Buying a home vs. Renting: Which is better?

Buying your home is one of the biggest financial decisions of your life. However, it is a big commitment and there are a lot of hidden costs and factors that can make it unaffordable for some. Because of the costliness of buying a home outright, many buyers turn to renting instead, especially in expensive housing markets like London, New York, and Hong Kong. Determining which option is best for you depends on a variety of factors, and not everyone’s situation is alike. To help with this important decision, let’s take a look at some of the key differences between buying and renting.

Buying

When buying a house, it’s likely you’ll need to apply for a mortgage. To get a mortgage, you need a deposit (usually at least 10% of the home’s value) and a steady income in order to make repayments. The greater your deposit and income, the more your bank or lender will be able to offer you. However, if you live in an expensive area, or have a low salary and little savings, buying may not be for …

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Renting vs. Buying

A current issue revolving around Irish news is whether to increase the supply of rental or property ownership. It is well known that there is a shortage in properties available, but just trying to produce as many properties as possible is not the solution. Careful review of the issue needs to take place by the government and necessary legislation would follow. Some factors to consider include; land zoning, shared ownership purchase models, tax breaks for EU nationals arriving for construction work, reduced CGT for empty sites, tax reduction for citizens downsizing, and help-to-buy schemes.

First time home buyers are having trouble purchasing homes due to the increasing purchase prices. It is universally agreed upon that more properties need to be available. According to an independent article, 2500 houses that were built in the first three months have not been sold yet. In addition, this is driving up decisions. That coupled with difficult mortgage banking is challenging middle- and lower-class citizens to find accommodation. These statements emphasize the lack of availability and ease for purchasing affordable housing.

Build-to-rent schemes have the …

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Today FM: Varadkar comments on housing deposits discussed

We were on Today FM to talk about comments made by the Taoiseach regarding how people come up with money for a deposit to buy a home. While many were finding it a source of outrage, we were making the point that it’s incredibly common and that it actually is a normal occurrence albeit not ‘the norm’ for everybody (because nothing is universal).

This is a good discussion because in our view it shows the way that housing shortages can turn into all manner of talking point arguments, we don’t think it’s realistic to tell parents you can’t help your kids or to say that it’s wrong in any way, but we do agree with Sinead from TheJournal that we have a housing shortage and that this is really where the problem lies.

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Kildare FM: Discussing construction

Hubert Fitzpatrick from the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) and Karl Deeter from Irish Mortgage Brokers were both commenting on Kildare FM about ‘Construction 2020’.

 

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