I’ve been thinking about the old debate of whether buying a property is better than renting, and I thought I’d try to put together a few pros and cons and try to gather a bit of feedback.
I kind of know that this is a bit of a stupid argument, because both buying and renting have their place depending on the situation. I guess for me this is just an exercise in trying to justify why renting isn’t that bad, because although I’d like to, I’m currently in no position to buy my own place!
So here goes a few of my initial thoughts; some of them might be incorrect – please feel free to correct me and / or add any more you can think of in the comments below.
For renting:
- No worries about plumbing / electrics / general maintenance – the landlord should see to that.
- 6 / 12 month contract means that if you realise you don’t like the place after a few months you can move on fairly easily.
- No large deposit required.
- No shopping around for a decent mortgage, paying survey fees / solicitors etc.
- No worries about going into negative equity.
For buying:
- Your own property (once you’ve paid off the mortgage!).
- Generally cheaper than renting (although the gap is narrowing, apparently).
- Security – No 6 / 12 month contracts to worry about, no landlords ordering you out for making too much noise etc.