Never bought a house - the moral hazard!

[Mic]

Rent or buy. What other choices do they have in other countries?

One-liners are great, aren't they?

Perhaps you haven't being paying attention to the discussion.
Regarding "buy", you might begin by reading the thread. Would you like a summary?

Regarding either rent or buy, the gastrpodean progress of building regulations in this country means a significant number of the "properties" available for rent are poorly insulated, poorly ventilated, poorly plumbed, &c, particularly so if in established areas/near transport links.

If you buy a house, simply rectify problems as you see fit yourself.
You didn't know this?

[Mic]

Well there you have it and you are proving my point.

I chose option B as many other folks did too. Nobody forced you to buy, and any person with half a brain could see that houses were grossly overvalued.

Now that we have money saved and had the good sense to see what a blind man could see, artificial supports for the market should be removed.

Ah, I see now! Those who couldn't afford to wait longer should be screwed because you've saved enough money to buy if only house prices would come down.

Yes, now is the time to remove supports!

Actually, I wouldn't argue with you that artificial supports of the housing market should be removed. One of those artificial supports being that there is no option to buy a home taking out a mortgage on a home where the bank can call only on the equity in the house, not on the purchase price. Still leaves me high and dry, but with luck I will get over it.

[Supermanpolitician]

Ah, I see now! Those who couldn't afford to wait longer should be screwed because you've saved enough money to buy if only house prices would come down.

Yes, now is the time to remove supports!

Actually, I wouldn't argue with you that artificial supports of the housing market should be removed. One of those artificial supports being that there is no option to buy a home taking out a mortgage on a home where the bank can call only on the equity in the house, not on the purchase price. Still leaves me high and dry, but with luck I will get over it.

You couldn't afford to wait? Dare I ask why not?

[toughbutfair]

I read the head of the union the firemen are in said they should get a pay rise as they are on 500 euro a week and some have mortgages of 1,650 a month. He is probably lying but if he isn't how did these people expect to live?

[hammer]

They always pick out a handfull public servants that are really struggling and make it sound as if they are all in the same boat.

Ask some of the 480,000 unemployed how they are getting on.

[ibis]

If you bought a house and are stuck with negative equity thats your tough luck. Before the property crash there were people who had bought houses say in 2000 for 300k that were worth 500k in 2007 - there was no talk of them people giving some of the 'positive equity' back to help out other people who couldnt afford houses.

Buying a house is an INVESTMENT - like all investments it may be a good or bad investment, you have to weigh up the pros and cons before making the decision to purchase. If it goes bad, its on your back.

...you know, you're right there. I don't recall anyone saying to me "jaysus, I've made a packet selling me house! Asked for twice what I'd paid for it and got more by playing the buyers off against each other! Here, look, since I'm helping keep you off the ladder by madly inflating prices, have a couple of hundred thou.".

[charley]

Like one-liners, I take it? For most people, there were effectively two choices:
(a) Take out a mortgage, for an exorbitantly-priced house, trying to ensure you're not going to be stuck in a tin bucket in the middle of nowhere with the negative equity trap.
(b) Rent, swallowing all the (non-monetary) disadvantages this entails.

Realistically, there should be other choices, but these don't exist in our dear little corrupt state.

do you mean a rent to buy system where any rent paid is deducted from the price of the house when you decide to buy it. i think there was something like that being offered last year but i believe they required a significant deposit up front

[Sailor]

I read the head of the union the firemen are in said they should get a pay rise as they are on 500 euro a week and some have mortgages of 1,650 a month. He is probably lying but if he isn't how did these people expect to live?

On partner's income. You could argue that, in the traditional model of single income, stay at home wife, the property bubble could not have happened. Sad to think so many people (myself included) opted for the extra prosperity that a double income promised only to have to devote most of the extra income on the mortgage.

[Mic]

You couldn't afford to wait? Dare I ask why not?

Funny you should ask. I suppose it does inform my personal take on this.
Firstly, as intimated, we didn't wish to continue living in rental accomodation which was either in the middle of nowhere or of low standard. I suppose the argument could be made that house-hopping every 12 months would result in improved conditions, especially if the market collapsed. I have no desire to house-hop indefinetely. I'm not sure if that character flaw means I should have to pay through the nose for the privelege of being able to improve my residence.
Secondly, due to the way things work in this country, a fool could see that a housing collapse would be a long-drawn out affair, during which time it will again be very difficult to buy a reasonable house unless it is in the middle of nowhere.
Let's just say I made the mistake of not buying in the middle of the market because I didn't believe the government would take the irresponsible decisions they did which spun the bull market out so long, and didn't want to wait for several more years at the end of which I believe the question of age would put me at a disadvantage anyway.

I am not particularly well versed in economic matters, but do consider myself reasonably well informed.
I would certainly consider it unreasonable to jump on the back of somebody looking to make a home for a family because they should have known X,Y or Z while simultaneosuly saying that mortgage lenders have no responsilibity in this regard.