home sweet home

I read this article in the Guardian last night and was fairly alarmed by it because my personal experiences of renting, albeit not hellishly horrible, somewhat reflect the article's main points.  I rented for over 15 years as a student and then as a working professional in the U.K.  Rent accounted for half or more of my monthly expenditure in both cases.  I chose not to share with anyone because I needed the space and the freedom to work at all hours without disturbance, and in a way I was paying such that I did not have to deal with the problems associated with flat sharing.  This requirement for personal space was non-negotiable for me as I wanted to focus on developing my career, and the fact that I am in a position to own a property now has much to do with this dedication to my professional development: being in my job enabled me to get a mortgage.  However, renting for 15 years meant I did not have much savings and so I am a 'minority stakeholder' in our property as far as the initial deposit goes.  Living with  my partner for two years before buying our first property helped us save some money without compromising our personal space too much- we got on well, of course.  Even so, we only just about got our feet on the property ladder.  It does feel good to be able to put our money towards something that will eventually become ours; definitely much better than squandering it away in rent. It offers some stability as we get older- we hopefully won't have to worry about needing enough retirement funds to rent a roof over our heads- and I am also aware that this is an investment that we could leave Sprog. 

I come from a culture where property ownership is traditionally a requirement for marriage; this is not necessarily observed these days, otherwise the marriage/reproduction rate would have dropped dramatically.  Property prices have risen sharply in the recent past due to heavy interest in property investment at home and a lot of young people can no longer afford to buy to marry.  Fortunately rent is still relatively inexpensive so people do rent.  However, in order to have some stability, particularly in retirement, property ownership is still highly desirable.  The relatively low rent does enable people to save up towards a deposit- even though it is taking longer and longer to do so- i.e. the problem is not yet as bad as in the U.K.  Perhaps we should take heed of what is happening here and try our best to avoid getting into this situation.

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