Views on long term renting

stoth82

Why do European Countries have such a different attitude to renting?
I am currently writing a thesis comparing Housing Policy in Europe I would be interested in your views.
If you have a minute I would be grateful if you could click on the link below to a survey on attitudes to housing.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QM8ZJCJ

iguana2005

1. I rent cause I cant afford to buy a house. I dont have parents or a partner to help with funds
2. I would be VERY wary of a mortgage as a single women who although works full time is on a very average wage and could not guarantee i'll be working when im 60+ still trying to pay off a mortgage
3. MOST my friends have mortgage on one or more houses - MOST had help from parents and ALL were in relationships
4. I DREAD the future as renting/sharing as a say 50+ lady doesnt really excite me
5. Yes Ireland is DEFO a 'you have to own a house rent is dead money'
6. I do get to live in very cool houses and have met lived with amazing people

Good luck!! x

The_Conductor

Re-opened.
I'd be grateful if folk could help Stoth82 out here.

Cheers,

SMcCarrick

planetX

done.
long term renting is destroying me. Bringing up a child in a succession of substandard houses with no security was never my life plan:(

Treehouse72

stoth82 wrote: »

Why do European Countries have such a different attitude to renting?

Do they though? I have seen studies suggesting it is something of a myth that Europe is a land of renters rather than buyers as we are in Ireland. My understand is that home ownership in Ireland is somewhere around the Euro average, albeit maybe a clip or two above it.

crabfeet

On the continent the housing rental market is mature. Large corporation own apartment blocks and can rent the units out for a reasonable return. That is not the case in Ireland. ownership of rental units has been very fragmented. Apart from a few developers in the closing days of the celtic tiger there has been virtually no large scale renting of residential units by a single individual or company. There has long been an absence of rent control for most of the rented sector.
In the years of high inflation buying a house was a no brainer compared with renting. I am 17 years into the mortgage on my house. The repayments are €509 per month. The house next door is let at about 2K (used to be €2550) per month. My deposit has long come back via saved rent.
On the continent people can rent from companies knowing that they are not subject to the whim of some landlord who can make their life a misery at any time.
There are times like now when the logical thing to do is rent but the culture of home ownership is so strong that people will buy now and regret later.

irishguy

stoth82 wrote: »

Why do European Countries have such a different attitude to renting?
I am currently writing a thesis comparing Housing Policy in Europe I would be interested in your views.
If you have a minute I would be grateful if you could click on the link below to a survey on attitudes to housing.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QM8ZJCJ

Longterm renting in Ireland doesnt make sense due to the current laws, most rental property is substandard and most are pre furnished. If these things changed then it would be a better idea, but it would be very hard to change the Irish house buyer mentality.

rightwingdub

irishguy wrote: »

Longterm renting in Ireland doesnt make sense due to the current laws, most rental property is substandard and most are pre furnished. If these things changed then it would be a better idea, but it would be very hard to change the Irish house buyer mentality.

I agree the government needs to modernise laws as regards renting in Ireland, what about rent controls, weren't they declared unconstitutional in the early 80's

rightwingdub

irishguy wrote: »

Longterm renting in Ireland doesnt make sense due to the current laws, most rental property is substandard and most are pre furnished. If these things changed then it would be a better idea, but it would be very hard to change the Irish house buyer mentality.

I agree with you It is very difficult to change the whole Irish mentality towards home ownership but its going to have to change.

stoth82

Treehouse72 wrote: »

Do they though? I have seen studies suggesting it is something of a myth that Europe is a land of renters rather than buyers as we are in Ireland. My understand is that home ownership in Ireland is somewhere around the Euro average, albeit maybe a clip or two above it.

Agreed, based on the current data European Countries that previously favoured renting have gradually adopted a Westernised view. This is largly due to policy reforms such as abolishing rent controls and privatising landlords.

The_Conductor

I think its quite regional- even on a national level in the different European countries. If you look at Germany for example- cities like Berlin have a totally different demographic than do some of the cities in Southern Germany (the only one I have stats on is Freiberg, but I'm sure it holds elsewhere).

The larger the urban centre- the greater the segment of the accommodation that tends to catered for by the rental market?

Moonbeam

I bought my house on my own and when I was single .
I had a good job always planned to have a job and renting was more expensive then my mortgage.
I suppose long term renting of the same place never even dawned on me,I was always going to buy once I could afford to.
If I rented I couldn't redecorate or put up shelves or install different lights or anything really.

I do think the council should make more long term rental available to people esp people with families that they can rent long term and have the freedom to paint the walls,put up shelves etc once they do not damage the house.