Mortgage vs Renting attitude in Ireland

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Danielle24

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Hi mods,

Hope this post isn't out of line, please move/delete if necessary.

Just wondering what peoples views are on the housing/renting situation in Ireland. I seen some comments on other threads about the European renting culture and how we differ so much with so much emphasis on buying a house. Its something i've been thinking about myself recently as i'm not sure if I really want to buy house in the near future or just feel like I should.

I also think that having your own house is a choice and a luxury. Of course people want to create stability for their children. but all you hear is hardluck stories about people in mortgage arrears. I don't mean to cause offence or belittle anyone. I genuinely 100% have the upmost sympathy for anyone who is struggling with their mortgage arrears, especially those with children. The point im trying to make without being disrespectful is you don't see a pity party for those who could never afford to buy a house in the first place those who are stuck renting etc. I just think its a strange attitude we have around this in this country???
 
There was an article in the paper about it on Saturday I think - maybe the Indo?

It's certainly a valid choice to rent a property instead of to buy one.

The culture here does need to change. I have challenged the ridiculous idea that "rent is dead money" on a few occasions, but I find it hard to persuade people that rent is the cost of using a property for the set period.

The government and the Personal Insolvency Bill makes it a priority that no one should have their home repossessed. Why not? If someone can't pay their rent, they will eventually get kicked out and have to find somewhere else to live.

People have said that those who can afford to pay their mortgage interest, but only their mortgage interest need help such as debt forgiveness. They argue that they will never own the house outright. I have argued that neither will renters, but people don't see the comparison.
 
Up until the 70's quite a lot of people rented their homes. The homes were council/corporation owned and in the 70's these home were sold at a very reduced rate to the tenants. Of course many people rented privately also....so prior to the 70's there was quite a culture of renting in Ireland particularly in Dublin.
 
But with rents so high its doesnt make sense to rent long term. When you retire you are still paying a rent, while those who bought are mortgage free ?.
 
There are pro's and con's to both renting and buying. From a rental perspective, it gives you flexibility of movement and eliminates the burden of carrying a significant mortgage debt. Buying gives you an asset that "hopefully" will appreciate over time. With interest rates at a reasonable level it also enables you to increase the ownership of this asset as time progresses and mortgage is repaid. As the property is yours, you can increase value by renovating & improving it over time. It's a personal choice and in recent years one that has been too hevaily focussed on increase in property prices, rather than a personal & lifestyle choice.
 
Costs aside, one of the bigger differences between renting in Ireland and say the continent is the availability and details of long-term leases. You'll be hard pressed to find a long term lease with normal indexed rent reviews. A lot of that could be due to the boom years and the Government rent relief that is maintaining a price floor in places but the lack of it gives less stability.

On a much longer-term view, having a fully paid off property that lets you live rent free could be seen as retirement planning in so far as it'll reduce your monthly outgoings. I don't view the ppr as an asset beyond that.
 
I rented for years and during the boom never thought I'd own a house. Lived in some awful kips to be honest. Then house prices crashed as soon as I realised that mortgage repayments could be the same price or cheaper than my rent, I looked into buying. Turned out that my mortgage is now significantly cheaper than the rent in my last house, for a bigger place too.
 
I'm nearly 30 and I am thinking about buying a house soon if possible. My wife and I currently pay €1200 per month for the house that we are renting.

If we could get approved for a mortgage of between €250k-€300k then our mortgage repayments will be in a similar range to our current rent. But we will also then get mortgage interest relief and the net effect will probably be that we will pay less than we currently are on rent.

Assuming we get a 30/35 year mortgage, we will have it paid off by the time we are 60/65.

People are living longer these days and its not uncommon for people to live well into their 80s. If you decide that renting is the way to go for you then you have the consider the potential cost that will be there after you retire.

You could be looking at an extra 20 years of paying rent, which may be avoided by purchasing a house now and owning it in 30/35 years.

Obviously there are other factors that come into it, like whether you plan to have a family or not and therefore, do you even need a house or will an apartment be sufficient for you.
 
PolkaDot said:
If we could get approved for a mortgage of between €250k-€300k then our mortgage repayments will be in a similar range to our current rent. But we will also then get mortgage interest relief and the net effect will probably be that we will pay less than we currently are on rent.
Click to expand...

There are quite a few other costs to owning a home other than just the mortgage repayments.
 
Also what about all the mortgage interest you would pay back on a mortgage of that size for that length of time....is that not dead money?!
 
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