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.

I see this written a lot and it’s nonsense, the uk has slightly less home ownership than main land Europe. Yes different countries have different rental laws and some have long term contracts ie up to ten years etc, but home ownership is more in “the continent” than the uk,

Europe isn’t one place, it is compromised of dozens of countries. And protection is dependent on the situation, can I ask you to be clearer in what you mean?

Seriously???

Think they're more nosy than naive it's a rude question imo.

We own outright. We're not "rich", but we are older. I grew up in rented (council), and my mum drilled it into me that I should save as much as I could to buy. I've said the same to my dc. One has been able to buy, the other is still at home. We're in London.

Yeah, I thought this too!

You've never met anyone that rents their property?!

We own , mortgage paid off at 49. So bills have reduced significantly.

where as my mum in her 70s has a council house and still pays rent. I didn’t want to be still paying rent when I’m older which is why we bought.

Yes. I was made redundant a few years ago. It made a huge difference to know that our mortgage was paid off and we weren't going to have to move.

We own, no mortgage. I rented in my early 20s, didn’t like all the rules about what you could and couldn’t do, couldn’t even decorate it. I loved that little flat but it never really felt like my own home.

Own because I live in the NE and prices are low here. Would love to move but can't afford to.

Rent. Private up until going on 2 years ago and now social housing. Not through choice but I feel much more secure and happier in SH.

No one has ever asked me the question socially though, I've only ever been asked when the context is appropriate.

I've just turned 42 and own (with a mortgage), but only as of two years ago.

I rented for about 18 years, and liked it. I wasn't tied to a place, and if someone broke, it was someone else's problem. I always had the money for a deposit etc, but I didn't want the tie of owning a place. But I was just starting to get priced out of the rental market in my town. I could comfortably pay the £500 a month they wanted when I first started renting there, but the £850 a month they wanted towards the end, was a proper push.
Eventually though, my mum sat me down, and basically said, "Look, you need to buy. I'll help you out with some money to make the difference between a house you like and a house you love."
That was the push I needed and I've no regrets. I love where I live now, and would like to think that it'll be our forever home.

Recently moved from private renting to housing association renting.

Id never be able to buy, but now we in a HA we have more security.

Own and mortgage is now paid off which is good as I’m heading towards retirement.

It is not nonsense. I suppose it depends where you are talking about. In Eastern Europe home ownership is popular.
In places like Switzerland and Germany and similar renting is.

We own. We have about 65% equity, and could pay the rest off if needed but currently prefer it in investments/savings.

We primarily bought our first home because short term leases whilst renting meant we moved too often, as our landlords would often sell the house (back in 2010s). Also, rent where I am is expensive and costs far more than our mortgage - granted, we have good equity in our home, but renting this place would be at least £1k more per month than our current mortgage.

We own, no mortgage.

we bought our London property mid 90s and sold it 2 years ago to relocate to Somerset. We then rented briefly for 9 months while settling in and then bought our house.

We own but live in a cheap area and mortgage is significantly cheaper then rent

These days it's cheaper to pay a mortgage than to pay rent (unless Council let) so its pretty daft to choose renting unless there is a really good reason.

Own a 5 bed house, monthly mortgage is £325
always overpaid when we could and live simply.
we have friends in their 40/50’s now paying £1.5k/m plus in whatever 2/3 bed that they could find to rent.

We own (with a mortgage!) in the London area. I guess we decided to buy rather than rent so that we would one day hopefully be mortgage free, enabling us to retire in relative comfort. I don't think our house has increased much, if anything, in value so it's not even an investment 😅 It's just a case of wanting to one day be mortgage free.

OP, you sound vexed about being thought about a certain way for renting. From the sounds of things though, with investments in place for all thats required to buy there is nothing to be annoyed about. Renting in central london will no doubt be spendy. Uncertainty about where to be long term and flat sales stalling are valid concerns. There are many advocating for renting in central london in this type of setting. You do you and everyone else will do what they are happy to do.

We own outright, mostly due to luck with timings of the housing market. We bought our first home at the bottom of the crash after the 2008 financial crisis and sold it 4 years ago for a considerable profit which enabled us to buy our current home with a still small mortgage which we have since paid off. To rent our house would cost around £1200pm which would be very difficult to afford as we are not big earners and probably way beyond us in retirement!

We own our house outright, & also own a flat which we rent out. The day we paid off our mortgage five years early was the culmInaction of years of careful financial planning. The feeling of stability & security that you own your home is priceless for us.