It's a family conversation that comes up every few months: we talk about how well things are going, how work is in a great place, and how I've managed to eke out a small amount of savings, and then … "Have you thought about getting into the property market?"
I understand their concern; they don't want me to end up rootless and with nothing to show for my decades of hard work beyond a few shoeboxes full of receipts. Yes, it would be nice to have an asset that is more valuable than my collection of vintage Polaroid cameras. But as a dedicated non-owner of more than a decade whose work occasionally takes me overseas and interstate, I've become something of a slave to the rental groove.
Here are a handful of reasons why, right now, renting is actually better than owning.
1. Freedom
Think about it: provided you don't get into a habit of remodelling rental properties with a sledgehammer, a decent set of rental references will mean you can rent pretty much anywhere you like. Sick of your suburb? Get out of there! Desperate for warmer climes? Go for it! If, however, you bought a place and six months later you're living next door to a KISS-loving, salami-making, motorcycle-revving neighbour from hell, what are you gonna do?
2. Fill the piggybank
While the current rental crisis isn't great news, you can still organise your renting life in such a way (living further out, sharing) that it's possible to save as well as make the rent each month. If you're pouring every last cent into the vacuum cleaner marked "mortgage", on the other hand, it's time to kiss goodbye to that dream holiday/new car/stereo upgrade/wacky startup idea.
3. Jim'll fix it
Jim, or Tony, or Marge, or Bruce: if something goes awry (and, let's face it, things often do in rental properties), it's the landlord's job to sort it out. So if, for example, the shower drain starts belching effluent into the bathroom, you're not left sinking into a mire of your own creation and trying to work out if you can solve the problem using only an allen key and a bottle of No More Nails.
4. Roomies
Unless you're a generous sort, you're fairly unlikely to invite friends to live with you in the house you just coughed up a hefty deposit for. Renting, on the other hand, is more often than not a collective experience. We recently detailed the benefits of returning to renting after years of living alone; from sharing the bills to chain-eating chips in front of True Detective, renting can be an antidote to the loneliness of the modern condition.
Lol filling the piggy bank while living further out!!!! Bears rent 20kms from the cbd paying more in rent than someone with a $400,000+ loan 30kms out hahahahahaha. Renting just slows you down
Lol filling the piggy bank while living further out!!!! Bears rent 20kms from the cbd paying more in rent than someone with a $400,000+ loan 30kms out hahahahahaha. Renting just slows you down
Ha ha ha, so you live 30 kms out and try and justify your mortgage while rents are falling.
Clem is 33 and still living in share houses. I wonder at what point she will panic?
Probably when she stops pretending there's more personal freedom in a share house and admits that roomies are a fucken pain in the arse.
It would be at the point she realises that she is the oldest single girl in the room, missed her opportunity for kids, and has nothing to show for herself other than pics of parties that she and her ever younger group of roomies have and the inevitable despair of hung over Sunday morning clean ups.
I loved renting a room with my mates, some of the happiest days of my life. Then I turned 22.
My only hope for my three boys is that they turn out nothing at all like Chris.
It would be at the point she realises that she is the oldest single girl in the room, missed her opportunity for kids, and has nothing to show for herself other than pics of parties that she and her ever younger group of roomies have and the inevitable despair of hung over Sunday morning clean ups.
I loved renting a room with my mates, some of the happiest days of my life. Then I turned 22.
I notice recently that the amount of bulls on here is growing. Sign of the times as the tide turns and you all get wiped out by the forthcoming whirlwind that is the compulsory recession!
You were warned to live within your means, oh well - be nice to sit back and watch you lose the boat, 2nd car, holidays to bogan Bali and the sorts over the next few years.
If you're lucky one of us renters who have been frugal and not over-stretched will come and buy your property at a knock down price just so you can get the bank manager to back off before he pulls any more of your gold teeth out to pay your ailing mortgage debts...
Australians average debt per head - ~ > 150% - says it all really
I notice recently that the amount of bulls on here is growing. Sign of the times as the tide turns and you all get wiped out by the forthcoming whirlwind that is the compulsory recession!
You were warned to live within your means, oh well - be nice to sit back and watch you lose the boat, 2nd car, holidays to bogan Bali and the sorts over the next few years.
If you're lucky one of us renters who have been frugal and not over-stretched will come and buy your property at a knock down price just so you can get the bank manager to back off before he pulls any more of your gold teeth out to pay your ailing mortgage debts...
Australians average debt per head - ~ > 150% - says it all really
Who said recessions are compulsory? Who said people will be wiped out? Who said people are not living within their means?
You keep renting son, and remember - when investors do sell, if you are not a buyer your rent will go through the roof. More cash for people like me, less for people like you.
Love your strategy, keep it up.
My only hope for my three boys is that they turn out nothing at all like Chris.
The most revealing aspect of this thread (and innumerable previous ones like it in this forum) is that many posters imagine that renters and buyers and RE investors are permanently separate species, destined always to oppose each others interests, or even hate one another forever.
In reality, there is a life-cycle-progression that many (not all) follow through all three such states in Australia: you rent when you are young and unsettled (for family reasons, career reasons, or both), you buy when you can (not everyone believes in that, but most do), and you maybe look to add an IP or two to your assets later in life.
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