Do you own or rent?

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We rent out of choice. I.e. we have enough invested that could cover a deposit, sdlt, fees, and the like. We also don't know if we'll stay in London forever.

We live centrally which means we'd only afford a flat, which suits us fine. Flats in London however, are down massively in value.

AIBU to think people are naive when they ask "do you own or rent" as if owning a 10% slice of a house is obviously much better and more successful than someone who rents. Most of the time people are trying to measure up how rich you are.

We own.

However that’s because DS is young, I want stability more than I want the ability to move whenever the fancy takes me (which I totally would be doing if childfree!). Many of my colleagues rent in central London and it makes total sense in this market. Owning is not the obvious ‘better’ choice, especially in London.

We own. I don't know or have ever known anyone that rents.

Rent a council flat.

We own, but houses are pretty cheap where I live so it makes much more sense to buy than keep paying out in rent - our decent sized detached house was less than 80k and I recently saw a one bedroom flat for sale for 5k!

I own, but I was able to get on the ladder quite young (23) due to my ex receiving an inheritance and we bought a house together. I like the security that comes with it. I know three people who have had to move out of their rented flats in the last year because their landlord decided to sell.

I rent because it's currently cheaper than a mortgage, but ability to save has been restricted. If my landlord puts the rent up to market rate next year then I might as well be paying a mortgage.

We own. I would choose to own as I don’t want the insecurity of potentially having to move and if I’m paying rent anyway I’d like it to be coming off my own mortgage.
The only people I know who rent at our ages are people who aren’t in a position to buy for whatever reason. But I don’t live in London anymore so it’s maybe different outside of the big cities.

@Natsku

your detached home was 80k 😂😂 where on earth is this you live? I might move there myself!

I think when prices begin to fall, people remember that ownership has risks. However when you look at the very long term, it tends to add benefits.

There’s actually three parts to your question. Do you own , rent or have a mortgage. Not everyone has a mortgage and do in fact own their house.
Renting is totally underrated especially in the larger cities. You don’t need to own to be financially secure.

We own our house. Though, it was only possible because we live in an affordable area. We got on the property ladder because our landlord issued us our notice.

We went straight to a mortgage broker to get the ball rolling. Then, we completed on our house with two days of our rental notice to spare.

I never want that level of insecurity again. It was an incredibly stressful situation to be in.

But it is not just the two options of Own or Rent is it... there are three options.

Buying, Own or Rent.

AIBU to think people are naive when they ask "do you own or rent" as if owning a 10% slice of a house is obviously much better and more successful than someone who rents. Most of the time people are trying to measure up how rich you are.

YABU I couldnt care less what somebody else chooses to do with their money - why would it bother me? How do you measure 'much better' and 'successful' - I presume you mean in terms of money which seems very shallow.

We own. Without a mortgage.
I would not want to go back to the insecurity of renting, particularly as I approach retirement.

own. it’s cheaper than renting. up here landlords are getting a good return on property. it’s so expensive.

i think, outwith london, it makes more sense to buy than rent - if people intend staying there a good while, are young and able to get a mortgage.

i confess if i speak to anyone renting long term up here my first thought is why aren't they buying. meanwhile my grandparents would say the exact opposite because they didn’t want the stress of paying for and arranging repairs and a council house was the done thing then.

sadly there just aren’t enough council houses nowadays since they sold them off cheap. the whole situation needs looked at and sorted. but easier said than done.

We own and in our situation, I can’t imagine choosing to rent if we could afford to own instead. When we were renting, we moved twice in 2 years because both landlords decided to sell. We had a child then and we could afford to own but as we didn’t have a permanent residency in the UK at the time, felt it was risky to buy. When things finally aligned, we bought and have not regretted. We’ve been here for 8 years and the stability alone is worth it for us esp with 3 kids and 1 is ND. We can do any home improvement we want, we don’t have estate agents coming to look at the property every 3 months, I just feel at peace. Yes at the time we only owned 10% of the house but now I’ll say we own more than 40% of it and at some point in future we’ll stop paying for it. I don’t want to have major housing cost when I’m nearing retirement.
Also we’ve done and home extension now and my current mortgage now is at least £600 less than the same house in rent because rent has increased massively where I live.
That being said, I would never look down on anyone no matter what so it does not bother me who owns or rents.

I have never been asked that and I'm 54.

I don't think it's necessarily a "judgy" question. When we left uni in the 90s everyone rented for the first year or two while they found their feet with jobs or had to move to a new town/city to take a job. It makes a lot of sense to rent when you're new to an area, or if you know you're only going to be there a year or two. Try before you buy, no point spernding thousands in stamp duty and legal fees only to have to sell 18 months later.

I think you’ve misunderstood what a mortgage is, you don’t own 10 percent of the house, you fully own and are the legal and only owner

a mortgage company takes a charge over the property, meaning they can take possession and force a sale if you default, but that does not make them the owner as you pay your mortgage (which is jist a loan) off

every month, assuming not an interest only mortgage, you pay off the capital sum, thus reducing what you owe, like any other loan. Bricks and mortar always increase in price over time, so your property gains in value over the period of the loan, as the capital sum outstanding decreases.

in rent, you pay to live in a property, like a hotel room, or air b n b. When you leave you have no right to the property, no increase in value, you’ve simply paid to stay there.

of course over time, owning and taking a loan to do so, is always financially preferential, but renting is a valid option should for whatever reason someone is able to buy and chooses not to.

But saying someone owns a small percentage is factually incorrect. They fully own 100 percent of the property and taking out a mortgage and having a charge over your property doesn’t change that.

I absolutely never, ever ask. It just doesn’t occur to me. I might find out eventually, through conversation, but I just don’t ask.

We own but rented for a long time. We bought because we our landlady was selling her rental and rentals everywhere we’re ridiculously priced plus we knew we were looking to become parents and wanted stability. And I wanted somewhere I could decorate and make ours without too much worry.

We rented for 15 years first though and enjoyed not having to worry when anything broke or we wanted to move.

I think there’s pros and cons to each. No maintenance costs, ability to move around etc is a benefit of renting, but the downside is that you end up at the mercy of landlords who aren’t always great and rents that can just increase over and over.
If you own you have security, you can do what you like with it however, the upkeep costs are yours and it’s not so easy to sell and move if you want to.

I know here a lot of my parents generation focus on owning a house as if that’s the sign you’ve ‘made it’ which I don’t agree with and a lot of younger people who think owning a home is a waste of time so depends on your view and what you want I guess.

Own.

If you have to pay your own rent or mortgage then a mortgage is cheaper every time.

If you get your rent paid by state benefits then obviously it doesn't cost you anything.

What do you mean? Buying is the process before ownership. Once the sale is complete you’re the owner, irrelevant of a mortgage,

I own (with a mortgage obvs - my LTV ratio is about 60:40 just saying I own way more than 10%)

Where I live owning is far more common than renting - but I imagine the London property market is vastly different. All the people I know who rent have had issues with having to move from places they love because either the landlord increased the rent too much or because they decided to sell.

I also know that once I've paid off the mortgage I can retire knowing I will always have a roof over my head. I wouldn't want to spent all my pension on rent.

A small town in Finland you'd be very welcome to move here but you might find it hard to find a job!

I live far enough North to be able to own rather than rent. If I lived in London/ Southern England I would be renting