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

I was told that if you rent out your house your mortgage becomes much more expensive. And what if you can't find a tenant or the rent doesn't cover your mortgage?

Well I guess that could happen, but it would be rare. The rent we charged was several times the mortgage and our mortgage stayed the same. It was also never empty and we could chose our tenants.🤷‍♀️

They don't want to be tied down to a financial commitment for 25+ years

....which is fairly easily resolved if you has a change of heart.

You pay more in rent, way more than you would by buying. That itself solves any boiler 'issues' that you wouldn't want to be responsible for rolls eyes

I'm not fussed for owning. The concept of being excited to own bricks and mortar doesn't make any sense to me - I don't get why it's such a big deal from an emotive perspective for some people. I pay a LOT into my pension and have income protection in case I have a period where I wasn't able to work and therefore top pension up etc so not worried about supporting myself in old age - just perfectly happy to rent. I wouldn't say I've been especially lucky with rentals - had landlords sell up on us, lived in some absolute shitholes etc - but just saw it as an opportunity to move somewhere new and have a fresh experience.

"....which is fairly easily resolved if you has a change of heart. "

Is it? It seems to cost thousands to buy and sell a house.

"Well I guess that could happen, but it would be rare."

Is it really rare for a bank to have different conditions for a mortgage where the home owner lives and one where they're letting to someone else? I was told that was the norm.

I also know people who claim they make barely any money by renting out. I've always been sceptical about that claim though...

It is worth to buy. After renting for 17 years it is finally such a relief!!
Even I always had nice lanlords and felt at hone in rented house, it is much more different to be landlird of yourself.
Financially for me is way cheaper to pay to bank than to rent. Also - renting is the same financial commitment as mortgage - if you wont pay rent, you will be kicked out.
And another - although I have long mortgage, Im not commiting to stay forever. If needed, going to sell.
If you buy smart, resale is never scary or unprofitable (for example increasing value of the house).
Only person who i know and who did not aspire to buy was single lady, who had money to buy nice house in cash. But due to work she often relocated, so found renting more convenient.

I did aspire to own a house but then split with ExH so that went out of the window as with young DCs I couldn't afford it.

I'm a HA tenant with Assured tenancy so that will have to do. I suppose at least I don't have to worry about boiler, repairs, maintenance costs etc.

DCs are grown up now, working and saving but their partners are from overseas and no-one seems to have plans to buy in this country. If push came to shove I'd go back to my heritage country and live on parents' land.

As it is, for now the plan is when DCs move out I'll get a lodger.

I can't work through disability and never will again. I know I'm stuck with a lifetime of benefits and despite what the daily mail wants everyone to believe it's really not that much to live on.

Given that if I have over £6000 in savings my benefits will be reduced - even if I saved it with benifits - I have no incentive to ever try and save for a deposit.

Also on such a low income leaving the safety of having a Landlord be responsible for repair and maintenance of everything is a massive deal. Imagine scrimping and saving for years to finally own your own house, only to have to carry on doing the same just to not let the house rot away around you. Plus being disabled it's a huge weight off my mind that I can just call someone else And they will organise any repairs that need doing. I dont cope well with disputions to routine and the stress of trying to organise the repairs myself - when I barely understand what's gone wrong - would have a negative impact on my health.

So far I've been seeking out smaller landlords who prefer long term tennants and have been signing 5 year fixed term contracts. That gives me a bit more of a stable home than the normal 12 month contracts. I usually find that I've "outgrown" a place by the end of the 5 years and I'm ready to move by then anyway.

Oh yeah I am sure almost EVERYone aspires to being a homeowner mortgage owner ... but when they are - many wish they hadn't bothered.

Massive ball and chain round your neck, which you will be paying for and maintaining til you die, ties you down horribly, and costs even more than renting over the decades.

It used to be a good idea some 25-30+ years back. Now, unless you have a significant inheritance, and can pay for at least 50-60% of the value of the house, then don't bother.

Nope.

Rent from housing association and wouldn't change it. Have secure tenancy and they fix everything. Low rent.

Have no desire to get on the housing ladder at all.

It's rubbish that you pay more in rent. Yeah maybe in PRIVATE LET, you may pay more monthly rent than a mortgage on the same house, but you don't have the maintenance and repairs. I know SO many people who bitterly regret buying a property over this past 10 years.

The ones who drew the long straw, and are the lucky ones, are the blessed people in social housing. If you ARE in social housing, keep hold of that lifetime tenancy, and guard it with your life.

For homeowners - what happens if your health goes and you need to enter a nursing home? I'm just wondering as I'm sure I've read a thread on here where house has to be sold to pay care fees?

Or don't council include house as part of means assessment anymore?

It seems to me neither renting or buying is a bad choice, each to their own. Nothing is set in stone guaranteed anyway, as we just can't predict re possible massive changes that could affect life whether in rental or owned property

Former colleague once said to me “there’s more to life than paying back a big debt”. That resonated a lot with me.

He and his wife lived very frugally, saved a lot of their money (over half their income), did a lot of free stuff with their little daughter.

House shared with someone who lived very frugally, saved and invested all their money in stocks and shares, he was well into six figures by early 30s.

All those people had very secure lives, low stress levels, never worried about losing a job, could relocate easily if a good opportunity came up (we are worked in academia).

In both cases, to be fair, I don’t think they were opposed to home ownership as part of their future when the time was right e.g. buy outright at a point when market was low, at a time when they were fine with putting down roots (e.g. late in career or at retirement). They were very opposed to mortgages.

Some unusual comments on here, for example of course rentin is seldom cheaper than buying. Mortgage is for 25 years, renting is for life. And you own the property after and can release equity, downsize etc,

Maintenance of a property is a cost, just like it's a cost for your landlord, a cost you pay for in rent, but the reality is there is only so much maintenance a property needs,

For us having done both though, the joy of ownership is having something we can call our own. We can decorate as we please, change things as we please, no one comes and inspects it, no one decides we move on their schedule, if we move it's our decision.

I went guarantor for my daughters rented property yesterday and read the contract, she's not even allowed to attach things to the walls, the landlord can give her notice and make her move, she has to suffer inspections bythe agent, and quite frankly the cost is way higher than any mortgage would ever be, particularly in the long term.

Surely if you have children and pets it’s better to buy? Secure home you can stay in and don’t have to move when someone else wants to sell their property. What about when you have pets? There isn’t many rented properties that accept pets

We never had any issues finding a landlord who accepted our dog, either here in the uk or in Spain/France/Italy (he came everywhere with us!). We always paid an extra deposit but always had it returned in full as he didn’t damage anything.

There are lots of good reasons for not owning a house as you’ll see from the thread. However in your case because you will be staying in the same place due to work and family I don’t think it makes sense to be renting when you could afford to buy. Even if the markets stagnate i think if you are sensible with your borrowing you are unlikely to go into negative equity and you could always sell up and rent again if you had to.

For homeowners - what happens if your health goes and you need to enter a nursing home?
If think you’d only have to sell the house if you were the sole surviving owner i.e. a wife wouldn’t have to sell to pay her husbands fees and v.v. (Might be mistaken though)
This isn’t a bad thing and it gives you much more choice in the care you receive if you can fund it yourself. I don’t see houses as inheritance and I’d prefer my parents to use their house to pay for good quality care for themselves than hand it down to me.

I think the care thing needs to be put into perspective, it's approx 4 percent of the population, meaning 96 percent not in care. Yes you may have to sell your home to fund It if your one of the four percent, but as a pp said, at least you get a choice in the level and luxury of that care before the government steps in, pays, and dictates it.

"This isn’t a bad thing and it gives you much more choice in the care you receive if you can fund it yourself. "

I think care is so expensive that you could run through the money from the same of a house very quickly.

It depends where we end up. If you look at some other countries, they have far better protection for renters, like the landlord can't just decide to sell, they have to give you a LOT of notice.

If we settle in the UK, I would prefer to buy, because renting there seems really unstable and that scares me.

I have 2 dogs so it would be very difficult if we rented, also daughters good school is 5 mins from our house. I would hate it if we rented and had to move.

Hisaihi - in about 10 years of renting in the UK I've never had to leave at short notice or had a significant increase of rent.
These things CAN happen because there is very little protection of tenants, but it doesn't necessarily happen to everyone who rents.
I've heard more horror stories about people who've bought their own homes, particularly leaseholds.

Wow Gwen you've been lucky. Twice I rented the owner wanted the flat/house back to sell - which is one of the reasons rent feels so unstable to me. Admittedly that was in the property boom and one was a new build but at the time they'd reassured us it would be a rolling contract whole presumably knowing they planned to sell at the end.

When husbands job moved suddenly we rented this house out and rented in London and that was hideous. It was in a really nice area too! But I was pregnant and the hot water wasnt working- took ages to fix and the plumber said when he came hed been warning the l/l it was advised to replace it!!

There was damp in the property which we later found. He said it was because it was old and was too expensive to sort....

And then there was the time water dripped through the ceiling onto the bed after a thunderstorm and we had nowhere else to sleep.
That was a fun 2 years. And wasn't the cheapest available or in a bad area but in high demand so they knew they could get away with it.

Most of the 2 years were fine but those incidents really stick.

Most people I know who've rented have similar stories (apart from secure housing association etc but they're like golddust.)

fanfan18 yes they can take your house, but they will want to work with you to prevent that happening, e.g. mortgage holiday. Or you can try and sell it and they will usually take the pressure of repossession off of you.

Plus you would get back any increase in value which you wouldn't get when kicked out of a rented house.

I can see the short term benefits of renting, but cannot see any long-term benefits. I'd be awake at night worrying about being homeless in my 80's. I'd much rather my house went for care costs than having government care, there's more choice in homes and quality of care. I see the house as like an insurance policy for this.