My obsession with not buying in UK - Prove me wrong

steampowered

I would sympathise with your post if you lived in Europe - where it is very common for people to rent.

In most countries, renters have a good degree of security. You can't just be kicked out with two months' notice. You have the right to make reasonable amendments in your own home (e.g. putting up pictures). Most landlords are professional organisations, rather than total amateurs who try to spend the absolute minimum possible on upkeep. 

Unfortunately in the UK renters have very few rights. You can be kicked out on two months' notice. That might be OK for a single young person but it is not acceptable for a pensioner.

Home owners on the other hand have a lot of rights - it takes much longer for a bank to repossess a property than a landlord, plus there is support available for mortgage payments. 

TheJP

lookstraightahead said:

JGB1955 said:

I wouldn't want to be having to pay rent on my £400K mortgage-free house in retirement.  We paid the mortgage off 20 years ago, in our early 40s.  Current rent would be £18K p.a.  That would be half our current net income.  No thanks!

I got divorced in my thirties and my £400k house was an absolute noose around my neck. Luck of the draw sometimes. Nearly mortgage feee again now, but had I rented early in life instead of being focussed on paying a mortgage I would have been much better off.

would be really interested to know how much interest you paid (not saying you have to give figures) but I bet you went through some high interest times.

Did you sell your account to Crashy?

Renting has no return, its an infinite loop of paying a service, once you are mortgage free even after the interest you have an asset. Renting, you are paying that asset on somebody else's behalf. Yes interest to pay but you'll likely in the long term be better off buying. 

My mortgage payments are slightly lower than my rental, considering the maintenance costs its about the same, i now after 6 years have £100K equity, a renter has £0k equity.

Sistergold

You buy if you want to buy and you rent if you want to rent, do what’s best it’s not a one size fits all. 

Rent £2k plus ongoing
mortgage £2k plus for 23years. 🤷‍♀️ Of this £2k plus mortgage at least £1.5k plus is capital repayment.   

RobHT

TheJP said:

You spend x renting

You spend y buying

At some point y will no longer be an element of expenditure apart from minimal costs.

x will pay out 0 equity

y will pay out equity 

y will pay out equity only if all goes well , plus it needs reconstruction before to be sold or you need to sell at a low price in the future...
I'm pretty sure you won't have the cash to do so, maybe if you take the 25% lump sump from your pension, which is a bad idea...
Then what? You sell and where you go?
So we come back to the point that you need to reconstruct your house, mainly inside but also something outside, definitely the roof.
At the same time, be ready to rent elsewhere for 6 months minimum, if the company doesn't delay the project btw.
Tons of money man, tons of money...

RobHT

ProDave said:

About 20 years after buying my first house, I had paid off the mortgage and owned it outright.

Yes i had probably paid in total with interest, twice what the house cost, but it was then worth that much anyway.  And yes I still have to pay council tax, energy bills, insurance and maintenance.

You pay all of those, except maintenance if you are renting.

If you don't like that idea, then be my guest and carry on renting.  BUT be sure to put MORE into your pension provision than I did, so that you can continue paying rent in your retirement.  I only need enough pension to pay the other bills.

In my post I never considered bills, council tax etc, that's obvious to me, I only mentioned the maintenance, house insurance and reconstruction.
I assumed that you don't need to pay the ground rent though, that's not always true but in my case I'd never rent a terrain and put an house on top .

lookstraightahead

TheJP said:

lookstraightahead said:

JGB1955 said:

I wouldn't want to be having to pay rent on my £400K mortgage-free house in retirement.  We paid the mortgage off 20 years ago, in our early 40s.  Current rent would be £18K p.a.  That would be half our current net income.  No thanks!

I got divorced in my thirties and my £400k house was an absolute noose around my neck. Luck of the draw sometimes. Nearly mortgage feee again now, but had I rented early in life instead of being focussed on paying a mortgage I would have been much better off.

would be really interested to know how much interest you paid (not saying you have to give figures) but I bet you went through some high interest times.

Did you sell your account to Crashy?

Renting has no return, its an infinite loop of paying a service, once you are mortgage free even after the interest you have an asset. Renting, you are paying that asset on somebody else's behalf. Yes interest to pay but you'll likely in the long term be better off buying. 

My mortgage payments are slightly lower than my rental, considering the maintenance costs its about the same, i now after 6 years have £100K equity, a renter has £0k equity.

Lol no, it's just that buying didn't help me at all because of life circumstances. 

I think when you look back, if it's worked it's worked to buy. But it didn't with me.

I've got a tiny mortgage now so all is good. Basically I earned more.

Getting_greyer

Out of interest what do you mean by reconstruction. Is that decorating or like adding an extension. Is that in one or two major projects or over the lifetime of ownership?

Thrugelmir

RobHT said:

Thrugelmir said:

Your personal choice not to buy. Security of tenure is by far the greatest advantage that renting can never match. 

What is for you security of tenure precisely?

An Englishman's home is his castle. A very old legal concept at it's origins. 

jimbog

RobHT said:

TheJP said:

You spend x renting

You spend y buying

At some point y will no longer be an element of expenditure apart from minimal costs.

x will pay out 0 equity

y will pay out equity 

y will pay out equity only if all goes well , plus it needs reconstruction before to be sold or you need to sell at a low price in the future...
I'm pretty sure you won't have the cash to do so, maybe if you take the 25% lump sump from your pension, which is a bad idea...
Then what? You sell and where you go?
So we come back to the point that you need to reconstruct your house, mainly inside but also something outside, definitely the roof.
At the same time, be ready to rent elsewhere for 6 months minimum, if the company doesn't delay the project btw.
Tons of money man, tons of money...

you’ve mentioned ‘reconstruction’ a couple of times now. What do you mean? If it was falling apart when you viewed it then your offer was adjusted accordingly? 

Most redecorate without feeling any inclination to reconstruct - if they choose to do so it would add value surely?

JGB1955

lookstraightahead said:

JGB1955 said:

I wouldn't want to be having to pay rent on my £400K mortgage-free house in retirement.  We paid the mortgage off 20 years ago, in our early 40s.  Current rent would be £18K p.a.  That would be half our current net income.  No thanks!

would be really interested to know how much interest you paid (not saying you have to give figures) but I bet you went through some high interest times.

The most we ever paid was 5%, because we had a staff mortgage from a high street bank. To be fair, interest rates were 15%+ when we first bought...but loans were 2.5 x first salary plus 1 x mine. First mortgage around £11k.  Mortgage on our current house  around 30k and £120 per month back in1985.