Houses, Flats, Rent & Mortgages Thread

[Smiley Culture]

Seeing as we have quite a diverse group here, I was just curious as to what people live in, where they live and if people have any future plans to move?

Also, for us Southerners, this is a place to rant about ridiculous prices for houses and flats. 

[Honey Honey]

I pay sky high rent for a box but it was under 50% of my salary. As I age I will move to something more appropriate but right now its just about quality of life. I don't agree with paying more than 35% of your salary on housing.

 

[nudge]

I pay 300$ for a spacious 2 bedroom apartment (ca. 100 square meters) with a balcony about 5 minutes away from the beach.

Edited March 27, 2017 by nudge

[DeadLinesman]

1k mortgage per month, 4 bed detached.

[Rab]

6 minutes ago, DeadLinesman said:

1k mortgage per month, 4 bed detached.

Move to Scotland, you'd get double the amount of bedrooms for the same price.

Currently in a 1 bedroom flat costing me £420 per month and £149 on council tax. I'll hopefully be in a mortgaged house within the next 2 years.

[Smiley Culture]

Started to save for a mortgage, I think I'll need to rob a bank to find anything close to home in Essex but also close enough to get on the Underground for work in London, as the National Rail prices are a bigger joke than their service. 

Dont want to rent, I'm better of saving that money and putting it towards the mortgage fund. 

[Stan]

3-bedroom flat in the middle of Bedford, 5 min walk to the train station. 5 min walk from town centre.

And personally great as it's only a few minutes drive to work if I ever need to go in.

Pay just under £500/m on mortgage and as I live alone (for now) I get single-person discount on Council Tax which is just under £100/m. 

[Danny]

I currently live in a hostel in Sydney.

I have come to realise I'll probably have to buy a new build in Slough or High Wycombe if I ever want to buy close to home.

[Toinho]

I was paying about ¥43,500 a month which was expensive for what I had (one bedroom, 1  living room), that's about £300 maybe.  It was more expensive but school paid some and my parking. 

Homeless as of today. Just cruising around Japan then getting some government assisted housing for my next teaching job in Australia out in the bush. Likely to still be a bit pricey. 

[Dan]

I'm still living with my Mum and Stepdad but I intend to really look into moving out in the next couple of years. I'm starting saving money when we get knocked out of the Champions League. How much approximately do you actually need to get out initially?

[Berserker]

6 minutes ago, Dan said:

I'm still living with my Mum and Stepdad but I intend to really look into moving out in the next couple of years. I'm starting saving money when we get knocked out of the Champions League. How much approximately do you actually need to get out initially?

I'd say you'd need about £1500 to cover all the expenses for the first month, add about  £400 more if you have to buy the furniture and such.

[Dan]

Just now, Berserker said:

I'd say you'd need about £1500 to cover all the expenses for the first month, add about  £400 more if you have to buy the furniture and such.

That's doable. To be honest I ought to have started saving properly a while ago but never mind. I'm quite lucky to be in the situation I'm in but I do need to get out of here really.

Renting doesn't appeal to me. Would only ever do that temporarily. It's dead money.

[Berserker]

3 minutes ago, Dan said:

That's doable. To be honest I ought to have started saving properly a while ago but never mind. I'm quite lucky to be in the situation I'm in but I do need to get out of here really.

Renting doesn't appeal to me. Would only ever do that temporarily. It's dead money.

I was talking about renting eh. Yeah living with your parents it's quite convenient, specially if you can save a good amount to be in a good position when you do move out without having to worry of not knowing if you'll make it till the end of the month or not.

Yeah ideally you'd get a mortgage, in that case the minimum down payment is 5% of the value of the property, average is around 17%. Here mortgages practically didn't exist till this year since a long time ago, you could only get credits and they were impossible to get for about 70% of the population and they had silly interest rates. So most people who bought a house either saved most of the money and then got an small credit to cover the rest, or they rented which is/was not easy to get in downtown Buenos Aires neither as you needed a house in the same town to use it as a guarantee apart from 4 months in advance (current month, one month deposit and two months as payment for the real-state company) it was almost impossible to achieve for most people. Luckily things are getting better in that aspect recently as the government has made credits of to about  £100k payable in 30 years available to people earning upwards two minimum wages. That's not impossible to get, but you do need to either be on a registered job, but that's kinda difficult when 35% of the working population does so in unregistered jobs, and that's precisely the majority of people who don't own a house.

[Stan]

9 hours ago, Dan said:

That's doable. To be honest I ought to have started saving properly a while ago but never mind. I'm quite lucky to be in the situation I'm in but I do need to get out of here really.

Renting doesn't appeal to me. Would only ever do that temporarily. It's dead money.

Renting is pretty much hemorrhaging money with no actual long term return or investment in to anything. It didn't appeal to me so I saved up what I could and with help from bank of mum and dad, brought my own flat.

It's very important to do good quality research when it comes to solicitors or go with someone who has helped a friend or relative before. They're less likely to fuck you over or make you wait ages if they've given good service to someone you know as they've been referred to you. And remember to chase them and be on their backs if something needs doing i.e. contracts need amending or they need to chase up the other side for a response to something etc etc.

Also important to do research on mortgage repayment quotes and interest rates etc. it's not always best to go for the lowest interest rate or the deal that looks best on your first look. I found this Mortgage Rate Calculator to be the best tool when comparing rates and who's best to go with. And that site also has a Free Mortgage Guide for first-time buyers. 

[Honey Honey]

Once you become a mortgage holder you become totally dependent on the state, central bank and private bank exec's rigging the market to prevent you going into negative equity. Too many people are in too deep now that the government will keep the game rigged for as long as possible to prevent electoral collapse.

If you go in to the game don't take the max the bank will give you, leave yourself a cushion just in case. 

[True Blue]

I rent a flat with my girlfriend, the rent price is average but it is a older flat so the other expenses are pretty high. We were looking to move to a newer but smaller one in the near future. For buying one i don't see it happening any time soon to be honest, far to expensive and i could probably afford it but won't take the risk just yet 

[nudge]

Mortgage isn't really for me as I like having flexibility and wouldn't want to make such a long-term commitment. I understand the appeal of owning a home, but the way I see it, it's basically taking a huge debt with interest (for like what, 15-25 years at least?) hoping that your personal and financial situation will be stable enough to keep up with repayments.

Renting, on the other hand, gives you a significant amount of freedom as you aren't tied down to one place for years to come; there's also no maintenance costs, no unforeseen repairs, no property taxes, no need to buy furniture and other stuff if you don't want to, no debt. Personally, I'd only ever consider buying a home if I were able to pay for it with my savings without taking out any loan, and even then I wouldn't do it.

[Stan]

4 hours ago, nudge said:

Mortgage isn't really for me as I like having flexibility and wouldn't want to make such a long-term commitment. I understand the appeal of owning a home, but the way I see it, it's basically taking a huge debt with interest (for like what, 15-25 years at least?) hoping that your personal and financial situation will be stable enough to keep up with repayments.

Renting, on the other hand, gives you a significant amount of freedom as you aren't tied down to one place for years to come; there's also no maintenance costs, no unforeseen repairs, no property taxes, no need to buy furniture and other stuff if you don't want to, no debt. Personally, I'd only ever consider buying a home if I were able to pay for it with my savings without taking out any loan, and even then I wouldn't do it.

the downside being if you are privately renting in this country, there's no security of tenure. Private landlord can practically serve a notice on you at any time and you have to leave. Not all properties come furnished, either, so there's not really any difference to that aspect for when you buy a home. 

[nudge]

10 hours ago, Romesh said:

the downside being if you are privately renting in this country, there's no security of tenure. Private landlord can practically serve a notice on you at any time and you have to leave. Not all properties come furnished, either, so there's not really any difference to that aspect for when you buy a home. 

To be fair, I wouldn't even care, I'd just move then. I understand though that it means less certainty and security for most people, especially for families with children, so there are definitely pros and cons of renting too, but for me personally, it's ideal. As for furniture, I have no idea of what it's like in the UK, but I've rented a home in four different countries so far, always found something properly furnished and only bought extra things I wanted (computer chair, etc), so I think it's just a matter of choice. 

[Danny]

You can defo find furnished places in the U.K. no problem

[Mel81x]

Did some math to convert and I'm doing about 230/mo for a 3 BHK penthouse with three bathrooms and a terrace with a view to the lake. I will get a place in the next three years (some nice ones coming up) but when I hear everyone around me complaining about stuff related to buying versus renting and the way land just appreciates weirdly here I get a bit weary. Still, I started with the same place at 170/mo so over 7 years thats not too much of a jump and its much bigger than where I used to live and pay much more for.

[DeadLinesman]

You can't really continue to rent if you want a stable home for your wife and kids. Wouldn't want to be arsed moving about every 5 minutes. Sure, I've made large investements in my 3 properties upto now, but I've also got 80k of equity in my property so that's a pretty nice cushion. Always take out life insurance as well if you've got a family.

[Rab]

Renting is alright but the restrictions on what I can do with it are annoying.

I'll be kitting out my whole house with technology whereas I can't do that where I'm renting. I also want to have a house so that if something were to ever happen to me, that money could be passed on to family.

Currently paying £420/m for a 1 bedroom flat where I could have a 3 bedroom semi-detached for a similar price. Just need to wait until I'm back from Orlando before the real saving can start.

[nudge]

1 hour ago, DeadLinesman said:

You can't really continue to rent if you want a stable home for your wife and kids. Wouldn't want to be arsed moving about every 5 minutes. Sure, I've made large investements in my 3 properties upto now, but I've also got 80k of equity in my property so that's a pretty nice cushion. Always take out life insurance as well if you've got a family.

Oh absolutely, I was talking from my own perspective only, and I do understand why people with families or those planning to have a family would want to own a home. It's not that either one of those options (buying, mortgaging or renting) is wrong, it completely depends on one's personal situation and needs.

[DeadLinesman]

1 hour ago, nudge said:

Oh absolutely, I was talking from my own perspective only, and I do understand why people with families or those planning to have a family would want to own a home. It's not that either one of those options (buying, mortgaging or renting) is wrong, it completely depends on one's personal situation and needs.

Absolutely. Trust me, if I only had myself to look after, I'd be renting and moving as much as possible 😂

[Stan]

5 hours ago, Danny said:

You can defo find furnished places in the U.K. no problem

Didn't say you couldn't, but it probably comes at a heftier price. 

[Danny]

14 hours ago, Romesh said:

Didn't say you couldn't, but it probably comes at a heftier price. 

Not really, can often find furnished places at similar prices to non furnished, and even then having to buy a bed, sofa, table, to stand etc all adds up

[Dickie]

I pay $2k, with two roomates to live in a box in upper manhattan.... I'm moving to another box probably in lower manhattan next month because our lease is up and I hate living in the hood.

[Large]

17 minutes ago, Cannabis said:

In the process of buying my first house at the moment and by in the process I mean actually going out and looking at potential properties. I don't know if it's just the area that I live in but you can buy a shoe box and what feels like a mansion for the same price. It seems as though people literally put their houses on the market for whatever the feel like and you just have to spot the right property at the right time. 

Visited a house today and it was a right shambles, didn't even ask any questions just spent five minutes wandering around and then left.

 

You're far too polite. When I was house hunting if I didn't like a place I didn't muck about. If I didn't like it from the off I'd say so and leave.

[roversgirl]

I'm 29 and have owned my own home for 2 years with my partner after saving up by living with my parents and also we were lucky we had some short term financial backing from my parents. Its a 3 bedroom detached new build house in a good area, and a house we can stay in for 10 years and have a child and pet in. We are lucky we like in the north west outside of the big cities as prices are reasonable otherwise we wouldn't be in this position. We pay just over £500 mortgage and bills are fairly cheap as its a new build and just the two of us (in total around £900 a month all in bills and mortgage including sky TV, direct debits for furniture). We would be spending much more if we were renting, and wouldn't have as nice a house but you need the deposit for a house which takes years of sacrifices (living with parents, saving, budgeting, less nights out/expensive clothes etc).