Why is it that people are so desperate to own houses?

paulwellerfan

how can i buy a house i am single

B_Blank

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

I know it's simplistic, because factors like interest rate and rents change like the wind. But I did include £1,750 maintenance/cost of ownership. I don't think I've spent any more than this, except on major improvements (that add value to the house).

I bow to better knowledge on rents, but if you paid £500 last time you rented, could you be talking about 1980? Most coucils shell out up to £800 for any homeless family these days, and the average national rent (all houses) is £1,240-ish.

On moving costs, I assumed my 'mythical' 28 year old was living at home, just getting married and moving anyway - to either a rented or bought house.

And on your last sentence, I would never say "after X years ownership makes more financial sense" because that's meaningless. We are basically talking about a concept of a 28 year old (well it could be anyone, at any time really), but the point is you only have one decision at the time. Rent or buy. Black or white. One makes more financial sense than the other. Full stop. Wait another X years and the same applies. I think what you mean is that in terms of outlay the buying route can be more expensive on day 1, and only after X years, it becomes cheaper. Well of course it does.

If you accept (very broadly) the thrust of the calculations, then I would strongly advocate the following:

1. For anyone in the 20's/30's age bracket, buying a house is by far a cheaper option overall than renting.

2. But even having saved a deposit, it has to be understood that in the first few years, renting requires a lower £ outlay per month than buying [but not by much at today's interest rates]. But at a certain point, buying requires less outlay per month than renting [and especially so after the mortgage term]

These (to me anyway) are the simple facts. I can fully understand someone on a tight budget saying that they can only just afford the outlay to rent, and not buy. I can also fully understand someone saying that they cannot (yet) save up the money for a deposit.

But what staggers me - and the reason for me to double check my maths - is the number of people who seem to advocate that renting is cheaper overall.

Its not just simplistic. It makes an incredible amount of assumptions, all of which are flawed. The net effect is that your figures are basically completely innacurate.

Also the difference is an irrelevence, even if your figures are right. Because buying might become even cheaper by comparison in the next few yeas. So the net result of renting for 2 years and owning for the following 40 years would be significantly better financially than buying now and owning for 42 years.

LydiaJ

Jimmy_31 wrote: »

I also think people who are desperate to buy a house know that once retirement arrives they will have a secure roof over their head whilst those who are still renting wont.

birkee wrote: »

Only for the system to steal it from you if you go into care in old age! :mad:

CLAPTON wrote: »

-leaving you no worse off than renting ?

-relatively few people go into care homes

-even fewer sell their homes to fund it

If I were an old person needing to go into a care home (and in my family most of the women go on for years and years, and do end up in care homes eventually) I'd want to have a house to sell to fund my care. Care homes vary a lot in quality, and old people with money have more choices, and can pick and choose the best places to be cared for.

FATBALLZ

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

I bow to better knowledge on rents, but if you paid £500 last time you rented, could you be talking about 1980?

Lol, no, this is a place I was renting up until 2 months ago. Bought in 2007 for £155k, so admittedly probably isn't worth quite that now, but I rented it for £500/mth, and when I moved out it was up for £500/mth again and seems to have been let out again now. £1000 a mth is probably normal for London but as far as I'm aware would be considered a huge amount almost anywhere else (most expensive residential property in my town is advertised as £775/mth).

TooDee

I moved roughly once every 6 months for 11 years. sometimes the move was my choice sometimes the landlords or agents (I lived in several houses that were sold while i was living there) Renting in this country is rubbish.

I ended up getting a loan for a boat. Its all I could afford as a single person to get me off the renting wagon. Its not ideal, i do have days where I miss space but at least its mine. (or will be mine when i've finished paying for it in 8 years)

tryingtoruletheworld

I wasn't bothered about buying a house, I thought renting would be a perfectly acceptable way of living. Then I moved out of home and rented, and realised why everyone wants to buy!

I have rented 8 different houses in the last four and a half years. Most have had damp, one to the point that salts were leaching out of the wall, which the landlord took months to get looked at by a builder who agreed with me that it was damp and would need work. The letting agent disagreed, saying it was condensation from lack of ventilation. One who came for an inspection a week after we moved in and complained it was messy because there were boxes that hadn't been unpacked yet.

One had dodgy electrics which we eventually found out was caused by a nail through a cable, but the letting agent wouldn't do anything because she was scared of the landlord. And a boiler that didn't work for 3 months because apparently thats the best a letting agent can manage. Another had us kicked out at the end of our 6 month tenancy because she was precious about her garden and we had put some of our own pots of plants in there (only on gravelled areas so as not to disturb any existing plants or the grass). On checkout she wiped her hand over the top of the doorframes, found dust, and said that was not on the inventory set out by the letting agent! We also got told off for a couple of blue tack marks, because we weren't allowed picture hooks.

Every time we move we have to pay for a van, new contracts to be drawn up, credit checks and spend a ridiculous amount of time packing and cleaning the old house only to find the new house also needs cleaning as it hasn't been done properly before we got there, and then unpack all over again.

I have seen rental houses that even the letting agent has had to walk out of because they were too disgusting to look around. I once had to go and be interviewed for a horrible little terraced house by the landlady at her house, which was stunning. I couldn't believe she expected people to pay her to live in that filth while she lived like that.

I am fed up of having furniture that doesn't fit, not being able to paint a room, not put a shelf up, no pictures, no blue tack or pins for christmas decorations, no fixing things when they break without waiting for months, and having people look around my home and judge the way I live with just 24 hours notice. So, I am saving up, but whilst I spend £200 a month more on rent than I would on a mortgage, I can't get a mortgage, so I will have to put up with it for the time being!

birkee

LydiaJ wrote: »

If I were an old person needing to go into a care home (and in my family most of the women go on for years and years, and do end up in care homes eventually) I'd want to have a house to sell to fund my care. Care homes vary a lot in quality, and old people with money have more choices, and can pick and choose the best places to be cared for.

Are you kidding?
Have you seen what care homes charge?
Sell your house, and you'll get rid of the capital in no time, (1 or 2 years?)then you're in the same boat as everyone else, and nothing to pass on to your children.
Your house may as well not have existed. The children you worked to raise, don't even get the helping hand that you've worked and provided for.

Brallaqueen

I feel there is currently too much scope for bad landlords and tenants alike to drag things out.

Would like to see Section 21s abolished to help prevent accidental landlords renting as a stopgap measure, and to stop landlords delaying needed repairs by evicting the current tenant and repeating the cycle with a new one.

Also would like more section 8 grounds to be mandatory grounds for possession, especially antisocial behaviour and criminal conviction. This might even help free up social housing and reduce waiting lists?

B_Blank

tryingtoruletheworld wrote: »

I wasn't bothered about buying a house, I thought renting would be a perfectly acceptable way of living. Then I moved out of home and rented, and realised why everyone wants to buy!

I have rented 8 different houses in the last four and a half years. Most have had damp, one to the point that salts were leaching out of the wall, which the landlord took months to get looked at by a builder who agreed with me that it was damp and would need work. The letting agent disagreed, saying it was condensation from lack of ventilation. One who came for an inspection a week after we moved in and complained it was messy because there were boxes that hadn't been unpacked yet.

One had dodgy electrics which we eventually found out was caused by a nail through a cable, but the letting agent wouldn't do anything because she was scared of the landlord. And a boiler that didn't work for 3 months because apparently thats the best a letting agent can manage. Another had us kicked out at the end of our 6 month tenancy because she was precious about her garden and we had put some of our own pots of plants in there (only on gravelled areas so as not to disturb any existing plants or the grass). On checkout she wiped her hand over the top of the doorframes, found dust, and said that was not on the inventory set out by the letting agent! We also got told off for a couple of blue tack marks, because we weren't allowed picture hooks.

Every time we move we have to pay for a van, new contracts to be drawn up, credit checks and spend a ridiculous amount of time packing and cleaning the old house only to find the new house also needs cleaning as it hasn't been done properly before we got there, and then unpack all over again.

I have seen rental houses that even the letting agent has had to walk out of because they were too disgusting to look around. I once had to go and be interviewed for a horrible little terraced house by the landlady at her house, which was stunning. I couldn't believe she expected people to pay her to live in that filth while she lived like that.

I am fed up of having furniture that doesn't fit, not being able to paint a room, not put a shelf up, no pictures, no blue tack or pins for christmas decorations, no fixing things when they break without waiting for months, and having people look around my home and judge the way I live with just 24 hours notice. So, I am saving up, but whilst I spend £200 a month more on rent than I would on a mortgage, I can't get a mortgage, so I will have to put up with it for the time being!

Great post which fits my experience. I had the same with this posh cow landlady. We had to go for an interview with her and she quizzed us on how we would treat the property. She was fcking rude to me. Treated us like little pieces of !!!!!! on her shoe. She said to me what do you need to do with the washing machine? I said use washing up powder etc. She said, in a rude and talk down to you way, no I dont want you putting coins in it and shreading the inside. What a cow. Old posh cow. Typical of all landlord scum.

This was before I realised to get some balls and not let people walk over me. If I went to an interview now I would tell this cow to !!!!!! and stop treating me like !!!!!! when she is expecting me to pay to live in her little craphole.

It particularly annoys me that you have to do credit checks. I mean who the fck do they think they are. Making me pay for these things. If they care about these checks then THEY SHOULD PAY FOR THEM. After all they arent for our benefit.

And to all those people who say "I treat my tenants well". No you dont. Treating them well would be not being a BTL scum and letting the housing market fall so they can buy, or if they cant afford this, rent from the government. You are like slave owners who say "But I treat my slaves well". It doesnt matter. You are still the scum of the earth in the view of most tenants.

Oldernotwiser

JonnyBravo wrote: »

My new tenants have a dog.
It IS possible you know.

I said pets in the plural.