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

If you are a cash buyer, then it is a simpler decision since you do not have to take mortgage rates in consideration.

The cost of moving is not a big amount relatively speaking. You can always reduce the costs of moving by hiring a van and/or doing it yourself with friends, assuming you are not living in a mansion. You should be more concerned at whether property prices are likely to fall in your area to reduce the risk of negative equity.

The rent you will save minus the cost of maintaining the property is the amount by which the property market can fall before you actually lose money.

If you can stay and wait out any negative equity (not sure there is a huge risk of that in the current market), then that reduces the risk of you losing money.

This is a maths question based on where you live.

If you bought a £150k house then sold it 3 years later for a bigger house costing £300,000, you'd pay £15,000 stamp duty around £2000 buying and selling costs, perhaps £1000 moving costs and then interest on the mortgage over the 3 years.

Compare the above with local rent prices then also consider any potential increase in equity.

I bought a a property at the market peak, sold £10k less 5 years later, but lived in an area where rents where expensive so over all including selling costs I still saved money!

Depends.

I usually bought houses that needed work, so it was a guaranteed money-maker even if we moved in a few years - if you do rewiring, re-plastering, update kitchen and bathroom and add central heating for example, you can sell at a profit within a very short time.

If you know a bit about damp and the types that are easy to correct, then you can get loads of bargain properties too.

If you were wanting a 'move into' property, 3 years is still plenty to stay. So long as you don't lose mmoney, you are still better-placed than having rented. and a house crash is unlikely.

No rules! If you're happy, stay, if not move? We lived in our first bought house for 3 years, we weren't happy there, moved to next and have been here over 20 years as we've loved it. Each went up in value and added to equity. Now we're moving again, house has doubled in value, will still have mortgage to pay. If we're happy we will stay, if not we will move again. Honestly just go with your gut while being aware of property value in the area. Good luck. Xx

First house: 5 years

Second house: 8 years - only moved as circumstances changed and couldn't walk past current house

Current house: not planning on moving again 😬 🫠

As long as possible. 5 years in first house, moved because got burgled and didn't feel safe there, been in current house 20 years and plan to stay at least 5 more years until DD has moved out and then downsize.

first house 5 years

second house 30 years and they will carry me out in a box.

Do you see it as a home or an investment? My house is my home,
pointless moving just for the sake of the property ladder. my mortgage was always very managable for me as a single person and was paid off when I was 56.

We're the only country that see homes as money making. Other countries value them as a place to live. Our housing market would be so much fairer if this were the case.

This.

Buy what you can afford, then when you can afford the next step up, go for it. Rinse and repeat until you achieve your forever home.

I grew up in another country. UK is not the only country that sees homes as money making and an investment, in addition to a place to live, lol.

This is particularly so in countries or cities where land is scare.

I totally get it. I was also a commitmentphobe and the thought of owning a house made me feel sick. It’s actually super easy because
a) you won’t have a tonne of stuff
b) you don’t NEED it to work and have recent experience renting

I bought my first ‘starter’ house 10 years ago and have just stayed because it has worked for me. Transport got better. Area got a bit gentrified. You don’t know what will happen even after a few years.

You’ll be fine. Do it!

I still sometimes wander round and just giggle that it’s actually mine (well technically mainly the bank’s, but a little bit mine.)

The hardest thing after 20 years of renting magnolia and white was there was so many colour choices to paint the rooms.

We stayed in the first house we bought for 17 years and sold it for just £10k more than we bought it. Prices dropped in the financial crisis in 2008 and didn't increase again until the pandemic (which was after we'd sold). Never assume you'll make money on a house, only buy if you think you'll live in it long enough for it to be cheaper than renting over the time you are there.

Depends on the situation. I've lived in my house 2/3 years now and I'm itching to move. But our house was always a stepping stone and never a forever home.

1st house: 2 years
2nd house: 4 years
3rd house (self build): 15 years so far...Will probably keep for another 5 years before downsizing.

I would hate to be wedded to a building or location forever....which probably means I just haven't found my forever place yet.

In answer to your OP, I don't think there is a minimum time so long as you do your best not to lose money. Circumstances and needs change and you should be able to adjust with it (in an ideal world)

Your call

me;
house no 1 8 years
house number 2. 4 years
house number 3. 14 years
house number 4. 8 years ….still here
probably move again in next 3 years

I have only bought one house. I’m still in it nearly 25 years later and have no intention of ever moving.

It was bought to live in, not as an investment.

Take the amount of stamp duty you paid on purchase and divide it by the number of months you’ve lived there. The longer you live there the less the monthly stamp duty is. This figure usually concentrates the mind.

This is good advice - thanks.

First flat we stayed for 10 years. The house after that (that we live in now) planning to stay for 18+ years (till dcs finish secondary education). Stamp duty and selling costs get crazy expensive as we're in London, and moving costs are high too. But mainly it's because we hate the faff of moving. Packing boxes, decluttering, viewings, negotiations, waiting on searches. Plus I like the idea of dcs building memories in one home. We will have to move when we get older, because it has too many stairs, otherwise I'd stay here until we die.

We move often, in the 10 years I’ve been married we have had 2 rentals and 3 purchases (2 sales).

There is no should about any of it. The last one we sold was because we were offered a fuckton more than we paid for it at the property peak post Covid. No regrets there, yes we spent a fair whack in doing so but we still made a lot of profit and were able to buy in a previously out of reach location.

The first house we bought together we told the vendors it would be a forever home, but we sold it inside 3 years. Shit happens.

I’m not moving again however. This one is a keeper.

How did that happen? This was my exact situation; I bought my first place in 2006 and came off the fixed rate mortgage after three years onto a tracker, during which time interest rates had plummeted to somewhere below the centre of the earth. My monthly repayment dropped by about a third and didn't move between then and when I sold it for £30k more ten years later. Buying in 2006 could hardly have worked out better.

I generally think 5 years, although it's an arbitrary figure based on how much I hate the hassle of moving. Finance wise, it very much depends on the circumstances.

I would say five yrs is a good benchmark. If you don't have to spend much on repairs and the market goes up it could be less, but I think that's a good # to plan for. Depends how much you'd have to spend on rent, too.

I think the area just grew in price super quickly in the early 2000s and couldn’t be sustained. I’m in the north east and I know a lot of people bought at the peak and prices only really recovered when they started going up around 2020/21.

Because people bought with a small deposit they had negative equity and when their fixed rates ended they got stuck on relatively crappy standard variable rates.

I don’t think the south took as long to recover and I’m not sure if it was even as badly impacted to start with. I’m just relieved I listened to my dad’s advice and didn’t stretch myself to buy one of the bigger flats