Time to give up the dream....?

abaxas

lieutenant_dan wrote: »

Not a like for like comparison with countries like Germany and others in Europe where home ownership is traditionally low. That's because the rents are also much lower and the tenants have more rights.
There've been reports too of tenants being better off in the long term (think it was one of the Scandinavian countries) by paying lower rents in comparison to a mortgage, and investing the difference between the two in other areas.
The big problem here is that rents are also very expensive, at least with a mortgage at the end of 25 or however many years, it's yours. High rents is dead money, and it's likely to form a sizeable proportion of anyone's salary, and is money that will never be seen again.
So like for the above example it will be hard to put money aside for investment purposes as the rents are expensive, and many find themselves in the trap of high rents and not much left to save for a deposit either to eventually buy.
It really is bad to have people with little choice but to pay these high rental amounts, effectively paying someone else's mortgage instead of their own, and being left with nothing at retirement age if they can never buy.

Wont that mean that greater numbers opt out of society? As the gap between low wages and benifits grows. You become more and more 'stupid' for working.

Also if we did follow the german model, BTLers would be bailing out so fast due to very tennent favourable terms. IE capital apprecication would be worthless as you would not be able to sell unless they moved out.

PasturesNew

kabayiri wrote: »

Some time back, a French friend paid for an Ikea kitchen to be fitted into her rented Parisian apartment.

She was chuffed to secure the apartment, and obviously saw it as a long term arrangement.

How many people in the UK would do this?

It's normal for French people to keep their kitchens though. WHen you move house you take your kitchen with you. So from her perspective it's normal to do that.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Theres a limit to everything. Hamish would have you believe the sky is the limit on HPI. It's not.
.

Hamish has repeatedly said that there is a limit to house prices.

That limit occurs when the cost of renting for an adult lifetime exceeds the cost of purchasing.

When the cost of a mortgage for 25 years is greater than the cost of rent for 60 years. When that happens, prices will rise no further.