To ask if anyone choses to rent rather than buy?

[Walkaboutwendy]

Is there anyone who choses to rent rather than buy?

We are in the process of selling up and stepping off the ladder for a bit. I'm musing as to whether there's another way than jumping straight back into a mortgage debt.

If you knew you had money in the bank (a passive income for life to pay the rent that would keep pace with inflation) would you chose to buy?

I'm weighing up the pros and cons so would really appreciate different views.

And I'm saying that as a person who has had both situations:
Repossession
Landlord giving notice

I know which one I preferred - and (hint) it wasn't the first one!!!

So it's an interesting split of opinion. I thought it would all be pro buy but actually there are quite a few posters making renting work for them. Really appreciate your views

Ex Neighbours did it because they had three boisterous sons ( lovely, just close in age and lively ) and buying something significantly larger in this expensive part of London would been an enormous leap in price but renting was more affordable for a roomy house.

My DD and DP are currently renting in a v expensive area that they wouldn’t be able to buy in without lottery intervention or ambitious career plans going spectacularly right - enjoying the travel convenience, the facilities and the ambience for a while before they have to settle for less ie reality, when they eventually buy.

Wendy, if you've both got lump sums you don't need a massive mortgage though?

Neverender, I'm sorry you've been in a position of repossession and landlord giving notice, and of course if your home is repossessed it's worse, unless of course you don't have rhe deposit for a new place.

However the fact remains if you have equity in your property you can afford to sell. The fees come out the profit. Sure if you're in negative equity that won't be the case, but that's uncommon now. The op would be able to put a deposit down, has a pension, and is employed, it would be unlikely she would be in a position where she was in negative equity, unable to sell as she couldn't afford the fees, and simply rent from her pension if it came to it. It's very very unlikely though as she seems financially in a stable position due to lump sums and pensions.

I've only managed to find stable employment later on in life and could not guarantee that I would be alive/working in the same job/earning the same amount of money for 25 years plus.

It's a little gutting that a considerable amount of the house's value is also interest to the bank, and that you only own it for comparitively few years before you have to sell it again to fund someone to wipe your bum later on in life.

Not all landlords are BTL bastards who are willing to kick out tenants at a whim. My last 3 have been absolutely brilliant and I love the flexibility renting brings if I want to move after a month.

I also deeply resent people saying that renters don't really have a home. As long as we pay the rent, it is in our possession legally until we reliquish that responsibility via surrendering the tenancy. As an owner, you may be constantly thinking about the value of your 'home' and you are constantly oscillating between it being your 'forever home' or selling it to make a profit. Commodity or home? I guess some people can live with both...

Currently having extensive repairs on a 200 yard fence boundary that my current landlord is repairing. I don't have to pay, neither did I have to pay when I had to have dangerous mature trees taken down in my garden, new boiler, annual servicing, plumbing repairs, etc.

In addition to all this, I can decorate my home any way I want to. Granted, I leave the place tidy, fill in picture holes, take down shelving etc, but don't you have to do that if you are a homeowner wanting to sell?

Finally, I do have a pension and am starting a small private one in addition so yes, there is provision when I retire at the age of 85....

Me and DH had a house but then moved abroad. Moving back we couldn't afford to buy so we rented for 20 years.

We had to move 4 times in almost 6 years either because the landlord wanted to sell or because they kept putting the rent up (every 6 months) by quite a large amount.

We then spent 14 years in one property which was great except our landlord did nothing to the property, absolutely nothing even though things needed doing.

We ended up spending money on the house because we liked the house, the area and we were allowed pets. We wanted to live in a decent house and because our landlord would not spend a penny on it we felt we had no choice.

We couldn't spend endless money though so we had to live with double glazing that had, in almost every window, broken down. The kitchen was falling apart when we moved in and, obviously, just got worse.

Luckily we have managed to buy again now and would never ever rent. It was stressful and I hated the fact that we had no security at all unlike in other European countries

We are about to sign a 12 month lease. The market has peaked and we have agreed to wait until the next drop to buy. All the money we save (renting is cheaper in our area) will be going into a trust for our children.

I would never in a million years rent rather than buy.

My house has made more money than I could in working full time for twenty five years. Plus it's gorgeous. And all mine!!

It's a little gutting that a considerable amount of the house's value is also interest to the bank, and that you only own it for comparitively few years before you have to sell it again to fund someone to wipe your bum later on in life

This is not true. Most people pay their mortgages off by the age of retirement. I doubt I'm just lucky but from extended family, elderly neighbours etc I only know one person who had to go into nursing home in his late eighties. All others have stayed in their homes till they passed away. To insinuate we all sell our homes in our early seventies and live in nursing homes is just bizzare and removes any credibility from the rest of your post.

We all have elderly relatives. Elderly neighbours, we know it's not true.

We do both - we rent abroad for dh's job and let out our family house in the UK.

We haven't bought abroad as you have to be here for 10 years to make your money back, and his contract was for 3+3. We were here in Married Quarters originally, which meant that it really wasn't worth buying!

will probably go down in value in the next few years

I think its a very big call to say "probably" - my own view is that it probably won't if you buy in a solid area, dont buy new build etc.

Also crucially you will have paid off a chunk of mortgage - it all depends on the difference between rent and mortgage.

You need to set up a headache inducing spreadsheet which will allow you to put in the different variables so you can work out what kind of investment returns you'd need to match the gains from paying down a mortgage.

I suspect that probably you would need the kind of returns which would mean taking a not insignificant risk.

but even if the house value goes down it is still your house over your head?
personally my tax free saving account tied to the market loosely has gone down by several thousand this quarter. if on top of market losses i had monthly rent coming off this i could see 500,000 dwindling away very fast.
just like all bills maintenance and repairs need to be factored in. a colleague would put aside a monthly amount and once a year do major project to completion.
once i can no longer manage my home i possibly see a condo arrangement (owned but strata maintenance fees). again that would be owned not rented despite the monthly charges.

I wouldn't choose to rent over buy, but it does mean I'm living in a smaller property because I couldn't afford to buy the same house that rent would afford.