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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Rent or mortgage does it matter??

171 replies

Catty1720 · 07/01/2021 11:43

Me and my partner rent a lovely 2 bed apartment for 825 per month. We comfortably pay rent and bills between us and have enough left for the month.
He’s older than me (47) I’m 31.
We don’t have money for a deposit as we had to use savings when I became sick and needed time off to recover. My partner never ever begrudged this as a lot of the savings were his. We live in a town near to London so it is pricey to buy (or in my opinion it is)
I worry we don’t have a home of our own and probably due to ages never will. I save money for our DD so she will have something when she’s older it won’t be a lot but something.
Should I worry we won’t ever have a home of our own?? Am I unreasonable to stress over it? Would you say There’s pros and cons for both?

OP posts:

Dannydevitoiloveyourart · 07/01/2021 13:14

Rent pm where we are for a 3 bed semi is typically £1700-1900. But if you bought in the last four years with a 10% deposit, monthly mortgage payments are typically £1100-1500.

So not only is rent more expensive in the medium to long term, there’s also the uncertainty that you will need to move every few years, you can’t decorate or renovate your family home to your tastes and lifestyle, and you wont have an asset at the end of it. With the money saved on renting, homeowners can use the extra cash to save for emergency home repairs and improvements.

I think there are very few circumstances in which renting is better than owning (i.e super luxury homes that are hard to sell, people who love to travel and move countries/ areas often etc). For most people with a young family owning will always be the most stable and least expensive option (obviously owning is expensive in the short term due to deposit costs).

Anotherlovelybitofsquirrel · 07/01/2021 13:15

A mortgage is posh rent

It's the difference between putting money in a piggy bank and flushing it down the toilet

We will own our house and have nothing to pay monthly to live here when the mortgage is paid off. Renters will always have to pay rent. Even when they are not capable of earning due to age.

Why pay someone else's mortgage rather than your own?

Ticklytoes · 07/01/2021 13:15

I had a mortgage quite young. It was paid off at 40.

That’s a lot of years of rent that I won’t be paying.

Original poster

Catty1720 · 07/01/2021 13:17

@TheNanny23

Honestly I would stop putting money away for your daughter depending how old she is. Much better to put money towards a stable home for the family, can cross the future university money bridge when you come to it.

The money was just for our daughter as a target if we get to a stage where we can use it for a home we will as I said my main concern was age and payments I’m youngish still he’s not

OP posts:

FinallyFluid · 07/01/2021 13:18

@FinallyFluid

Lovely people of MN I have clarified that I posted in haste and did not make myself very clear.

You may as well pay your own mortgage as rent and pay someone else's.

And actually if you look at my post directly under the posh rent statement I did say better to have a mortgage than not, so not quite sure where the multiple re postings are coming from.

SonjaMorgan · 07/01/2021 13:19

I agree with what others say regarding mortgage terms. I would also add that you don't know how much rents will be in 30 years time.

emmathedilemma · 07/01/2021 13:19

It's not about how much you pay per month really, it's about having the equity in a property that you pay the mortgage on. ok, the markets go up and down but if you look at it as a long term investment it would take something pretty bad to happen for your house not to be worth more at the end of a 25yr mortgage.
For example, I pay my mortgage monthly on a value that's only about a third of the value of the property. So I have a 6 figure sum of money in equity which is more than I would ever had been able to put away in savings over the last 20 years without making some serious sacrifices. If i was paying rent this property would cost more than I pay on my mortgage monthly so i'd have even less capacity to contribute to savings.
Also, it's my property and if i need a bit more income I could rent the 2nd bedroom out which you generally can't do in a rented place without breaking your tenancy agreement.

Xenia · 07/01/2021 13:21

You are only 31. That is not too old to get a mortgage. In fact if you both wait too long you will be too old to get one. However lots of people are happy renting forever and have a plan so they can afford their rent even when retired.

unbotheredbutbewildered · 07/01/2021 13:25

It's your choice. There are many people who rent for life and never want to buy anywhere. There are other people who jump on the property market faster than Trump on twitter.

The most important thing, I would argue, is to make sure that whatever you do and whichever route you choose you always have money in savings. If you do really want a house, I would just make sure that any mortgage you get could get (if you're really worried about this) could be paid on just one persons salary and you'd still have enough to get by on food etc. Appreciate it sounds a big ask but it might give you the peace of mind shoulda anything happen to your partner!

I'd also ignore the people who said don't save for your daughter. If worst dame to worst you could always re-purpose that money for a rainy day and she'd never need to know it was originally put away for her - and even if she did, I'm sure she'd rather you spent the money on affording necessities like a mortgage.

CoRhona · 07/01/2021 13:25

We've owned our house for 20 years, in which time it has more than doubled in value.

There is nothing else that comes anywhere near to us having made that much money so personally, I think those who can buy but choose to rent are insane!

Jaxhog · 07/01/2021 13:25

The main differences are not paying rent when you retire and having a property to leave to your kids.

partyatthepalace · 07/01/2021 13:27

No advantages to renting long term.

Why don’t you and your partner sit down and figure out if you can buy. I’d stop putting money away for your daughter, this is very much an added extra when you don’t have a home of your own. Relatively few kids would have got this.

Unicorn34 · 07/01/2021 13:29

My NDN has an interest only mortgage (only one she can afford) and so, after 25 years, still won't own her property and will need to either sell it or remortgage. She will be about 70. I would rather not have this situation if it was my life and would rent if I had to I think.

81Byerley · 07/01/2021 13:31

The biggest disadvantage to renting comes when you retire. We have paid off our mortgage, and I don't know how we would cope if we had to pay rent. We could not afford £800 per month. We're currently paying £250 per month maintenance charge for our stairlift. I think we have one more to make, and I will be so relieved when that's over.

sirfredfredgeorge · 07/01/2021 13:32

Rent pm where we are for a 3 bed semi is typically £1700-1900. But if you bought in the last four years with a 10% deposit, monthly mortgage payments are typically £1100-1500

Where I am, the rent is ~1200, the deposit required to get even the interest only portion of the mortgage the same at that is ~25%, so there's a significant cash saving from renting even before the additional costs of ownership. Areas differ significantly!

Megan2018 · 07/01/2021 13:33

Renting in the UK is a poor choice, in other countries it works well. MIL gets her rent pain as a pensioner in Germany and it includes heating, but she was restricted to a 1 bed apartment as she lives alone. Rent is secure, controlled and protected and property is of a high standard.

Here there is no protection from rent increase for pensioners and it can be very insecure. I would always rather buy here as I wouldn’t want to be dependent on a landlord. I have a BTL myself and I maintain my rental properly and look after my tenants, but not everyone does. Rent is also extortionately high compared to buying.

What is your pension forecast compared to income @Catty1720? I have a final salary pension and should get just over half of what I get now, without a mortgage that should be reasonably comfortable. Private pensions are often pretty poor in comparison.

Almostslimjim · 07/01/2021 13:36

There are benefits to both, and I have done both at various times, but if you are in an area you wish to settle in and have reasonably secure jobs, then buying is more beneficial long term.

CremeEggThief · 07/01/2021 13:36

Have you applied for social housing? You might be waiting for years, but it's definitely worth doing.

My friend who is a full-time primary teacher was offered a lovely, brand new housing association house last year, after I encouraged her to apply followed a relationship breakdown.

Also, to everyone posting with worries about affording the rent when you can no longer work, please remember that you will get housing benefit and/or pension credit, so don't worry too much about having to rent in retirement. The State has a duty of care to anyone in this position.

LakieLady · 07/01/2021 13:38

We have a rather significant plumbing issue with our rental property that might cost a couple hundred to fix now, but if left could cost thousands because eventually the pipes will fail, this isn't our responsibility to fix so I don't have to deal with the stress of the work and cost. If we owned this house I'd probably sell rather than deal with it

Pmsl @NeedCoffeeToSurvive, it would cost far more than the couple of hundred to sell the property, so it would be cheaper to fix than to sell!

Beautiful3 · 07/01/2021 13:38

Someone I know was comfortable renting, until the rent increased a few times. The price increase meant she had to move out. The next house she rented for a couple of years ended up being sold. She had to move again. The future is always uncertain with rent. I would look at saving up towards a mortgage before it's too late (you hit 50).

GingerBeverage · 07/01/2021 13:40

How do you intend to pay rent when you retire?

Original poster

Catty1720 · 07/01/2021 13:40

@Megan2018 our pensions would be comfortable could afford rent but saying that that’s as a pair you never know what the future holds not saying as I’m break ups but the reason we ate into our savings was that at 30 I got skin and bowel cancer so this is why I’m worrying about the future now. Morbidly I know I have inheritance coming which would probably secure us a house we don’t need anything more than two up two down my worry was ages really but reading these posts I feel a lot better. I probably come across quite naive but unless you ask you don’t know do you

OP posts:

Beautiful3 · 07/01/2021 13:41

Houses in my street at up for rent around £925 per month. My mortgage is only £420. Mortgage is cheaper than rent, wait a few years when all the rents increased, and yours is still relatively low.

Atrixie · 07/01/2021 13:43

but in all likelihood the value of her house would have increased so not only would she have made money she would probably be able to downsize mortgage free or if not she'll have a bigger lump sum of cash she would have had if she had rented. It still makes total sense to have a mortgage over renting

Ticklytoes · 07/01/2021 13:43

Don’t bank on inheritance, care home fees could wipe this out.

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