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.

The people who can't afford a mortgage obviously don't come into the category of people who "would choose to rent when they could buy", so I think it's pretty clear that I'm not talking about that cohort.

Been on the property ladder since I was 20. Am 56 now, and just about to pay the mortgage off. It is a lovely feeling to know that we will not have to find mortgage or rent payments now, for the rest of our lives.

Son (29) has just bought his first property. Rent in a shared flat would have been £1200, but his mortgage is only £830, so it's win/win. His mortgage deal is for 5 years, and by then he will have built up £40k equity.

I think renting is very precarious.

I own. I think it's better than renting. I am 50 and mortgage free, so I no longer have to work full time. If I had chosen to rent, I would still have to pay a large bill every month, still need to work full time and need to find money when I retire

Are you sure? It's very unusual for a mortgage (of an equivalent property) to be more expensive than rent.

I don't know anyone that rents either.

We own. Though it took a long time to get there and we changed areas to do so.

I think your idea that the difference between renting and buying is that, if you buy, all you own is ‘10%’ of a property is a bit strange. The point of a mortgage (unless interest only) is that you are slowly paying off the house. Buying more so that one day you own it outright. The reason so many older people end up with more available cash is that they no longer have to pay rent. They have also usually benefited from the increased value of their house over time.

Renting, and I was once a renter, always feels rather like a short term solution. (Obviously a short term solution that many can never afford to get out of). You are paying money (usually significantly more than you would on a mortgage) that goes to a Landlord and only covers having your property for that month. A mortgage is not a ‘rent’, you are paying back a loan and so decreasing that loan and owning more of your property with every payment and increasing an investment. And I’m not sure I’ve ever met anyone who thinks that they don’t ‘own’ their house while paying a mortgage. It’s theirs. Sure they have to pay a loan, but it’s without interference from the mortgage lender, they’re not setting lots of rules or checking up on the property. And that then leads to the next two advantages of buying over renting:

Renting, in the UK at least, never feels very secure or permanent. I know rules are changing /have changed a bit, but you are still living in someone else’s house and at the mercy both of their rules (you can’t do much to change the house/ might not be allowed pets/ restrictions on how long visitors can stay, etc.) ; and of your landlord’s changing circumstances. You have little control over how long you can be there. With a house you own, you can (more or less) do whatever you want to it, and it’s yours for ever, and is something that can then be passed on after you’ve gone.

Renting by contrast only really seems to make sense (putting aside the virtual impossibility of getting onto the housing ladder) if you’re not set on being somewhere for a long period. It doesn’t offer stability. My BIL was just like you, he couldn’t understand why people would ever want to buy somewhere. 6 months after his first child was born he put an offer on a house!

We own and always have even when living in London. Our daughters own too but we don’t live in London. I can honestly say I have never asked if anyone rents or owns. No one’s business but yours and in London it sometimes makes more sense to rent these days. Property prices have inflated way above what they should be. My nephew bought a flat in London five years ago and is now moving to a house further out. He has lost money as flats are worth less now.

The big plus to owning is no rent in retirement assuming the mortgage is repaid by then.

Own - with a mortgage. My parents have always rented, and my mum still does. I don’t understand people who are snobby about renting at all.

And I hate people on neighbour threads saying if someone rents and they annoy you report to their landlord. So shitty.

That's mostly down to the different tax regimes in those countries, rather than people not particularly wanting to own a home.
The tax system in Switzerland has historically actively disincentivised home ownership. Home owners there pay tax on the nominal rental value of their own home but get a tax break for maintenance & mortgage interest. I had a Swiss colleague who told me he had no intention of paying off his mortgage because it didn't make sense financially. That system is changing in 2029.
In Germany, landlords get huge tax breaks that are not available to owner-occupiers, so it's usually much cheaper to pay rent to a landlord who has low costs (because of all the tax breaks) than it is to get a mortgage on the same property and live in it yourself.

This is not technically true. At no point does the bank own the property - check the deeds.

It’s a very open question. Generally it wouldn’t make sense to rent over owning for financial reasons except in a small amount of circumstances like your own.

We have a mortgaged property (as someone pointed out. This is a different situation to owning out right) but we rented for years and years before being able to buy this. We were very lucky to have a reasonable landlord for over 10 years and were able to treat the property as our own. Before that we had a property for 3 years and then given notice as they wanted to sell. It was never not at the back of our minds we might need to up root the kids at a months notice.

Well the lender can call in the debt if the money lent is not paid as per agreement. And the bank or lender will sell the property on.

So they do sort of own it until all the debt has been paid off.

We've been homeowners since my first mortgage at 21. Now, mid 40s, I am months away from being mortgage free through aggressively saving. I am really looking forward to when our housing costs are just utilities and council tax for the rest of our lives. Wishing for interest rate rises for our savings instead of dreading them for our mortgage rate.

We have moved up to a good sized home, our next move will be a downsize. The freed up mortgage sum will go to our pensions, holidays and renovations.

They actively don't want to do this though. They lose all of the interest if they sell a repossessed property. This is why they offer mortgage holidays, interest-only, extending the term and so on.

We own ours, and paid off the mortgage in May.

We used to rent a flat in London and paid £18,000 in 10 months... That was a tenth of our mortgage! I'm so glad we don't have that on our back now.

Putting social housing aside (as from what I can tell the OP is talking about private rentals), it’s absolutely true that people can’t afford to buy. (I spent years struggling to even know how I’d ever get a deposit together!) But that’s not quite the same thing as saying, ‘people can’t afford a mortgage’. In the vast majority of cases - and as shown here - rent costs are significantly more expensive than mortgage costs - you are usually paying the landlord’s mortgage and giving them a living! So actually (in the private rent world), those that can rent can definitely afford a mortgage. Just not perhaps the deposit, huge buying fees and upkeep costs that come with buying. Buy it would be wrong to rule out buying under the false illusion that you can’t afford a mortgage.

I don't I know anyone that rents..

Sure, but they never legally own the property until that happens. Some people seem to believe that until you've paid your last mortgage payment, the bank owns your house. This isn't true.

Have also never been asked... Own. We live in the South East and the house next door to us (identical to ours) is rented out at double our mortgage payments. I would hate having to move when someone else dictates. Our aim is to have "free" housing before we retire, not work to pay someone else's mortgage off. (Appreciate it's not that easy for many people with deposits etc though).

We own. We bought our house many years ago and after a recent appraisal have learned that the value has increased 3x in those years.

Yes they can call in the debt if someone defaults, but they do not “kind of own it. the owner owns it, legally, they can move the debt to another provider, they can negotiate a new deal, they are responsible for maintenance, council tax etc and at no point is the lender on the title deeds. And the overwhelming majority of people do not default and have their home repossessed , it’s a rare thing.

in fact is so low it’s less that one percent, it’s about 0.03 percent of people who default and have their homes sold to repay the debt.

what does happen is the lendee uses their house as security or a guarantee to the lender, to say if you give me this money and I don’t pay you back, you can sell my house to take what I owe back and give me the difference. This is not they own it or kinda own it, you can’t call them up and say hey the grass needs cutting. 😂

but as said, it’s very rare a house is repossessed, and legally the home is the owners not the company who provided a loan so they could buy it,

if you think about you buy a new dress, you pay by credit card, it’s still your dress. Even though if you don’t pay the credit card debt they can send in the bailiffs and take the dress. And other things, to the value you owe. Doesn’t mean it’s American Expresses dress.

Well we have to disagree.

Legally it is your name. But your lender has a hold over you until you have paid them for it. They can come in, turf you out and sell it if you default.
For me, that means you are paying off the debt. Until you do, you do not fully own it.
Reps were certainly fairly common in the past. Around 2008 especially.
If they are not today. I expect to see them rise though. People have not been used to even medium interest rates.

I think it is a perception. I always feel you don’t because you are paying off a debt. They can turf you out if you default. The lender has a hold over your property. Called a charge.
I own something I have fully paid for. Not something someone can come and take away if I fail to make payments for.