Is owning a home important to you?

FireWyrm

Chatzby wrote: »

An exciting sounding scheme I recently stumbled upon was the homebuy/renting to buy scheme introduced by the government.

Oh for heavens sake...this is just shared ownership by another name. It wasn't introduced by this government, it's been in action since at least the 80's. Many of the new towns like Milton Keynes were built to be shared ownership, I know, I grew up in one. it isn't a NEW scheme at all, it's the same scheme that Labour tried to stamp out and have now changed their minds about.

In answer to your question, yes, home ownership is very important to me, particularly for the freedom. I have rented for several years and found it to be the worst way to live. I wouldn't go back to it at all if I could avoid it. Landlords appear to be venal, thoughtless, uncaring and frankly downright difficult. Letting Agents are the same and generally, the two are in cahoots to keep as much of your deposit as they can. In a rental you get inspected once a quarter, you can't paint the walls and if you are a parent, you live in constant fear of what will happen to your deposit if the kids touch the walls with dirty fingers, or draw a single stick man or spill a bottle of bath salts etc. You try to avoid these problems because you are a decent person but know your going to get your pants pulled down for every little mark at checkout. If yo are lucky, the house is reasonably water tight, but some people are known to rent positive death traps and there isn't a single thing you can do about it. If you dare complain to the LL about a broken electrical item, you get slapped with a S21. Your children can't settle at a school because they might be forced to move and you can't get settled in an area for the same reason.

On the other hand, I have a house that is mine. No one inspects me, no one can enter without my permission and I can paint the Walls any damned colour I please. If I want to rip out the boiler that is older than I am and replace it with something better, I can.

In terms of why people cannot get on the ladder, my opinion is that it's a excess of expectation over ability. People expect to have lavish houses in desirable areas of London next to a brilliant school instead of buying something within their means, working within society to improve the local area and dragging the place up through sheer hard work. I can't afford London, so I don't work there, I don't live there either. I can afford Daventry and it has good local transport links. I can't afford a detached house, but I can afford a modest mid-terrace Victorian railway workers' cottage. I am struggling with unsecured debt, so I am working my !!!! off to get rid of it as fast as possible. I can do this precisely because I don't live south of Watford and I do take care of my expenditure. It's that simple. If you can't afford a house in London, move. It's what generations of young people have done before...why does everyone imagine that there is nothing north of Watford? My parents in law did precisely this, moved out of Watford and bought a house near Milton Keynes back when it was rural and long before the city was built. They bought a modest house for £6000 in a village and my FIL worked for the next 45 years to improve it. It's now conservatively valued at £250K. The modern generation wanted their iPods and gadgets, but weren't prepared to wait a little. Now, they have no money for a house and complain bitterly that the world owes them a living...it doesn't.

amblondon

Owning a home should never have become the be all and end all of either people's aspirations or government policy.

That said, the attractions of ownership are clear in a country where rental properties are often in a poor state and restrictions on tenants' ability to change the property during tenure (accepting that they need to return the property to an "as was" state on departure, unless otherwise agreed with the landlord) are pretty extensive.

When it comes down to it though, home ownership would be a more realistic prospect for many if (a) people had a more responsible attitude to money (that is a vast generalisation, I realise) and (b) we actually built more houses and (c) the social / council housing system was designed to help people while they needed it but not when they didn't (in this regard, I consider the sale of the council housing stock at undervalue to have been a significant mistake).

Just my tuppence worth!

Cheers

dawyldthing

credits the biggest problem in this country. Most people are burdened with credit for the 'new car' (i tried explaining to an 18 year old why 171 a month on a 'brand new, top of the range car' wasn't really needed if all the placements are within walking distance of her house) but I know of others who have brought a new car and are now paying a second 'rent' for this said car. Just seen on facebook today someone saying they have 'extra leg room' while going on holiday - great, but for what you pay for it its stupid. This is just the start really as everyone wants the best - best in clothes, shoes, weekends out every weekend (i know people who say spending 80 quid a night on a night out is a good night - it makes my eyes water!). People also want expensive holidays as well (i went travelling and spent less on holiday in 6 weeks than some do on a 2 week holiday).

The other thing is that houses are majorly over priced really, i was looking at my area (its all pretty much the same) but theres some houses at 66,000 and others at 100,000, even for 2 bedroom properties that are walking distance from each other. I know if i ever get to buy i'll be looking for value for money as its quick to spend money but difficult to save it

chopper78

The valuation says it is worth £300k with the underpinning. Maybe ask the vendors to pay the costs of a full structural survey to get the underpinning checked?

mustrum_ridcully

I own, but if renters weren't treated like third class citizens (and didn't have to run the risk of dealing with an unskilled LL and/or LA) I wouldn't have a problem renting.

Renting gives people far more flexibility when it comes to stuff like looking for jobs. That's why it's always bothered me that some people who are in their early 20's are hell-bent on buying. I wonder how many people have been put off applying for jobs (that in the short term provide little or no gain but in the longer term may have a large benefit) because of the need to sell their house.

Niv

To answer the OP question.

House/home ownership is important to me. I look to the long term. in 2017 I will be mortgage free and under 40 (assuming I dont move ofc). Will I stay in this house forever? Probably not. However, being mortgage free gives me greater freedom to chose what I do next house wise. Until I decide I will have an extra £600pm to play with.

Dont get me wrong, I am sure renting suits some people but I dislike instability, paying other peoples mortgage and not being allowed to have pets or decorate how I wish.

Niv

lobbyludd

I own, I have rented, and both have their pitfalls. Even with maintenance of the property, owning is cheaper than renting and insurance covers the big potential problems (if renting weren't significantly more expensive there would be no letting market).

My experiences of renting (for 15 years) were mixed; some were OK (not great - I never once had a landlord who fixed a problem promptly), some were terrible, and some were criminal. I have paid for the privalege of a leaking roof cascading water onto my bed that was not fixed for 2 weeks (and once it was, the landlady tried to recoup the cost from me, as she tried to argue there must have been a leak for some time and I'd not reported it.... ?!?). I have had a leaking soil pipe, left untreated until I called in environmental health, damp in practically every property I've rented somewhere or other, I've been without heating for a fortnight, had landlords who felt free to let themselves in at all times of the day or night without notice, ones who complained during quarterly inspections that I wasn't displaying all their ornaments (!?), or that I hadn't paid and fraudulently continued the previous tenant's phone bill (which had been cut off and left with a large debt) thereby causing them to lose "their" phone number. Thes have been a mix of first-time, inexperienced landlords, agency properties and large-scale professional landlords. I have 2 children, I want to know that we are not going to have to move on year on year with the hope of FINDING a decent landlord/property combination (because you never really know until you live in the property). I have cats, it is difficult to find landlords that are willing to let people in with these attachments. I have no access to social housing as I earn too much (fair enough) but I have never seen a AST for longer than a year - ever: so no stability, after the first 6 months have finished I was always within 4 weeks of having to find somewhere else to live, of rent rises, etc, with references, deposits, credit searches, agency fees moving costs etc. This all pales into insignificance compared to solicitors and stamp duty of course. But I don't sell every year, and my mortgage is half the rent the students pay for the same size, in far worse repair and equipped, house next door but one.

If I am made redundant or am sacked I have less flexibility in areas for a new job if I can't sell the house (however - see the rental position as above) and frankly I'd be skrewed either way unless I have savings to tide me over for a bit as I can't relocate with kids to a decent house with a decent school without a rental deposit and funds for the move. In the final analysis, the only people who can throw me out of my house are the bank, and it takes them a lot longer than a landlord - plus, If I pay as much on my mortgage as I would in rent, within 2 years I will be in a position where property prices will have to more than HALVE from the position they are in now in order for me to have no equity at reposession, so the odds are I would still walk away with something even if that did happen

I like being able to put up a shelf, plant some tulips, mend the fence, I like doing the maintenance and choosing a house layout that works for my lifestyle. I've tried both and house owning is by and large a better option for me at my stage of life.


when I had no children and was able to up-sticks and move around the country for new job opportunities, renting worked better, but it was still not ideal.

phoebe1989seb

We've been fortunate enough to be mortgage-free since the age of 40 and it's a wonderful feeling. When we moved recently we lost a heck of a lot of money on our transaction as we had previously bought when prices were still at their peak - but foolishly back then we bought a renovation project that we paid top-dollar for and then spent tens of thousands on the work which we were unable to recoup because of the crash and the fact it was in a less than desirable area. In order to move to something of similar size etc in a good area we were faced with the choice of whether to take out a smallish mortgage or not - but having been mortgage-free for 3 and a half years this was something we weren't really prepared to contemplate. Home-owning is incredibly important to me - but only really if the house is owned by me..............and not primarily by a bank, as I deeply detest the banks

Our son who is only just 22 went through uni saying he wasn't interested in owning a property but wanted to rent for the foreseeable future. However, thanks to inherited money and family help he has just been able to buy his first flat with his g/f without the need for a mortgage - he is now the proudest home-owner you could hope to meet

missile

Chatzby wrote: »

I stumbled across some unsettling information about home ownership the other day and wanted to know people's thoughts on it.

Presently two-thirds of potential first-time buyers have no realistic prospect of owning their own home in the next five years and lack the long-term saving mentality they need to get onto the housing ladder, according to a report on home ownership by one of the UK's biggest mortgage lenders.?

I do not understand why you find this unsettling?

What's new, I would suggest they could have said exactly the same 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50 years ago

Idiophreak

Getting value for money is quite important to me - so I would give up owning my home if I'd end up with more cash than the house was worth at the end of 25 years...
More importantly, though, stability is important - the idea of being kicked out of my home is intolerable.

I don't believe that it's possible for everyone to buy a "proper" house, frankly. The numbers just don't add up.