rent or buy

Where do you live you can buy a house for £60k ?

How do you know that your pension will cover rent for say the next thirty years or fourty years? Sounds like a big pension if you are so confident,, if that's the case surely there will be lots of spare for holiidays?

If you buy a property that means extra cost such as maintenance, might that cut into your holiday budget ? OTOH where I live it's cheaper to pay a mortage than rent so not even having a mortage would mean a lot left over to pay for holidays.

How much is your rent currently ?

mrelephant wrote: »

i live in lancashire,,
i'm estimating my pension will cover my rent in the future because the annual statement from my private i currently receive each year would cover my current rent if i was receiving my pension now which is valued at @£5500 per annum and increases inline with inflation.

my rent is £450 a month, thats £5400 per annum, so if i was currently recieving my private pension it would cover my rent and as my pension rises with inflation this would cover rental inflation rises. other costs such as bills and food etc would be covered by the government pension....please correct me if im wrong in my assumptions though, as i'm no financial guru.....this is why im asking for opinions.

Basically what i want to hear is would i be better investing my £60k in buying my own property or carry on renting.

I know a few people who are retired and have sold their property and gone into rental and are now using the equity made from the house sale to go on holidays etc whilst they still have their health.

their pensions cover rental and living cost's and don't have to worry about property maintenance/upkeep costs.

And believe me, if you're not from this area of Lancashire, you can buy small 2 bedroomed houses in decent areas that need no or little improvements doing for £60/£70k

Wow what different worlds North and South. I walked past a one bed maisonette last week just round the corner from me, it had an estate agents sign up so I looked it up out of interest. £230,000 :eek:

Looks to me from what you've said your pension and SP would just about cover rent and mortgage but then you've got that £60k to live on for another 40 years maybe? Declining every year because inflation chips away at it and interest rates are very low.

Whereas if you bought a house, then rent is gone, you are not at the mercy of rent rises in future, and you've got £450 every month you can spend on whatever you want. £5k a year. Let's say £3k a year after other expenses and putting some away for futur house expenses.

I guess house prices are only rising slowly if at all in your neck of the woods, but let's say in 20 years time, it wouldn't seem unreasonable for that 60k house to be worth £90k maybe double, £120k, and if you fancied getting some cash you could do an equity release and take a fair bit of money out without needing to move or pay rent either. In a good scenario you could have a house you bought for £60k and 20 years later take out that £60k and yet still own it and live in it! (I'm assuming you are single and don't need to worry about a partner ? )

You also will be your own "landlord" you won't have a landlord refusing to make a repair, or evicting you on a whim. Not a financial benefit but one of peace of mind perhaps?

So that's what I'd do.