Has the objective of buying a house changed?

YoungBlueEyes

I think it's an attitude/mindset.

I have an old-fashioned mindset. I'm house-hunting at the moment and I'm not thinking too much about resale elements or school catchment areas etc. I'm looking for something I can turn into a home, and that it will be my home for many years to come (unforeseen circumstances not withstanding). We were raised in the belief that health home and education are the most important building blocks of your life, and you should acquire and maintain these at all costs. To this end I have saved 20% of literally every wage packet I've ever earned, to spend on them.

On the opposite side of the coin, here's a quick story. I used to work with a girl, she was I think 20 at the time. She won a few thousand pounds on the lottery, and wanted to buy a nice new build house with it. Now, we aren't in the very swishest area of the country (it's a nice market town in East Yorkshire) but even so £5k does not = a house. She wanted to use it for a deposit, have parents give her money, then put furniture etc on credit cards. Et voila - a house from £5k. She genuinely did not understand that that is not how it works, she was deeply angry and thought the person who explained it to her (thankfully not me) was actually lying to her because "all my friends have done it so why can't I?!"

The thing is, that is kinda what her friends had done. You only need a little to get a lot. It's all changed now though.

Crashy_Time

Hoploz wrote: »

Well that's just fine as long as they realise they will be having to find their rent money for their landlords until the day they die ... State pension would nowhere near cover this so unless they have a nice fat pension pot it could mean they have to work ... rather than having it all bought and paid for.

What and a 40 + year mortgage at uncertain and rising interest rates is better :rotfl: At least with renting you don`t have to wait years for a buyer before you can move. The reality is that the house owning idyll you speak of only works for a large number of people now if house prices drop significantly.

Jaffapig

At another point in time I would easily have fallen into the camp of wanting to buy a house at a 'good price' with a view to doing it up a little and selling at a modest profit.

However I've rented for 10 years now (7 of which were in dire ****holes for lack of a better term!) and have continuously lived in properties where I feel I've made huge compromises to how I'd like to live in return for lower rent costs which have allowed me to keep saving for a deposit whilst I've worked out where to put my roots. I'm left now just wanting to live in a house I can truly call home and never mind even if I end up loosing a little (though hopefully not) as it would probably still work out cheaper per month than renting and I'll be a lot happier.

Don't get me wrong, we've put offers in on a couple of houses with good 'investment potential' (none worked out), but first and foremost they were suitable as a home. Now our offer has been accepted on a property which has just been done out and probably has little room to improve significantly for when we resell, but at this stage I don't care - as long as we can finally settle down and enjoy our own space once and for all We will probably build a small garage for our own needs but I doubt the added value to the house will be more than the cost of construction as the house's value is probably limited by other factors we can't change (e.g. number of bedrooms etc.)

Can't really comment on how the objective of buying a house has changed over time as I'm probably still a bit too young to remember how it used to be, but the impression I get is that property as an investment went a bit mad in the 90's and 00's! It is probably still a good investment but I'm not sure how comfortable I feel morally if I were to buy a second house purely to let as I know how badly I have resented paying someone else's mortgage all these years :rotfl: and don't get me started on those student landlords... :mad:

Jaffapig

Crashy_Time wrote: »

More and more people are just not bothering with over-priced property, as the transactions figures keep showing us

Not bothering or would like to bother but can't afford to?:rotfl:

I think rental properties can hardly be classed as better value (in many places at least)

Crashy_Time

Jaffapig wrote: »

Not bothering or would like to bother but can't afford to?:rotfl:

I think rental properties can hardly be classed as better value (in many places at least)

Depends what you rent and where, and the deal you can get. Lots of people who own decent property, bought decades ago in many cases, are not that cash rich, they need income and will be open to lower rent for long term tenants, of course the BTL tax changes things but in reality it is going to make people more desperate for long term tenants as the potential pool of buyers for BTL is drying up.