Mortgages

I went onto Northern Rock's website to see about how much we could get for a mortgage. It's a pathetic £67,000. Out of curiosity, I was looking at what we could afford and it's really depressing. A lot of the places have boarded up windows and others are on Europe's largest council estate, Bransholme.  I'm still in my first year of law school, so it looks like we'll be renting the next 8 years. The other thing that depressed me about the renting, is that in one year we're paid £6,000 in rent, which is £4,000 less than I earn a year. Although, I would rather rent a really nice place that I like rather than buy somewhere I'll hate.

renting isn't unwise at times where lots of property prices are inflated. Of course this depends on where you live etc.

You're better off working to save as much as possible while you rent then end up somewhere you're not happy.  I don't mind a smaller house or fixer upper but I always want to be where i'm comfortable!

There are shared ownership schemes out there and that doesn't mean council accommodation. There is a single young guy (an IT techie) that I work with that has a nice flat in town. He owns part of it and pays part in rent (the rent bit is quite reasonable).

Here is a link that describes it.

http://england.shelter.org.uk/advice/advice-477.cfm

Some building societies - like The Abbey - apparently offer 6 x one's salary to meet the demand of the market increase. Check out www.moneysavingexpert.com b/c there's loads of useful info that might help you there.

I've lived in rented places for all of my adult life due to having a teacher's salary in expensive parts of the world (Boston, DC)...and honestly I was told by a few people that it was better to rent at that time rather than buy.  I'm being paid better here and if I wasn't marrying into a flat (my fiance owns one), I could eventually save up enough and buy a flat here (a small one, but my own!).  Rent until the time you can afford to buy - while it's frustrating to give up that money, you might be better off in a way. 

hiya,

Just a couple of points

Think very very carefully about the mortgages with 5,6 and yes, even 8 times multiples of your salary. The repayments can (and probably will) be a very large chunk of your take home pay, leaving you with substantially less disposable income. Whilst they are a response to the UK's stupid property prices, it's debateable getting yourself in such a comparitively large amount of debt to your salary/income.

Also, there is this common misconception of rent money is 'dead' money or being thrown away - it isn't, just as onetiger says, sometimes it's best to pay rent if a possible move or career varaiance, situation variance can or may occur. The amount of 'rent' you pay could in some situations work out less than what you'd fork out if you had bought your own place. The only time its money 'thrown away' or 'dead money' or 'just paying the landlords mortgage' is when your means are enough to have your own place but a) you dont realise it and b) can't be bothered to buy a place!

So don't feel bad about renting in the interim, until you are ready and capable to buy a place, you are doing what you need to do and hopefully putting away cash towards your long term goal of buying.

Cheers!
DtM! West London & Slough UK!