Nice House vs nice Car? Which takes priority?

[tankplanker]

Venturist said:

Interesting, you've been in your house 18 years, almost half your life! I couldn't manage that, I seem to get the itch to move in less than 18 months, longest I've ever stayed in one property was 3 years. Life changes direction and I need to follow it, or my personal wants change, and I need to move to fulfil them. I just cannot imagine ever staying put for that long.

I've worked all over Europe and the UK, all paid for by my job, so I've had that travel itch scratched by that. When we live I am close to a reasonable airport (BHX), a good train station and I'm roughly in the middle of the M6, M42, M40, M1, M69 triangle so it is easier for me than some to commute a distance.

I would like to work in Asia for a short period of time, but having kids it never made sense when I had the offer previously. With them nearly grown up I will probably look to do that soon.

I can understand people not wanting to commute or wanting to move somewhere better, but when you have everything you want/need already then I didn't want any more. It has meant we have far more "spare" cash after living expenses for other things such as savings, cars, holidays. We currently spend more on holidays than we do on the mortgage.

[csd19]

Shnozz said:

djc206 said:

Not really. 1900sq ft would be a decent 4 bed or an average 5 bed in the UK I reckon. It's probably considered small in the US and Canada though, considering most Vegas hotel rooms are around 600 sqft

Just checked my room size for a trip to Sri Lanka and its 1281 sq feet. That must be bigger than my entire apartment here in the UK.

1281 sq feet is 119 sq m - that's around 250 sq feet / 23 sqm bigger than the detached 3-bed houses around where we live. There's a semi-detached newish build 3-bed with 1050 sq feet / 97sqm about 4 miles away for £285k, GTFO... Completely overpriced crap, but it's just our local housing market unfortunately.

[culpz]

Welshbeef said:

In a falling property market renting is great BUT I'd wager nearly all UK residences are unable to judge when that might happen and if they get it wrong they get caught out badly

Renting has it's benefits i suppose. In my own defense, i was put into an unfair and awkward position that i shouldn't have had to deal with and renting was the decision i made going forward. I didn't particularly want to though.

[Monkeylegend]

Renting is dead money. In a falling housing market unless you get into negative equity there is always an asset to be realised, and longer term it usually comes good again.

Unless you live up north of course

[Shnozz]

Monkeylegend said:

Renting is dead money.

Is mortgage interest not also?

It was ingrained in me to buy property by my parents (rent dead money etc) and whilst it has put me in good stead, I have found myself on the "wrong" side of my own fag packet calculations as per below. Now I am looking at it with a more analytical view to try to take advantage of the variation between property value and yield. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't want to not buy property - but I am wondering whether to buy high yielding property and rent low yielding property in tandem.

[culpz]

Monkeylegend said:

Unless you live up north of course

Manchester born and bred

[kiethton]

Shnozz said:

Is mortgage interest not also?

It was ingrained in me to buy property by my parents (rent dead money etc) and whilst it has put me in good stead, I have found myself on the "wrong" side of my own fag packet calculations as per below. Now I am looking at it with a more analytical view to try to take advantage of the variation between property value and yield. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't want to not buy property - but I am wondering whether to buy high yielding property and rent low yielding property in tandem.

Issue then is getting a BTL mortgage, often co's will only allow it if you have your own home alreay

[Shnozz]

kiethton said:

Issue then is getting a BTL mortgage, often co's will only allow it if you have your own home alreay

I would imagine a chunky % deposit would avoid that though? And given we are looking at <£100k purchase prices offering up 30 - 40% wouldn't be a big ask.

Or make the first of the purchases your own home for that purpose?

I'm speculating as you may well be right - but the abundance of non-UK residents owning BTL properties makes me think there must be a means.

[Davey S2]

johnwilliams77 said:

Just to add some balance to the house only camp
I am in my late 20s, no house, but 4 cars. 3 of which are worth around 50k and quite confident they have low /slow depreciation. I have savings to afford a deposit on a place but I am happy with my place i rent (not living with parents either). May live to regret this decision but cars are where I get enjoyment

Each to their own but that seems crackers to me.

If you already have the deposit in your shoes I'd sell a couple of them to increase the equity on a house purchase but still leave budget to run and enjoy the remaining cars.

Houses aren't going to get any cheaper.

[designforlife]

I'm in my early 30s, currently renting and saving for a mortgage deposit...I run two cars which i own outright. I could sell both tomorrow and have just about enough to scrape together a deposit on a stty 1 bed somewhere on top of the few grand in my HTB ISA.

But i've decided to keep renting and saving, and buy a place in a few years time, and enjoy the cars in the meantime...trying to buy a place when you're single feels just out of reach for me personally. Said cars aren't going to depreciate so I may as well enjoy them and address the house situation when I'm in a stable relationship and looking to settle down.

[Welshbeef]

designforlife said:

I'm in my early 30s, currently renting and saving for a mortgage deposit...I run two cars which i own outright. I could sell both tomorrow and have just about enough to scrape together a deposit on a stty 1 bed somewhere on top of the few grand in my HTB ISA.

But i've decided to keep renting and saving, and buy a place in a few years time, and enjoy the cars in the meantime...trying to buy a place when you're single feels just out of reach for me personally.

But being brutal what are they worth? £6-8k.

I'd wager you spend above that value comfortably each year paying down a BTL landlords mortgage (a landlord like myself).

That said don't buy a 1 bed always a 2 bed as it reduces the number of times you need to move and is always going to be more desirable over bedsit/studio.

Consider buying with a friend you could buy a two bed terrace sat and likely keep the integra for year round commuting.
Reality is unless you live in an area with high unemployment or low skilled and low paid work the population is rising Year on year way way faster than number of houses being built + more people like living alone now than before plus more divorced adding to demand. What I'm getting at is if you cannot keep pace saving with the growth in the housing market then where you can buy changes be it worse area more compromises or not a one bed but a studio. Conversely if you think there is going to be a huge market correction - which somehow will not impact the lending criteria after he banks are jammed from negative equity then fair enough.

Another option is buy a buy to let and get some £ benefit by being on the ladder

[designforlife]

Welshbeef said:

designforlife said:

I'm in my early 30s, currently renting and saving for a mortgage deposit...I run two cars which i own outright. I could sell both tomorrow and have just about enough to scrape together a deposit on a stty 1 bed somewhere on top of the few grand in my HTB ISA.

But i've decided to keep renting and saving, and buy a place in a few years time, and enjoy the cars in the meantime...trying to buy a place when you're single feels just out of reach for me personally.

But being brutal what are they worth? £6-8k.

I'd wager you spend above that value comfortably each year paying down a BTL landlords mortgage (a landlord like myself).

That said don't buy a 1 bed always a 2 bed as it reduces the number of times you need to move and is always going to be more desirable over bedsit/studio.

Consider buying with a friend you could buy a two bed terrace sat and likely keep the integra for year round commuting.
Reality is unless you live in an area with high unemployment or low skilled and low paid work the population is rising Year on year way way faster than number of houses being built + more people like living alone now than before plus more divorced adding to demand. What I'm getting at is if you cannot keep pace saving with the growth in the housing market then where you can buy changes be it worse area more compromises or not a one bed but a studio. Conversely if you think there is going to be a huge market correction - which somehow will not impact the lending criteria after he banks are jammed from negative equity then fair enough.

Another option is buy a buy to let and get some £ benefit by being on the ladder

Worth adding, in my current houseshare I'm only paying £490 a month all in, which in South Herts is buttons tbh...so I spend about £5900 a year on rent and the assoc. bills a year.

If i was laying out mortgage repayment amounts of money on rent plus paying bills on top, then my rental situation wouldn't be anywhere near as attractive as it currently is.

Edited by designforlife on Thursday 16th February 14:18

[okgo]

There is nothing attractive about your situation, to be brutally honest. Renting is one thing, house sharing is quite another.

[kiethton]

Exactly, to make it a proper comp you'd then rent the remainder of the rooms out which would offset a good chunk of that

[djc206]

okgo said:

There is nothing attractive about your situation, to be brutally honest. Renting is one thing, house sharing is quite another.

I loved house sharing. There were 4 of us in a very large house in Southampton all worked together so never disturbed each other and always had a drinking buddy. The only downside was the cost of takeaways and boozing. When I moved out I found myself with loads of spare cash despite my rent nearly doubling

[designforlife]

djc206 said:

okgo said:

There is nothing attractive about your situation, to be brutally honest. Renting is one thing, house sharing is quite another.

I loved house sharing. There were 4 of us in a very large house in Southampton all worked together so never disturbed each other and always had a drinking buddy. The only downside was the cost of takeaways and boozing. When I moved out I found myself with loads of spare cash despite my rent nearly doubling

i've absolutely no problems with my current houseshare, although I've had some bad ones...it all depends on what you're used to, and character of yourself and those you share with.

If i was throwing twice what I pay at renting a 1 bed place solo, i'd be asking myself some serious questions as to why I wasn't buying somewhere.

[designforlife]

it's a bit of a moot point anyway...i'm currently saving for a place, and if when buying time comes that means sacrificing the car/s and getting a stter, then so be it, but at least i can enjoy it in the meantime

Certainly don't plan on still renting in 4/5 years from now. A houseshare is literally the most cost effective option barring moving in with my mum (no thanks).

[Welshbeef]

designforlife said:

i've absolutely no problems with my current houseshare, although I've had some bad ones...it all depends on what you're used to, and character of yourself and those you share with.

If i was throwing twice what I pay at renting a 1 bed place solo, i'd be asking myself some serious questions as to why I wasn't buying somewhere.

Or sharing it with a Mrs?

[designforlife]

Welshbeef said:

Or sharing it with a Mrs?

Absolutely...if i can find someone who doesn't stitch me up, that would be the ideal.

I'm fresh out of a relationship...ironically we were supposed to be buying a place around now...until she fked me over and called it quits.

[okgo]

djc206 said:

I loved house sharing. There were 4 of us in a very large house in Southampton all worked together so never disturbed each other and always had a drinking buddy. The only downside was the cost of takeaways and boozing. When I moved out I found myself with loads of spare cash despite my rent nearly doubling

Were you also in your early 30s?

Its a laugh when you're 24, less so when 34 I would bet.