Will we end up renting EVERYTHING ?

[Turn7]

Really not a fan of the way things are heading....

Housing - not many can afford to buy -RENT

Cars - keeping up with next door - RENT

Televison channels - its all RENTED

Music - Cds -pah -Spotify etc thanks -RENT

Software ? Lightroom etc -RENT

Just feel like we are signing away a proportion of salary every month for no real gain.....

Is it just me ?

[Alucidnation]

Yes.

[Last Visit]

No.

[Nickp82]

Maybe.

But in seriousness, I do sometimes wonder the same thing.

[rodericb]

Turn7 said:

Televison channels - its all RENTED

Yes. I think owning a television station is probably only something for the very wealthy.

[bluezedd]

A lot of the rental items are optional though, so you don't have to go down that route if you don't want to. I say a lot, as no doubt renting accomodation is the only option for a lot of people.

The only thing I'm not a fan of is peoples acceptance of items which are intentionally made to be difficult to repair. It seems wasteful.

I sometimes forget that renting items like TVs, media players etc isn't new though.

I think people financing or renting newer cars means less demand for the second hand cars, which is good for me.

[anonymous-user]

Yes.

A lot more things are moving to rental/subscription than you might think.

You can even rent your headphones now:

https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/subscription-hea...

Mobile phones will soon be moving to a rental model where you won’t own one, but will rent them and be able to swap models for a higher or lower monthly rate as you wish.

As you point out, software and media has now more or less already moved to subscription (MS Office, Adobe stuff, Apple Music, Netflix etc).

Physical tech and hardware will certainly be the big thing to move to subscription. Big players like Apple will soon offer a monthly subscription for you to own their MacBooks, iPads, iPhones, and so on.

Speakers like Sonos, Bose, and UE will follow.

Then you will rent your Dyson vacuum, your TV, and then your furniture.

All in your rented house with your subscription car and/or subscription electric bicycle outside.

It’ll be like a return to the old days... renting your council house and renting your TV and radio from Radio Rentals.

[Rostfritt]

rodericb said:

Turn7 said:

Televison channels - its all RENTED

Yes. I think owning a television station is probably only something for the very wealthy.

I wasn't quite sure what they meant by this, I mean the TV licence has been around for nearly a century.

It isn't all that new, people used to get stuff on hire purchase in Victorian times and renting household appliances used to be the common thing to do. Some people had coin operated TVs in their living room.

Maybe people will look back and wonder why we had this obsession with owning everything?

[Wacky Racer]

If it appreciates buy it

If it depreciates rent/lease it

[colin_p]

Lord Marylebone said:

It’ll be like a return to the old days... renting your council house and renting your TV and radio from Radio Rentals.

In those good old days, I used to rent my tv and washing machine and reckon I saved overall as things used to go wrong a lot more back then.

Even further back I remember TV's where you had to put a 50p coin in them.

[Otispunkmeyer]

Lord Marylebone said:

Yes.

A lot more things are moving to rental/subscription than you might think.

You can even rent your headphones now:

https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/subscription-hea...

Mobile phones will soon be moving to a rental model where you won’t own one, but will rent them and be able to swap models for a higher or lower monthly rate as you wish.

As you point out, software and media has now more or less already moved to subscription (MS Office, Adobe stuff, Apple Music, Netflix etc).

Physical tech and hardware will certainly be the big thing to move to subscription. Big players like Apple will soon offer a monthly subscription for you to own their MacBooks, iPads, iPhones, and so on.

Speakers like Sonos, Bose, and UE will follow.

Then you will rent your Dyson vacuum, your TV, and then your furniture.

All in your rented house with your subscription car and/or subscription electric bicycle outside.

It’ll be like a return to the old days... renting your council house and renting your TV and radio from Radio Rentals.

Pretty sure, in the US at least, apple already have this subscription service. You pay them a monthly fee and you get the new iPhone every year.

[ChocolateFrog]

Nope.

Own cheap house up north.

Own a few cheap cars.

Own my phone.

Spotify is free.


I subscribe to Strava but I don't particularly like it. And I 'rent' a gym membership because owning one would be a PITA.

Don't feel any pressure to rent a new car or get a mortgage to buy a bigger house.

I'd pity someone if they genuinely rented a new car to impress other people.

[Rostfritt]

Wacky Racer said:

If it appreciates buy it

If it depreciates rent/lease it

Quite simplistic really. I doubt any of my furniture which I own is going to appreciate in value. Neither is my car but I doubt I could have got a lease deal on a 12 year old car.

I would only rent something if ownership would be a risky thing for me or if I didn't want to keep it that long. I am not interested in getting the most up to date car or TV so I will happily buy one and keep it until it doesn't serve a purpose to me any more, which might be quite a few years.

If we didn't have an obsession with home ownership in this country and rents were reasonable, I probably would take advantage of that move around a lot more. But the chance of ownership came along so I went for it, which is the best thing I ever did.

[bluezedd]

Wacky Racer said:

If it appreciates buy it

If it depreciates rent/lease it

You realise that if the cost of rental didn't include the cost of depreciation then the businesses renting these items out wouldn't make any money?

[Sheepshanks]

Turn7 said:

Just feel like we are signing away a proportion of salary every month for no real gain.....

I think that’s fine - but there needs to the ability to cancel if circumstances change, and not be locked into long contracts.

[jjones]

Rostfritt said:

If we didn't have an obsession with home ownership.

Not really an obsession. Basic human instinct, a shelter that belongs to us.

[Rostfritt]

ChocolateFrog said:

Nope.

I'd pity someone if they genuinely rented a new car to impress other people.

It is a strange mindset to me. I met a few of my friends last week for a walk and one of us realised that we all had 07 plate cars. She joked that clearly we are all at the same point in our lives where we have better things to spend our money on and just want something that is unlikely to let us down.

They would all think I was mad if I went out and got a new car on a lease to impress them.

[Rostfritt]

jjones said:

Not really an obsession. Basic human instinct, a shelter that belongs to us.

I guess, but in a lot of countries it is not as common. Until right to buy was introduced, many people were more than happy to live in a council house their entire lives.

[abzmike]

Eventually many things should move to a pay per use model. For example many of us use cars for maybe an hour a day most days - 80% of the time they are unused, which is a bit daft really.

Different commercial models will develop, but there is still a lot of inertia from vendors, clinging on to a sale or expensive permanent rental model. This will all take time, but I think will get there in the next 10-20 years for many things we have and use.

[mikeiow]

Wacky Racer said:

If it appreciates buy it

If it depreciates rent/lease it

I think Bernie Ecclestone once said “if it flies, floats or fks: rent it”

But yes.....modern society dictates thou shalt rent.
Microsoft Office? 365, that’ll be £80 a year....

I’m reaching the stage I don’t want to change anything now, for fear of falling into a rental trap