Should I rent or should I buy?
Should I rent or should I buy? For many prospective purchasers in the UK the question is still academic. The withdrawal of 100 per cent home loans mean that buyers now have to stump up a 10 per cent deposit. All very well and prudent, and what we all did a generation ago, but that was when the starting price for property equated to two or three years gross salary not ten or more. To give an example - I bought my own first flat in Edinburgh in 1985. It cost a cool £15,600, while I was earning £4000 a year (yes I know these figures are impossible for anyone under the age of 40 to comprehend, but there you are). I had to save £1600 or so, which I did over the course of three or four years. It rendered the question ’should I rent or should I buy academic’. Of course I wanted to buy - like everyone else it might cost a little more but I had property within my grasp.Buy your average £200,000 flat today and you have to find £20,000, and that’s net. How long is that going to take to save up?
And that’s if a first time buyer can actually persuade a lender to give him or her a mortgage … there’s precious little credit about as we know. Should I rent or should I buy? It depends whether the banks will let you. Which makes the fact that buying has become cheaper than renting for the first time in years a bitter irony. Buying a house is the cheapest option … you just can’t afford it! Check out House prices, cheaper to buy than to rent.
Tags: mortgages
