as such have v little security of tenure - contrast with my neighbour who has lived in her council house for the last 50 years.

I bought my first house when I was 25. For me it was about the financial investment, having something that was mine (once I'd paid the bank back of course!) but also of being able to choose things like the style of my kitchen or bathroom - which as a child growing up in a housing assoc property wasn't possible.

My current house is a bit of a white elephant, needs lots doing to it and will take me years to finish and to pay for. But I do love it, and I expect it to keep me in my retirement as even if it's value reduces, I will still be able to downsize and recover capital that way.

I would like to see a return if not to more social housing, then long term tenancies, to help those who prefer to rent, or who are unable to buy.

I don't agree because at least with your own house you do have some equity later. If you are clever enough then you can arrange to rearrange finances before the money gets swooped on by the government! I do disagree with that happening. People who have nothing because they chose not to work all their life get all their care homes paid and yet those who make contributions their whole life have to pay for everything themselves I say it isn't worth working! However, like many others I think paying to own something is better than lining other peoples pockets with rent.

Dh and I have been discussing this recently.

We currently rent privately. We have come to the decision we will never be able to ever own our own home unless we win the lottery.

It is impossible to get on the property ladder but find it hard to justify paying someone else's mortgage.

On the one hand we are not currently responsible for any repairs and we have permission to redecorate as and when we please. But the landlord doesn't give two hoots about the place and it is falling down around our ears. Our place is also too small so we need to move.

We have two options.

1. Stay here squashed and living somewhere inadequate, and try and save the ridiculous tens of thousands we would need for a deposit. For us to get a mortgage we have to guarantee I can get a full time salaried job, which we cannot guarantee.

2. Stay in rental forever and retire with nothing and nowhere to go.

Looks like option 2.

"People who have nothing because they chose not to work all their life get all their care homes paid and yet those who make contributions their whole life have to pay for everything themselves I say it isn't worth working!"

This needn't turn into benefit bashing, Captaincrocfamily.

I'd love to own our house. Currently we pay a fortune in rent, and utilities, and council tax, and insurance and for that we get no proper security of tenure, the inability to do anything about maintenance problems, and no control over decoration. We'd like to be able to make it more homely, but we're not even allowed to put pictures up on the walls. We'd also love to be able to have a decent boiler and double glazing that actually kept any heat in. So we're saving up as much as possible so we can accrue a deposit.

I really don't care if I might have to sell the house if I need care when I'm elderly. I won't need it if I'm in a care home.

The house ownership thing is a real killer - it's truly the haves and have nots.

What concerns me most is that the have's just don't seem to be worried about the have nots!