duffer
Well-Known Member
I'm aware of that but that wasn't my motivation for buying a house hence why I queried the assertion that people only buy property to 'better themselves'.
In any case how does the property value increasing actually benefit me? I can't realise that value without selling it and then I have nowhere to live, I've got no kids so leaving an inheritance is a non issue.
In other countries I've lived the differential between renting and purchasing has been much smaller which gives you more flexibility. For example if I need to move for my job its a lot harder when it involves selling and buying rather than just renting yet we're regularly told people should just move to where the jobs are.
And just to add, most countries have far more secure tenancies as well.
We seem to live in a country of insecure rented housing, provided by individual buy-to-let landlords using them as a personal pension/investment plan, rented by people with diminishing job security.
I don't know who this best suits, but it's certainly not the younger generation and probably not the country as a whole.
It's almost as though market forces without regulation can lead to unwanted outcomes!