Are you buying or renting at present

santashelper_2

ok in todays market how many of you are buying and how many are renting

many young people i know are renting and are happy to carry on renting and living a life where they pay their monthly rental and know where they stand financially. They are having the best of both worlds by living in low cost housing i.e. no diy, repair costs, etc the money they are saving they are going out and having a good time.

Phirefly

My (very sensible financially astute) best friend aged 27 was recently presented with this decision. He was looking to move in with his girlfriend and they had an open mind about renting vs. buying. Interestingly they came across a property in the north east that was up for sale for £124,999 but also up to let for £500pcm. They looked into mortgage options and decided to rent it. He said all things considered it just made more sense for them...

Guy_Montag

I'm renting & waiting. I'm hoping house prices will drop, but I'm beginning to think of contingency plans if they don't (marrying a homeowner or emigrating).

My reasons:
1) I'm not very settled in my current location/job.
2) Just been browsing RM, & there's f'k all that takes my fancy in my price range. (I know people say I should lower my expectations but buying in a rising market means that the next step gets farther away, so I'm better jumping in at a lifetime house)
3) I'm hoping for a correction, but that's getting rather tedious.

lucy_w86

santashelper wrote: »

ok in todays market how many of you are buying and how many are renting

many young people i know are renting and are happy to carry on renting and living a life where they pay their monthly rental and know where they stand financially. They are having the best of both worlds by living in low cost housing i.e. no diy, repair costs, etc the money they are saving they are going out and having a good time.

I live at home but more and more people are renting and I think thats what I will be doing. Its just too expensive and I would rather be happy and make the most of life than go through it struggling

Unless of course I win the lottery! :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Unknown1234_2

In the process of selling to rent FYI i am 20 : )

moneysavinmonkey

I've noticed that increasingly this board os full of renting problems rather than house buying ones?? Just an subjective observation....

I'm personally renting. I have saved a deposit up buy could not afford to buy without my partner - who doesn't have much of a deposit atm. Even together we would be really stretched. We are waiting and saving our monies, we hope to be on an even footing when we do decide to buy.

At the moment, i don't think i would buy anyway out of principle as i just think house prices are crazy! Also with I would like to move companies in a year or two so with buying sellingn costs etc. it makes more sense to rent.

Although we try to save as much as possible we do treat ourself to a few luxuries, including a ski holiday with friends once a year. If we bought we would have to give this up which i would really struggle with as it is the one time of year that I get to see my friends from Edinburgh and i love skiing!

ollyk

We will buy when we can comfortably afford a house in our price range and assuming interest rates of about 7%. Until then I am happy renting... We also have a great landlord which helps!

Phirefly

and back to me, *me me me* I'm not self obsessed, honest...


We decided to buy the home we rent. We pay £790 pcm on our mortgage compared to the £475 we were paying to rent the same property.

Sounds madness but it made sense. Our low rent was pretty much what we had been paying for 3 years and it hadn't been increased I think because the LL was happy with us as tennants and he wasn't intending on updating the interior any time soon. The problem was, dispite loving the house, the interior was starting to get really tatty. Mr P and I wanted to start buying nice things for our home but they felt incongruous alongsite the tatty carpets and other fixtures. To get a rental at the standard of finish we are now refurbishing our house to we'd be looking at a good £200+ pcm more. The final push was when the LL said he was selling it regardless whether we bought it or not.

Plus its in a pretty fab, unique location for which I'm sure doozer will vouch.

I think had we not bought that house we might not have bought at all though. We bought it as it seemed the lowest risk choice among all the high risk options. We got it at 6K under valuation and we knew it was structualy sound and obviously knew the neighbourhood well.

All sensible considerations aside though, for me the housebuying was primarily another step in my lengthy crusade towards puppy ownership. Not a very mse approach but hey.

lucy_w86

moneysavinmonkey wrote: »

I've noticed that increasingly this board os full of renting problems rather than house buying ones?? Just an subjective observation....

I'm personally renting. I have saved a deposit up buy could not afford to buy without my partner - who doesn't have much of a deposit atm. Even together we would be really stretched. We are waiting and saving our monies, we hope to be on an even footing when we do decide to buy.

At the moment, i don't think i would buy anyway out of principle as i just think house prices are crazy! Also with I would like to move companies in a year or two so with buying sellingn costs etc. it makes more sense to rent.

Although we try to save as much as possible we do treat ourself to a few luxuries, including a ski holiday with friends once a year. If we bought we would have to give this up which i would really struggle with as it is the one time of year that I get to see my friends from Edinburgh and i love skiing!

How much would you recommend to save for a deposit? What have you managed to save and over what period of time?

Thanks!

moneysavinmonkey

this is a bit like asking how long a piece of string is!

I can only tell you about me, but it will totally depends on your circumstances...

I save about 30-40% of my income a month and have been doing this for the last 2 years.

I would like to buy when the rent/mortgage equation makes a bit more sense
+ i would want to have at least 10% deposit - ideally 20%+ thought!

Phirefly

Lucy,

Paying £475 pcm rent with a takehome of about £1600, I managed to save about £4000 in two and a half years, I tightened my belt because I was saving for a reason, but I didn't live like a complete hermit.

I sold my (beloved) Mini Cooper for about 8k and bought a pile of French **** that gets me from A to B for £4000, leaving me £4k more to put towards the housebuy. That 8k covered our 5% deposit and fees.

Mr Phirefly just sat and watched.