Probably dumb question about whether buying a house is worthwhile

ACG

I think you are looking at it wrong.

Lets assume you take out a 25 year mortgage. In 25 years the house is paid off so you own a property outright. The alternative is you rent, in 25 years time you are still having to rent.

In the meantime, the home owner can have pets without having to ask, they can decorate without having to ask, if something goes wrong, you get it sorted when you want, not when a landlord gets round to it, you also have a choice of who does the work. Providing you pay your mortgage you can not be evicted, a landlord can give notice.

Mnd

Our mortgage is paid off, our next door neighbour pays £1000 a month rent, I'm retired now, I couldn't afford to live in my home if I hadn't bought it

AnotherJoe

Ditto, next door to me is £1400/month for a smaller house than mine.
I pay whatever property maintenance costs which isn't even 10% of that.

ProDave

Yes as the replies above, if you choose not to buy, then you had better put a LOT more into your pension to keep paying rent in your retirement.

SG27

cherryduck wrote: »

Hi everyone, I'm in the process of buying my first house but wondering if it's actually worth it.


Everyone older than me keeps saying it's a great investment but is it really? I'm probably fundamentally misunderstanding something but let's say you buy a house, the value goes up, you sell it. On the surface yes you've made money but you still need somewhere to live, so what are you going to do? Buy a house.


What kind of house can you afford? Well, one worth the same you sold your first house for. Which by rights is going to be about as good as your first house surely? So what then is the point in selling? How is this an "investment"?

You're exactly right about the value. The house you live in is not an investment that can make money on. Apart from the money you pass to your children when you die.

But... as others have said you should eventually pay off the mortgage meaning lower bills in retirement.

freyasmum

Our mortgage is less than what our friends pay for a significantly smaller, terraced house. So we save there.

Our friends' rent will go up and up as we work towards paying our mortgage off. Then they'll continue to make rent payments as we live payment free in our house. As the others have said, they'll need to have made a higher contribution to their pensions than we will.

ognum

In my opinion there are pros and cons

Pros
It’s yours
You can decorate
You can keep pets
Youmove when you choose
When the mortgage is paid off you only have up keep.
You can use your asset to access funds for other things if you wish
You get repairs and updates done that you antwhen you want
You have security of tenure as long as you pay the mortgage

Cons
Moving is more difficult, not as easy as giving notice and moving to a new rental
You are responsible for update and repairs, if the boiler blows you replace.
Value can fall, negative equity can occur
If you split with your partner it’s less easy to move on.
Benefits to pay mortgage are difficultto access.
It’s grown up!

You decide, no one else can say what’s right for you

suki1964

We became mortgage free in our 40's and whilst we don't have a rich retirement to look forward to, we have a comfortable one as we no longer have mortgage/rent to find every month

We took the gamble to to buy the biggest house we could afford whilst we needed it with children and grandchildren around, and hopefully in 20 years time, we can downsize and have money left over to keep us comfortable and still leave the kids something


When I was younger and had a secured HA rent, I also didn't see the need to buy. Then we wanted to move, thats when it hit me that for us to move to where we wanted , to the property we wanted, we had to buy. No one to tell us this is your offer, accept it or else.

Its scary taking that first step, but the freedom a mortgage gives, well thats worth the sleepless nights

csgohan4

I buy not for an investment. but to live in and have some security.


Renting you can have a section 21/eviction anytime through no fault of your own

jimbog

Also when you rent you are beholden to someone (the landlord) and their whims. That just really infuriated me.