Why buy – ever?
Vast numbers of young people on low salaries have given up on the idea of home ownership entirely, and as a result are embracing a completely different life plan. With an average house price in London just shy of £500,000, it’s reasonable to assume that, unless you have friends in high places, you’ll rent forever. …
For those who realise they’re unlikely to be tied to one place by a financial interest in a plot of bricks and mortar, the future becomes a lot more mobile. If you know you’ll always rent, there’s no reason why you can’t up sticks and move to a foreign country – or change jobs every few years. …
Baby boomers love to wail and moan that those born in the 80s and 90s complain they can’t afford a house but they all have iPhones and laptops – and there’s some truth in that.
Once you accept that you’ll never own a home, money takes on a different hue. Where’s the harm instead in enjoying life a little more? An extra holiday, or deciding to eat out more, won’t affect your chances of getting on the housing ladder, because those chances stand at zero anyway.
Instead, you can be more entrepreneurial and plough savings into business ideas, or spend more time on hobbies and interests outside of work. People who bought houses for £50,000 20 years ago, and are now sitting on equity in excess of a million, may witter on about Generation X’s penchant for fancy coffee, but their lives and financial situations are completely different.
Every student can tell you how grim the housing market looks for someone under 30: but being forced to make the best of a bad situation can lead to many other opportunities. Our lives may take a very different path as a result, but they may not necessarily be worse.
This article raises a really good point! There’s a paradigm that goes along with home ownership, the belief that one must “settle down.” Get a college degree, a stable job, get married, buy a house, raise children, retire… Ownership of a home is vital to this paradigm, but it’s a lifestyle that is going out of style in the 21st century. Rather than seeing home ownership as a virtue, it’s beginning to look like a prison to those who seek a flexible life. Once you’ve put thousands down and you’re making those mortgage payments, your choices in life become much more restricted. Whereas renting means you can keep that deposit in your bank account and travel the world, or start your own business, or whatever you want. It’s not such a bad way to live…