This seems to be the benefit to me as well. The average person won't get a £100,000+ loan from a bank so easily for anything else.
Want to start a business with that money? Better have a rock solid business plan. Investing elsewhere? No chance, a bank won't lone that money for you to play with on the stock market, and the rate you would get would wipe out any gains from something safer like a tracker fund.
For anyone that is not content living in the same area for the rest of their life buying is a poor decision. But it is the only way most people can access a loan that size and leverage in that way.
I've resigned myself to the fact you have to buy (in my country at least), and I will just make sure it can be rented easily when I want to move.
Some European countries are much more renter friendly and I would consider renting exclusively there. Germany and Berlin seem more appealing in that regard with the rent control that was put into place recently.
The thing is housing almost comes with a rock solid business plan and as a basic need is somewhat resistant to radical decreases in price (it is almost impossible that your house would depreciate by 100% - company stock/your own business investments could).
With the way the market is it is likely that mortgage principal + interest + maintenance is actually less than rent...
Lots of things can drag down the value of a home to zero. Lack of maintenance or a natural disaster are two big ones, but also the neighborhood could turn to crap or an infrastructure crisis that isn't resolved.
Add to that property taxes continue to accumulate on buildings. There are quite a few ways to drive a house to worthless. I used to live in a region where houses were <$10k because they were condemned shells in crime-ridden areas.
Want to start a business with that money? Better have a rock solid business plan. Investing elsewhere? No chance, a bank won't lone that money for you to play with on the stock market, and the rate you would get would wipe out any gains from something safer like a tracker fund.
For anyone that is not content living in the same area for the rest of their life buying is a poor decision. But it is the only way most people can access a loan that size and leverage in that way.
I've resigned myself to the fact you have to buy (in my country at least), and I will just make sure it can be rented easily when I want to move.
Some European countries are much more renter friendly and I would consider renting exclusively there. Germany and Berlin seem more appealing in that regard with the rent control that was put into place recently.