Would you rather be mortgage free…

[Cantstopeatingpringles]

With a modest house

Or

Rent and live in a house in the U.K. and have a holiday house abroad that you rent out and that brings in extra money and you can go and stay at for holidays?

Mortgage free every time

Renting in the U.K. isn’t easy these days. Finding anywhere nice to rent at a reasonable cost is very difficult at the moment.

It was bad enough 20 years ago when we rented. We went through agents and they were always pretty shady. For our first home we were told there were 2 parking spaces in the communal area for us, we found out after we’d moved in there weren’t it was just 1, with nowhere else close to park. Our second rental was filthy when we moved in even though the agent told us it would be deep cleaned before we moved in. Our third home was fine but our landlords lived next door which we weren’t told about until after we’d moved in and we felt constantly watched. Renters are always on the back foot when things aren’t what was promised.

The first landlord ended our lease after 18 months because his sister had got divorced and needed the flat. We left on amicable terms and got our full deposit back but we didn’t leave when we wanted. The second house, after we’d been there 2 years, the lady who owned it who was elderly, had a fall so moved back into it as smaller and easier for her to live in after her accident. Despite it being filthy when we moved in, we still had to spend time and money leaving it in a better condition than we found it in. While at the third rental we decided we weren’t going to rent anymore and bought a home. Moving 3 times in 4 years was disruptive, expensive, stressful.

It’s much, much worse here now.

It is very, very low for bills for two working adults.

food shopping, electricity, gas, council tax, broadband, mobile phones, house insurance, life insurance.

okay they might not have a car, pets, gym membership, Netflix, sky tv, window cleaner, dentist etc. but still £600 is really tight for an average couple.

This is very true. And how much time would you actually spend in your holiday home?

The other problem is rental in the UK, it's very expensive now.