To buy a van instead of a flat

[Uhohhouse]

Not in a cool "im so alternative" way. Just that im feeling more and more stretched financially. No kids. Dont own a house. Starting to get really fed up of feeling pinched all the time. I was going to buy this summer but when I look at the price of people's shitty flats I just think: nah i dont want to help you turn a profit on a pisstake. Obviously I dont want to rent for the rest of my life either.
Im seriously considering spending all my deposit money on a solid van and just opting out of property of any kind, and pouring any money and energy into optimising it. Anyone done this?

Well I wouldn't. Any type of vehicle loses value very fast, whereas property generally goes up (often slowly).

Are you thinking of living in the van, and if so where?

I would go for the flat, or house. If you buy a van it's value will depreciate. If you buy a property it may go up in value. And you can't have a bath in a van.

Do you mean to live in? That’s a very difficult lifestyle and a very poor investment. I suspect property prices will be coming down as generally the economy is not doing well, so maybe just hang on for a bit.

Im torn. If you can buy a van and stomach living in it for 12 months whilst saving your socks off to put down a deposit big enough for a nice house then I suppose - go for it???

Or will you waste £20,000 on a van, then sell it for £14,000 4 months later and barely break even?

I'd be worried about security. Someone can literally drive away with your whole house one night or break in and rape you.

There's a YouTube channel I watch called Bythecurb - it's run by a Yorkshireman, James, who lives in a van and travels around the UK, finding interesting places to explore. He does the occasional episode where he gives tips on how to start up. One thing that I recall him saying is that you need somewhere to get mail - he has his mum.

‘Van life’ is really not workable in the UK. The US influencers glamorised it, but the US is different to here.

Where are you going to dispose of your waste (human and general) to start with? Where will you shower?

You have to pay to park in most places (campsites) or you get towed/ticketed and it’s hardly safe. Food will be more expensive given limited space to store things.

Also unless you’re building it yourself it’s insanely expensive - £20k isn’t going to get you far. Some of them are £80K+. One of the UK influencers is trying to sell theirs for about £150K atm - the US boom has driven up prices. And if you’re building it yourself, it’s going to incredibly hard unless you have the skills.

It’s quite sad how much I know about this…

What about looking into a canal boat?

I'm not sure how much deposit you've got but you will watch it dwindle to nothing as the van depreciates, and then what's the plan?

All fun and games in midsummer, loses it's appeal mid February. There are less and less places to park as local councils change police in line with the increase in Van Dwellers in cities, having to constantly move, gain access to water, and find somewhere to put rubbish and waste is a full time occupation.

It makes no sense financially or otherwise, if you've got any other option.

I live in Bristol which has the highest "van life" population of any UK city. I really wouldn't even consider it OP. You face constant hostility from local residents, get moved on by local authorities and compromise your personal safety (vans are easy to break into and to be set on fire - it happens a lot). You've got to find somewhere to dump your rubbish and human waste without breaking the law or harming the environment and you've also got to think seriously about coping in the winter. Vans get very cold and very damp. A vehicle will also depreciate in value rapidly so you won't get your money back, let alone see any return.

You will have to tax , insure and mot it . Cold and depressing in winter . You will have to get water , empty your waste water and sewerage . Get gas for cooking , always ensure your power batteries are charged up for heat and light .
Do I need to carry on ?

Van life is grim.
Our weather patterns are becoming more and more extreme and unpredictable. I’d want somewhere to live that I feel safe and sheltered from the elements. Even the nicest van doesn’t give you that.

He is male. He pees differently and doesn’t have periods. It makes living in a van much easier.

I wouldn’t OP for all reasons people above cited. It’s just your emotions, understandably as life is very difficult and unpredictable at the moment.

I did van life with an ex over 20 years ago when we were young and fun and had energy and were trying to save.

It was shit. More than shit really. The summer was mostly fun, but still wet.

Autumn was hideous and winter nearly killed us. And we were lucky enough to be able to park in a friends barn so we weren't wide open to the elements.

Yes, we had absolutely no clue and there wasnt the info available that there is now.
But trying to keep professional jobs (plus study) and just being insanely cold all the time. Never really feeling like you'd eaten a proper dinner or had a proper wash was grim.

The upsides were we were 100% available with accommodation for every party going...which is think was the only thing that kept us going for the 11 months we did it.

I would love a camper van now for holidays, and I wouldn't mind a few nights wild camping. But ill never sleep in my sleeping bag, clothes, coat, hat, towels, rug and under a hairy man purely for warmth again.

And I definitely wouldn't do it as a single woman sadly. Even 20 odd years ago there were weirdos in that community leaching onto women they felt were easy targets

A relative who lived for a couple of years in a small caravan (not a mobile home) has confirmed that washing and going to the toilet in a "home" that has no proper plumbing is not easy or pleasant. You end up paying a poverty premium for things that people in a bricks and mortar home take for granted (like light, use of a washing machine, etc.). Vans are usually quite poorly insulated, and you need very good ventilation if you are going to rely on any sort of burner for heat or power, which of course also pose a fire risk in a confined space, and shouldn't be left on while you're asleep. There's nowhere to dry your laundry, so you can get humidity issues.
You could pay for space on a site and hook up to power/water/sewerage but even if you could find such a space, you need quite an expensive van for that.
Honestly I think it's a plan that you would probably regret after a few years.

Cheeky offers on flats are the way forward! I know someone who was accepted offering 1.1m for a house that had been on the market for a year at 1.5m.

Look at flats on the market for a longish period , ask the agent why they didn’t sell yet and if agent thinks seller would now be open to an offer. Then work out what you’re prepared to pay and take off another 20%. Make that offer and don’t budge. Lots and lots of landlords are selling off flats - you should be able to scoop a good deal and the “asking price” is often massively inflated .

Bad idea. Vans go down in price but flats go up

A friend of mine lives in a van, though she also doesn’t have a normal full time job - does some online AI training time stuff whilst on the road and works on events the rest of the time so tends to leave UK in her van - she’s done Italy, Spain, Morocco amongst other places. Some just travelling and remote working, some also volunteering/working in exchange for a parkup and food at farms and that sort of thing. So whilst she’s not in the uk full time she seems to manage it with a dog in tow and be happy doing it!

I have a narrowboat - worth looking into if it interests you but don’t do it purely for economic reasons as whilst in my opinion it’s fantastic, winters are hard and everything is harder than in a house and you have to have backups for backups. I guess it would be the same if you lived on a remote farm or something like that.

Until I can afford a small farm/holding, I’ll be keeping to my boat though, nothing worse than a flat so close to so many other people for me!

No, that's daft and short-sighted. This: Obviously I dont want to rent for the rest of my life either. doesn't fit with buying a van. It just means you'll rent for the rest of your life with a van, until it conks out. The vendor demonising sounds a bit childish tbh. Go ahead and find a co-op if you want to live outside the system, or there's still places you can buy a house for the cost of the shitty flats you're talking about (my hometown still has houses for five figures if you wanted to live there). But a van is not the way to beat the system. You'll burn your money faster than bricks and mortar and be much less well set up for the long term.

I wouldn’t no. We have a converted van thing which we take to the Lakes etc and it is gorgeous, we love it, but I wouldn’t want to live in it 24/7 indefinitely.

From a financial perspective that van depreciates in value the second you buy it and drive it away, and it won’t last forever so you will always be buying a new one. A flat/house is an asset, you can stay there forever if you want to, one day it will be paid off. From a practicality perspective if you don’t want to rent forever then the younger you get on the ladder the better your lending capacity and the lower your payments will be.

No. Having lived and cruised on a narrow boat for 25 years - and that was hard and expensive, and yes many a day was spent when frozen in trudging both types of waste and fuel and fresh water miles down muddy towpaths - van life would be a hard no.
It’s a lot harder than either renting or buying even a run down property, plus it’s surprisingly expensive. Poverty tax is a real thing.

Have you got enough for a mobile home on a site otherwise? Some are 10-11.5 month occupancies and you could stay in a hotel the other few weeks?

i would still go for the flat in your situation. What about moving to an area that’s cheaper so your money goes further or stretches to a deposit on a house?

There's a guy who has been living in a motor home parked up round the corner from where we live. Just on the side of the road a residential street (and I suspect piggy backing off the open WiFi from the NHS building there). Hes been there months, must be since about October. Ive only seen his van move twice in that time, just for a few hours both times.

I cannot work out where he is getting his electricity, where he is emptying his toilet and where he is getting water from. Quite honestly, I also question his mental health.