AIBU to be upset about renting?

[desperatehousehunter]

I've always rented. It's not that I don't love my house (and the previous places I've rented), and there are lots of positives to renting that I really appreciate, it's just that I'm getting bummed out about the fact it's not mine.

If we want to decorate we have to seek permission or change it back before we leave. If we want a pet it's up to the landlord. The standard tenancy seems to be 6months-1year so we constantly feel like there's a chance we'd have to leave our home (not to mention each time the tenancy is renewed we have to pay a £60 admin fee and the rent usually goes up).

I know that the solution to this problem is to buy a place - but that's easier said than done! I've got a good job and it's not that I couldn't afford a mortgage (in fact after meeting with the bank I've discovered that my mortgage repayments would be about 2/3 the amount I'm spending on rent, so I'd be better off to buy somewhere) it's the deposit that's the problem. I've been saving for 4 years and so far I don't have enough for a deposit and fees. The bank suggested I borrow money from my family, but it's just me and my siblings and they're saving for a house of their own too.

Should I just suck it up and accept that renting is the new normal? Or do I have a right to be feeling down about how difficult it is to buy a house?

Any advice? WWYD?

Stubborn in my experience that freedom is the ONLY positive about renting. And if you ask me it's no equal for security.

No, you can lose an enormous amount of money on buying and selling a house. The cost of buying is enormous, especially if the house costs over £250K so you're at higher rate stamp duty. Then the value may well go down. For instance the value of my house went down hugely, whereas in many other parts of the country prices rose. I would have been much better off if I had stayed in rental. I would also have saved the huge amount I have had to spend on maintenance, and on paying both mortgage and rent due to being unable to sell.
We have been very unlucky, but I've seen others going through similar problems. Some houses around here are selling for peanuts, or putting their price down and down and still not selling. When the owners really need to move, they are in a desperate situation. It's not easy to find people to rent the houses, in a market where they are not selling, and if you do it makes it more difficult to sell them.
Add to that the enormous amount of work and stress involved in buying and selling, doing the house up, trying to find people to maintain it, etc etc.
I would think very very carefully before buying again. You need to be very sure that you will not need to relocate for a good few years, for instance.

Ah, but also...should the worst come to the worst and you lose your job, you would be able to get help with your rent via housing benefit. Not so with the mortgage (I think you can still get a percentage of the interest paid, but nowhere near enough).

I mean, I know where everybody's coming from, because we had to leave our last rented house on the LL's whim, and came 3 weeks away from being properly homeless. But nevertheless, I'm starting to see more and more positives about renting, especially now that the housing market seems to be a great big inflated bubble, and everyone's just standing round wondering when it's going to pop

That last post was in response to Ms Winnebago btw..