How long should you plan to own a house if you buy it?

[Chiarali]

What’s the minimum amount of time you should be planning to own/stay in a house for it to be a financially sensible decision to buy it? I’m a potential FTB, curious about MN opinions here.

YABU - you should be planning to own it for at least 10 years

YANBU - you could sell it in 3 years if you decided you wanted to move and it wouldn’t be a waste of money

First house - 8 years
Second house - 19 years and counting.

moving costs are such a waste of money if you don’t need to pay them.

Up to you! Buying and selling are expensive and stressful things to do. If you have a small deposit / high LTV and house prices fall you may find yourself in negative equity if you’ve not been there long

I'm not voting. I've always bought thinking I'm happy to stay there forever and it's only when circumstances have changed that I've moved.

Up to you... I moved 7 times in 10 years when I was younger as my work took me to lots of places and I liked to own the house I was living in (plus work paid my moving and legal expenses). Then my last house I stayed in for 15 years as I had my dd and liked the area for schools etc, then moved to what I hope will be my forever home and been here 3 years. That said we may decide to downsize or buy a bungalow after we retire.

It's really up to you and what suits you or you and your family.

Buying as opposed to renting or as opposed to selling and buying another one soon after?

If you are only concerned about 'financially sensible', there is no minimum period. As you know, people do 'flip' houses if they got it for a good price especially in a hot market.

It is just crunching numbers and your view of the market in your area and the price you are getting for the house in that condition. How long is a piece of string?

Can you explain what you would like to achieve, then people can give more targeted advice.

I'd say minimum 5 years if it's a starter home where you're not planning to invest much money (eg renovations, fitted wardrobes, landscaping the garden etc). We're hoping to move after 5 years and we've put a lot of money into this house, which we regret.

If it's a home that could suit you for a long time, you're stretching your budget for and that you want to do a lot of upgrades to, I'd say minimum 10-15 years.

I’d say 3 years might be a bit tight, but 4-5 and you should be good but depends on area and relative market growth. One thing to consider is mortgage penalty period - ie. How much would it cost you to pay off early if you wanted to totally cut and run. If you’re thinking you’d buy another property then you could port the mortgage and it wouldn’t be an issue.

Had my first house for 3-years before selling.
Bought as a (single) FTB and it was definitely a doer-upper. Honed my decorating skills with help from my Ddad and thanks to the house being in a far better condition and (of course) a rising market I made a nice tidy profit when I sold.
This helped buy my second house which I only ever planned to stay in for another 3-years but life got in the way and I stayed for 31-years.

How long is a piece of string? We moved from our first owned flat, horrible situation (violent drunk upstairs neighbour who played music so loud it was distorted, 7pm-7am every night) to a silent, fabulous little house but only stayed there a year. Made a killing, still in the house we moved to, over 20 years later, looking to move in 2 years, hoping it’s our last move. We might have stayed longer in the little house if prices hadn’t shot up.

It’s also very dependent on area and trends, plus obviously interest rates.

First house I had for 3 years
Second house (moved to a more desired village location) I sold after only 2 years as I met my husband and we wanted to start a family so we moved into his bigger house and I paid off his mortgage. We've been here for 20 years and are definitely never moving now. NB I did make a good profit on the sales despite the short time but that was more luck in the market!

Buying and selling is an absolute nightmare of epic proportions. I'm currently selling my first house after 8 years of ownership, and if we attend up getting my next house never ever ever moving again.

There are no rules
Do whatever suits

Depends on your circumstance and life stage.

Still staircasing? More frequently when you are younger.
Have kids? Move if you haven't enough space / stay put as long as possible of you have enough space.
Older? Depends on your healthcare needs and whether you have a good enough pension.

No ideal answer. Depends on whether the market is in boom or bust too. We didn't have the option whilst we were in negative equity.

For as long as you need that house and want to stay in it. Financial viability obviously prevails.

Flat: 5 years
House 1: 7 years
House 2: 21 years
House 3: 9 years so far

Flipped an investment project 2013/15. Bought it cheap, renovated, lived in it while renovating House 2 to sell.

I have never found that.

First house/flat four years; second house/flat four years; third house - 20 years.
Not saying that's ideal, that was just us

Generally, if you are going to be in the property market long term, then once you are an owner, you will generally be ok because if the market rises, you can sell your house for a higher price but you will also pay more for the next house. Same thing vice versa.

The only caveat is that as a FTB, don't buy at the peak, because you will end up in negative equity and stuck for the first few years.

Also don't buy a flat with cladding issues. And don't buy a property with a short leasehold.

Lucky you.

In general it’s a bit risky buying a house you don’t intend to stay in long, particularly without a large deposit. It’s worth having a look where you will buy to see how stable pricing has been over time on various types of property. I initially bought a 1 bed flat in a terrace on advice of my dad, a surveyor, who observed that particular type of property in that area tended not to inflate as much as bigger properties or fall as fast in a dip. It was amazing advice. I bought in 2004 & sold in 2010 for and lost £1k. In same area a 2 bed flat lost about £35k off its value in that period. They were close to same size and with hindsight the 2 bed was stupidly overpriced as I was buying. If I’d stretched to go for that I’m not sure we’d ever have managed to move to our subsequent houses as really price on the 2 beds only got back to the 2004-5 pricing in 2021 and it’s still not back to the peak from 07/ early 08.

I'd say:

Expecting you'll likely want to move after 3 years (e.g. you plan to get a bigger house in time to have kids) - fine. 95% of the time this will be better for you financially than renting for those 3 years, and if 3 years time is a bad time in the housing market you can just hang on a bit longer.

Knowing that you're absolutely going to need after 3 years (e.g. you're from abroad and your work visa runs out in 3 years) - not sensible IMO.

I've known far more people who wish they'd bought earlier than who wish they'd bought later (I think the latter number is zero)

I know a lot of people who wish they’d waited to buy who got first homes in 2006/2007 on 5% deposit mortgages. One of our old neighbours was in her flat for over 10 years and stuck on a crappy interest rate most of the time due to the last crash.

Thanks everyone for the replies. I’m a single FTB, so the alternative is renting. Potentially in a bit of an unusual situation in that if the property isn’t too expensive I might be able to buy outright (I.e. no mortgage). Not sure if that makes a difference in terms of thinking about how long I’m sensibly committing to? As I assume the main arguments against moving are a) the costs associated and b) depending on what the housing market does you could go into negative equity so would then need to stick with the property for as long as that lasted.

Are there any other factors I should be taking into consideration? I don’t really want to keep renting, but I’m a horrendous commitmentphobe and the idea of huge life commitments that I can’t get out of always make me nervous. I think I’d feel more comfortable if I could convince myself that I could move on in 3 years if I wanted to.

It just depends on your circumstances and what life throws at you which often can't be predicted. For me:
First house 6 years, ended up £16k negative equity
Second house 6 months, lost £6k in value
Third and current house, nearly 30 years, worth about 4.5 times what I paid.

There's just no right answer to this as it's so circumstantial.

I don't want to move because I can't be arsed. But if something happens that makes living here less enjoyable then I'll move.

Also if you're buying outright then negative equity isn't a concern. The house may lose value but you won't have a loan secured against it.