When you’ve been renting ever since you left home, it’s easy to get stuck in the mentality that it’s all you need to do. Sure, moving from place to place easily has its benefits, but have you thought about how close you might be to being able to work with a home loan instead?
Think about how much you’ve probably spent on rent since you started living in flats: Even if you only paid $600 per month, that’s $7200 per year. Across five years of renting, that’s $36,000 – enough for a deposit on a house, depending on where you buy.
Of course, it’s hard to put together a deposit in your savings at the same time as you rent another property. But it’s worth looking at the difference between the cost of renting and the cost of a home loan, just to keep in mind as you start putting an eye on the future and home ownership.
What do you get when you start paying off a mortgage?
While CoreLogic RP Data statistics show us that prices just won’t stop going up in a lot of capital cities, making mortgage payments even higher too, it’s important to remember what you get when you take out a home loan. A pile of debt, sure, but also the chance to build equity in a home – and a place of your own.
That means no more worrying about landlords or negotiating damage – but it also means you have to take responsibility for these things yourself! Patching up holes in walls and calling plumbers on your own is just one of the tradeoffs.
For lots of people this’ll be a thrill ride, and a badge to the world that says “I’m an adult”. For others, it’ll be a daunting responsibility. But if you’ve been renting for a while, you owe it to yourself to at least consider what you’d gain by moving to a home loan – and to home ownership.