Do you currently rent or own a property?

I pay £450 for a one bed flat in Hastings, I have about £250-£300 left after everything to get to and from work, go out etc
 
yeah, but its al about the area/location isnt it.

We live in a small village in the north east, the estate that we are renting from tend to keep the rent lower because they are not new houses etc, most of the residents tend to be there for the long term.

For example, the family that live next door have been living there for 26 years, and they initially signed a 25 year contract.

Rent is normally negotiated every 2 years but i managed to talk our way into a 5 year deal.
We really have been unbelievably lucky with this house, its perfect (except for the green kitchen cupboards lol)
 
At the moment i rent, i know its bad and kind of a waste of money. I have only ever received small amounts of cash for free and have always had to work for what i have (same as most people i suppose). At the moment i have 30k in the bank which i have saved up over the last 4years.

HSBC will give me a 90% mortgage at a fixed rate of 3and a bit percent.

This would cost me £1438 per month, my take home is currently £2200 a month so this seems entirely do able. Leaves me around £700 to live on, is that enough? probably if i don't want any luxuries at all.

All i own at the moment is a telly and a computer, every thing else would have to be bought. No one is here to give me hand outs so i would be on my own. Essentials? Living room, bedroom, kitchen? Any ideas how much extra cash i would need to furnish these rooms?

With 300k i could probably get a 2 (maybe 3 bed after looking at prices) bed house meaning i could rent a room out, around here i could charge £400-£500 per month easy. This would make it affordable, but then again i would have to furnish that room also....

I don't want to live in a flat.

My plan at the moment is to try and escape London with enough money in my saving account to buy a house elsewhere in the country.
 
We had a mortgage, but as we knew we were moving to France in the future we kept it on interest only for 6 years (over 2 properties). The market was rising so we ended making enough money from the 2 houses to have a house built in France and pay for it outright.

The house is costing around €150k and it's a 3 bed bungalow with 1/3 acre garden.

The only downside is living with the in-laws while it's being built
 
Rent- £650 PCM but have about £70,000 saved up to buy when the market bottoms out. Buying at the moment is madness IMV.
 
I own a two bedroom apartment at a ridiculous cost of £725p/m, bought it around 6 months before the recession as it seemed like the bargain of the century back then. Mortgage is fixed until February, so roll on then when i can hopefully halve what im paying back!
 
I rented with friends for just under a year. We had a nice big house and my rent was only £200 including bills. I wasn't really earning enough back then to afford a mortgage but at least my income and job was steady. I don’t regret the experience, had a great laugh in that house and enjoyed the experience (for the most part bar one of the tenants who stopped paying rent)… nightmare.

In the end we couldn’t afford to keep the house so we all did our own thing. Some got flats by themselves, some went home. I decided to live at home for a while, saving money and eventually found myself a new job with a decent wage (for the Island). I didn’t like the idea of renting again, partly due to the agro before but mostly because I wanted to invest my money, instead of spending it every month with nothing to show for it. Well, apart from the roof over my head of course! So I looked around for ages, trying to find a nice flat / small house within my budget. I soon realised there was no way I could afford a house by myself so I opted for the next best thing… a large flat.

My friends have affectionately nicknamed it the “Flouse” – It is technically a flat… but has the feel and space of a house. Anyway, I pay £390 per month and I am reaching the end of my three year fixed rate mortgage with Alliance and Leicester. I have to say that I haven’t had any issues with A&L, very friendly and helpful at all times. I decided on a fixed rate mortgage because it was practically guaranteed that the interest rate would only increase. Sure enough, a few days after the mortgage went through, the interest rate shot up and continued to do so. I’m sure it was the right thing to do at the time but I’m no expert. I’m not even sure what the current interest rate is doing right now, so I may end up paying more, less or the same (unlikely) come November.

My advice, speaking from what little experience I have, is to get a mortgage if you can. Financial investment is, in my opinion, preferable to haemorrhaging money each month. But I appreciate the fact that not everyone can get a mortgage. I couldn’t for a long time due to various reasons. So if you feel the need to get out, have your own place or share with friends… go for it! Even if you rent for a few years, the experience and enjoyment you’ll get out of it will most likely be worth the money you pay in rent :)
 
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Regarding the argument that renting is 'dead money', what do you call the huge amounts of interest that buyers pay the bank?
 
Renter here, but I think we may be looking to buy next time we move if we can get the money together.

£430 per month (split between two) excluding bills, for a 1 bedroom flat.
 
Ignorant post of the day here:

Has the property market stopped crashing yet? :p

Anyone with the possible funds to buy really should seriously consider buying when it does
 
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