Doesn’t everyone aspire to own a house?

[Letsmoveondude]

Is it just me? I thought everyone aspired to own a home in their lifetime.

I know that it’s a luxury many of my generation will not have.

Currently trying to understand why someone who has the ability would not take it

Drives me mad why people decide against it!

I (I'm in early 20's so the generation that are struggling to become home owners) I have so many friends who had the money, or were able to live at home longer to save a deposit, but decided they didn't want to wait, who are now paying just shy of over 1K per month on rent. I always ask, why????!

It amazes me, do they not understand that when retirement age comes, if they're still renting they will essentially be fucked. Also, our mortgage has worked out almost half the price of their rents - so I'm baffled - why would you choose to rent??

Yes buying a house and getting a mortgage is tedious and scary, but once it's done it's security and equity. When you rent you are essentially throwing your money down a drain, at least with a mortgage you are slowly buying a house.

Atm the UK system is set up around the cultural belief in renting being the short-term option (because owning is prized as a, if not the central ambition and mark of success in life). The very term 'rented accommodation' points to that mindset. Then there are the ridiculously short-term tenancies (and an inability to believe that a tenancy could be anything other than short-term). Where I am almost all tenancies have no defined end point and a minimum of three months' notice on both sides. It's entirely normal to put in your own kitchen (and either take it with you when you leave or come to an arrangement with the next tenant or sometimes the landlord for them to buy it from you), change your flooring, etc., and you are actually expected to decorate at regular intervals. There is no sense of renting making you somehow itinerant, and certainly not a failure. The fact that buying tends to be regarded as properly forever - there's no concept of the property ladder - means that people who may wish to move one day or whose career trajectories are likely to involve moving (both of these apply/have applied to us) will choose not to buy. But even people who are very settled in one place and more than in a position to buy may often choose to rent. I can think of at least one family I know for whom this is the case.

There's also much less of a sense here of buying a house effectively being your pension plan (so to speak). People downsize to a small flat and the pension accrued through statutory pension insurance contributions (19.5% of gross income, taken at source) tends to cover that.

I should add that for employees, the employer covers half of that 19.5%.

I’ve got a lovely rural council property. It’s bigger than something I’d be able to buy and it’s mine for as long as I want to live here. No building maintaince to worry about. Rent is affordable even on a low wage as a single parent. Under my circumstances I have no desire to buy a house as it’s unlikely I’ll ever be homeless. I can move into a smaller property when the children are grown and I will get help with housing costs in my old age (as the system currently stands) because I’m renting.

I think I’d only buy if I had something like a lottery win that made it viable. That said, if I were privately renting my views would be different.

Thats because jyou live in London trying , not everyone lives in Londinr or the soyth easr ......

South east *

I'd love to buy a house but the simple fact is once our bills are paid, food shopping done and petrol for work, there isn't really anything left to save towards a deposit.

We live in an expensive area of the south east where our daughter is at school and my husbands business is firmly rooted so packing up and moving to the cheaper north isn't really an option. We also have the issue that when they've built new houses around here, they market them as affordable, but prices start from £250,000 upwards.

It's just impossible!

I'd love to have more savings, but if something goes wrong with our cars, or DD needs something, then that has to come first.

Buying our house was one of the best things we've done.

We had rented for years and never managed to stay in one house for more than 2 years for various reasons. We had kids and didn't want that anymore so we found a house we could afford and we've been settled for 7 years now.

The mortgage is cheaper than the rent we were paying and certainly cheaper than rent would be now. We can decorate how want etc
We do also have some house costs yes, we've just had to replace the boiler but that should be OK for another 15 or so years now and we didn't have to wait for a landlord to drag their heels arranging it.

It's financial sense. Paying rent is lost money. You're paying someone else, to pay their mortgage. They end up owning a house. You don't.

If i was so so rich that i could pay rent and not worry about dead money then maybe id say im fine not owning but it gives me comfort

We did both to avoid paying someone else’s mortgage off when it could have been paying ours, and for some sort of stability. If there was a form of social housing avilable in which a fair amount of rent was paid and was secure, we probably would have done that- but not a private landlord who you are at the mercy of.

How is the social housing bill going to be funded to pay rent for millions of pensioners who have never been able to buy their own place?

You still haven’t said what reason your husband has given.

That conversation will help you understand him better than conversations on here.

Sounds like he thinks becoming a landlord is a better investment? So there is something going on behind his decision.

Why don’t you buy a property yourself, and rent it out?

We've just bought a flat. First time buyers, we are in our mid 40s.
I rented from the age of 19, lived abroad for a few years, came back and could never get enough money together for a deposit as no help from parents.
Had DDs, nursery fees when working p/t was hard, not able to save.

It took us 7 years to save £12,000 for a deposit on a small but lovely place in a great area. No holidays for this time at all.

I wanted a place to live that was ours - and the kids. I am no happier now than I was but I do feel more relaxed.

The mortgage, however, is more than our rent ever was. Still hard to save anything.

I am not part of the social norm either - I have no interest in making money from this place, it is our home. It is an old council place so in pretty good nick. If things needed doing though, we would struggle to pay for them. We still don't have curtains up in the lounge 

And I am a f/t language teacher in FE. DH drives lorries. Both of us have decent jobs. It shouldn't have been so difficult to save up and buy but it was.

Not in the UK. In Germany most people I know rent (unfurnushed, long-term) and wouldnt think of buying. But rent prices and tenants are better protected there.

We rent. We probably will never be able to buy. We live in the NW (lake district) so quite expensive.

Our rent is at least £200 less per month than pretty much everything else that's up for let at the moment. When our landlord let's a property he lets it at the current rate and then doesn't really up the rent. (Mines gone up by £20 pm in 8 years)
His family have owned the houses for years, My next door neighbour rents off the same family and she has lived in her house for 90+ years (from when she was 3 and she's nearly 100).
So hopefully in maybe 10 years when wages have gone up more and my rent hasn't gone up by the same % then we will save and buy a house. If that doesn't happen it doesn't happen.

I would love a house but as a ftb in the market now, I'll never own one unless I can save at least 15 grand first. And by the time I do that on my bad wage, the prices of houses will have probably gone up again. Can't win.

We absolutely don't regret buying.
Our mortgage is much less than rent was, yet we have more space, our space, and we already added value with part refurb. Where I live £6k-8k can get you into a house. Depends on moving cost and solicitor cost etc.

Buying a house is like with anything else. Some people want it, some don't. Some people are scared of it, some don't. Some want to be able to knock down walls, some don't.

Thanks to the fact that mortgage is cheaper than rent, we could afford to put away money for emergencies. Luckily no big one happened yet.

We were forced into buying as in the uk tenants have no protection. we selected the house purely on whatcwill sell easily. no everybody wants to stay in the same location all their life, and many jobs need flexibility. i would much prefer to rent !

We bought our first house because it gave us 3 bedrooms for the same monthly outgoings as a one bed flat. We bought our second due to an unreasonably high murder rate in our street. We're buying our last because, Northumberland! DGS! Really good fish!

Er because paying the bank means you will own the house at the end. hmm

But if you ever stop paying because you lose your job or whatever, they can take your house back!

@Letsmoveondude

i Know house prices will go up in 3 years

While the overall trend ha been upwards in house prices, especially in the south east, over the sorter term there have been times when properties have lost value. This is not noticeable if the house is providing your accommodation, so you can sit it out. If your circumstances change, and you have to sell up, ether to move or on divorce, it is entirely possible for the price you can get to go down over the short erm.

And we absolutely do not know for sure, what is going to happen over the next three years.

I'm hoping brexit will reduce prices. I might stand a chance of buying then.

I was desperate to own after years of renting because the longest we ever stayed was 18 months on one house. Without fail, every house was put up for sale, that was eight in nine years. Also hated dealing with letting agents, having inspections every three months and not being allowed pets.

It is so wonderful to have our own place.

We were paying £2.5k in rent every month and our mortgage is much less for a far nicer house in the same area. No moving fees every year, deposit fights and cleaning costs.