To Buy Or Keeping Renting

Hi guys,

I've recently discovered this site and find it great. My partner and I are looking into buying an apartment in Dublin. At the moment we are undecided whether to buy or keep renting in Dublin. We intend to move home in about 3 years when our daughter starts school and hope to buy a site and build.

But we feel that the rent we are paying is "dead money" and that maybe we'd be better off buying as mortgage would be the same as the rent (of course there is extra expenses in buying). We would also consider renting it out after we moved home. We aren't necessary thinking about selling it on in 3 years.

We are new to this and completely niave so your advice would be greatly appreciated!!! What would you do if you were in our situation?

Thanks

I would recommend that you keep renting. With the continuing decline in the economy I can see housing prices following a similar path. Besides that you would be using up your valuable first time buyer status in buying this apartment. If your rent is too high look around at other properties. Rents are falling too!

There is "dead money" with buying also:
- difference between buying and selling price. Capital appreciation isn't guaranteed anymore
- stamp duty, solicitor, survey, estate agend & other fees.
- interest part of loan repayments.
You might also want to look at the potential impact on your first time buyer status.

rent may be dead money, but by the same token mortgage interest is also dead money.

If house prices look like they are going up then there may be sense in an urgency to buy, if they look like they will be going down then there may be sense in holding out for a while and seeing where the market goes, currently most people would not believe that we are going to be seeing a growth in house prices, that would imply that renting for a while may not be a bad option.

by the same token its a buyers market, if you negotiate particularly well then you might find the right place at the right price, have you compared the cost of ownership to the cost of renting?

Advice:

1. Rent is not "dead money". Laugh directly in the face of anyone who says that to you.
2. Save, save, save
3. Go shopping with a big wad of cash for deposit (the Irish recession is only just beginning)

MortgageGuy (Karl Deeter) - How many logins do you need - I thought one would be enough for you? Or do you not have a clue .