to feel shit about renting at 30?

[ScaredBUTstrong]

Been renting since I was 18, no way of ever saving for a deposit and all money was going in rent.
Husband similar position, I left my career after having our child and got £15000 redundancy however used it to keep me at home for the last few years and have now gone back to work as he starts school this year but we will never be able to save for a mortgage.
Rents are £1000 for a 2 bed here ( Horsham West Sussex ) and they are bloody hard to get, everyone's going after the same houses you get rejected for bad credit which I'm paying off lots of landlords don't want kids etc.
feels like my sons childhood has and will be spent with a whole load of uncertainty and worry.
Feeling like I've let him down.

These threads always seem to descend into criticism of suggested real, actual affordable properties for not being shiny new 4 build detacheds, ready decorated ex show homes.

OP - when I first bought around 10 years ago, there were plenty of mortgage deals around for people with 5 and 10% deposits. What you're suggesting was a 25% deposit. You can't have looked very hard! And theres no reason why a mortgage lender wouldn't lend on one salary, as opposed to two. How do you think single people get mortgages?

BeautifulLiar "I'm 26 and will be renting at 30. My house is gorgeous. Mortgages don't really mean you own the house unless you pay it off. If you want to you can move quickly and easily when you rent."

Fair point. But my mate bought a tiny flat in Camberwell 4 years ago for £220K. Sold it this month for £430k. I'd take that over 'flexibility' any day.

OP, I bought my first house at 38. Don't worry about it.

Had a mortgage on my first flat at 25, negative equity by 30. It's not all plain sailing with property. Have equity now in a property, but still a large mortgage to pay off and lots of maintenance to fund.

I'm 33 dp is 42 we rent, have no plans to buy . We are one of the few countries who are obsessed with buying and see it as a milestone. My kids are growing up and once they are working /adults I don't plan to be stopping in one place too long. There is too much else I want to do other than at down roots forever in one place.

I'm currently having rooms remodelled, new windows and house done up throughout, all at no cost to me. It's great renting really. but then I've not ever had dodgy landlords /letting agents.

funkybuddah: There is too much else I want to do other than at down roots forever in one place.
This ^.

There is no way renting is a good alternative to owning a home. Some people can't buy their own property because of their circumstances but I def wouldn't choose to rent. My parents always rented and we moved home frequently as a result. When you are little, your home is wherever your family is. It's stable relationships that make you feel secure. So to me the down side to renting isn't that the young children will suffer- although others might have other experiences.

The down sides to renting permanently are mainly financial. Who will pay your rent when you are elderly and will you have the energy to keep moving them. Choosing not to buy means that you are less likely to have the money in the future to help your dc financially eg with university fees, wedding, depositing house etc as you will have no equity and you will still be paying rent when others may have paid off their mortgage by the time their dc reach that stage.

There are so many more reasons. You can still create a happy stable home for dc if you are renting but buying is better.

There is too much else I want to do other than at down roots forever in one place.

It's not like that though. I have owned 6 houses, choosing where to buy each time. I have also lived abroad for a time and rented out my home while I was away so the mortgage was being paid for me. I also have £180,000 assets from my house purchases, and although tied up in my current house would be cash in the bank if I decided to start renting. The renting option is still open to me. However I only pay £280 mortgage on a 5 bedroomed house 7 miles from the city centre.
For me owning gives me freedoms.

Lucy61 Some people can't buy their own property because of their circumstances but I def wouldn't choose to rent.

Exactly. For a lot of people, myself included, it's not a choice. We can't afford any other option. And we are both full-time working professionals. We could easily afford the monthly mortgage repayments, that's not the issue, just in no position to save a £20k+ deposit whilst paying ever-increasing monthly rent at the same time.

I'm 31, DH is 30 and we're probably going to be renting for another few years. It's a slow process paying London rents and saving for a deposit, even though we are both on OK money. We weren't in a position before now to even think about buying because we only really started our careers around five years ago and we were long distance in the early part of our relationship and trying to decide where we would move in together.

I'm 41 and teetering of the edge fo my first house purchase and frankly, I'm terrified. Life as a owner isn't an oasis where you will never suffer from uncertainty and worry.

We bought this house 3.5 years ago.
Since then we have had to spend £15k...roof, boiler, windows, kitchen (none of which came up on survey!!)
We "only" had a 10% deposit so have also been paying a lot in mortgage repayments.
Its gone up quite a lot in value since we bought which means we are protected a bit from negative equity, but it's not all roses being a home owner.

Its hard. There are advantages to renting but obvious disadvantages. Don't forget that a heavily mortgaged property (like mine) has its disadvantages too - like my shower has leaked over my neighbours for months and I've just stopped using it and bath instead. But do look into shared ownership. Good luck.

I think you had an opportunity to buy when you have the 15k however that's a decision you can't reverse so think about how you will go forward. If home ownership is your goal then make it your focus and you will get there,

My BIL & wife are still renting but have chosen to not buy in various years because of something. They now regret those decisions as house prices have continued to rise but they are not prepared to compromise on area to get on the ladder.

I do wish renting was more secure however as it's not good for families.

There are loads of people on the forums like house price crash who have been braying for years that people who buy are idiots.
Of course, in those years, house prices have escalated and borrowing has been at an all time low and they are still renting!
If you want to buy you have to take the plunge sometime.
I would advise sooner rather than later as lenders will be upping their interest rates soon after the latest from mark carney.

It's very difficult and I know because I've 3 children in their 20s. Two have bought. One lives at home. One bought and had to let the place out for 2 years as could not afford to live in it and lived at home and on friends' floors etc. My grandfather could not even marry until aged 40 because of cost of housing! My parents put off chidlren for 10 years after marriage in order to buy a property. As someone said above huge sacrifices and buying awful tiny places in dreadful areas are usually the way most of us have always started owning somewhere even with two full time wages and always both working full time - not something all couples want to endure.

The biggest problem is the large deposits some lenders need. 5% is okay even for outer London where you can get your starter studio with your hour's commute into London for about £200k so that means you need £10k deposit which is £5k for each of you in the couple.

My advice remains always buy before you breed and always buy as young as you can even if it means bread and jam for a year and no eating out or holidays.

I think that the only thing which really grates with me is that if we'd been in a position to buy 5 years sooner we could've got in on the 0% deposit bubble and before prices started to rise exponentially. I totally get that we missed the boat literally by a few years and now it's too late, which is why I'm not overly bitter, just sad that circumstances didn't allow us to buy at a more affordable time before people who took on mortgages they knew they couldn't afford ruined the lending market for the rest of us

skeppers i think you will find the fault is that of the lenders not the borrowers.

How about renting at 50? Ill never be able to afford to buy a house where I want, how I want, what kind Id want. (disabled and unable to go out to work).

YABU.

How about renting at 50? Ill never be able to afford to buy a house where I want, how I want, what kind Id want. (disabled and unable to go out to work).

YABU.

For a lot of people, myself included, it's not a choice. We can't afford any other option. And we are both full-time working professionals. We could easily afford the monthly mortgage repayments, that's not the issue, just in no position to save a £20k+ deposit whilst paying ever-increasing monthly rent at the same time.

Same here. I'm mid-40s, my DH older and disabled, and we're renting privately with no prospect of ever being in a position to buy, because we aren't able to save for a deposit at a rate that would make it feasible. We don't qualify for HB. It's fine while I'm working full-time but I worry what would happen if I ended up on long-term sick, lost my job for any length of time - our savings would probably keep us going for 5-6 months at a stretch but no more than that - or what we'll do when I finally retire. Plus if our landlord decided to sell up or quit renting, we'd have to dig into those savings again for removal costs etc. It's a precarious way to live.

I think that the only thing which really grates with me is that if we'd been in a position to buy 5 years sooner we could've got in on the 0% deposit bubble and before prices started to rise exponentially.

The 0% deposit thing (or even 125% mortgages) was sonething that was only around for a few years. Prior to that it was the norm to have a deposit of minimum 5% but more usually 10%, the smaller the deposit the higher the interest rate offered just like now.

From your posts it sounds like your main reason for wanting to buy is security for your DS. YANBU for wanting that for him. What I would say though, as someone who works with children, is that security and stability in chikdhood comes from your parent/parents. Yes, frequent house moves can be challenging for a child but what really matters is that they have a consistent, loving response from their caregivers. This is what helps them deal with all the unpredictable things in life. Please do not feel that you in any way disadvantaging your child by renting. A loving home is what's important.

Hear hear, York.

The 0% deposit thing was just temporary. When we first bought years before that it was not easy to borrow, multiples of income were low, you needed to save with that building society for years and the manager like you and if you were female a few years before that you couldn't borrow at all! So it is not that it used to be dead easy to buy and now it's hard. It's more like there are cycles of easy and hard and most of us are never lucky enough to buy at cheapest prices when borrowing is easiest.
I do think start as young as you can even if the place is awfully grotty and worse than if you rented - tolerate the grime and dire state of it and awful area for the later greater good as it were.

I had a mortgage since I was 26. It is hard because when you are so young it is a big decision to make. I do not live in this place, it is being rented.