Still Renting in my 30s

rebel without a clue

Hi, im 31 year old single female. I have accepted that i'll be renting forever at this!!! Just wondering are there any other males or females around my age that rent and are happy to rent?? I couldnt afford to rent a place on my own so sharing is my only option. The problem is that im finding it hard to find people around my age that rent/share houses. Anybody else think the same????

Jehuty42

rebel without a clue wrote: »

Hi, im 31 year old single female. I have accepted that i'll be renting forever at this!!! Just wondering are there any other males or females around my age that rent and are happy to rent?? I couldnt afford to rent a place on my own so sharing is my only option. The problem is that im finding it hard to find people around my age that rent/share houses. Anybody else think the same????

Most people your age probably took out huge mortgages back in their early twenties and while they may now have a house, they are straddled with debt and negative equity. You have the freedom to move if you have to, if your house develops a structural fault or some other problem, you have a landlord legally required to amend it for you, without you having to worry about it and organise workmen and such.

Your post is indicative though of a problem in Ireland, that renting is seen as something only for students and young people, an attitude that is damaging to the rental market and is not, I think, seen abroad. It's the old (nonsensical) "renting is dead money" argument.

Cuddlesworth

Jehuty42 wrote: »

It's the old (nonsensical) "renting is dead money" argument.

If the rent is high enough to disable your ability to save and a morgage works out at far cheaper, then why wouldn't it be dead money.

That being said, I'm 27 and have no intention of buying for a long long time. I earn a fair chunk and like the idea of bailing on this country when and how I want to.

Zamboni

rebel without a clue wrote: »

Hi, im 31 year old single female. I have accepted that i'll be renting forever at this!!! Just wondering are there any other males or females around my age that rent and are happy to rent?? I couldnt afford to rent a place on my own so sharing is my only option. The problem is that im finding it hard to find people around my age that rent/share houses. Anybody else think the same????

Hook up.

rebel without a clue

ya i realised a few years ago that ill never afford a property on my own as my wages aren't great, but you know im happy with that, as you pointed out that when something breaks or goes wrong i just need to get the landlord/agency to sort it. i think renting is widely accepted in europe?
its just the age thing! people from 29 to 40 would suit me. but i wouldnt move in with the owner of house though! tried it, it didnt work for me.

rebel without a clue

Zamboni wrote: »

Hook up.

unfortunetly im tied into a lease for another few months! im just putting it out there at the moment so when the time does come i might have some options.

spider77

I am male and in my 30s and still renting and I know plenty that are also. To be honest it did not bother me until recently but there comes a time when you have had enough of the sharing etc. I have travelled a bit and in Australia and NZ lots of people rent at our age without anyone batting an eyelid, even on their own. Its just an Irish thing that we must all own our own gaff. I am looking at buying now as I think the time is right for me but I will not be rushing into it unless I feel I am paying the right price and can meet repayments into the future. If I were you, I would continue to rent if you are happy and ignore what others think. You will know when the time is right.

carlosvan

jeez most people would kill to be in your position!!!! my mate is 36 and is still living with his mum and dad, worse still he has a sister and 3 brothers and there all married with kids and left the nest over 10 years ago, he's the oldest , you got nooooo problem girl ...noooo problem at all

rebel without a clue

carlosvan wrote: »

jeez most people would kill to be in your position!!!! my mate is 36 and is still living with his mum and dad, worse still he has a sister and 3 brothers and there all married with kids and left the nest over 10 years ago, he's the oldest , you got nooooo problem girl ...noooo problem at all

is your mate too lazy to move out??he'll probably get the house in the end. sure he company for his parents. its finding people my age to move in with. when the time comes im gonna do some proper searching, prefer mixed or even males. sweet joysus i cant live in all female house again. ever.

carlosvan

rebel without a clue wrote: »

is your mate too lazy to move out??he'll probably get the house in the end. sure he company for his parents. its finding people my age to move in with. when the time comes im gonna do some proper searching, prefer mixed or even males. sweet joysus i cant live in all female house again. ever.

yes i think life is going the way he intended, he loves buying apple products, and top of range cars, your right tho, he'll get house , a load of women living in house together is always gona be tough!!! your better with men . you might even cop off with one of them and buy a house together !!

Lex_Diamonds

I'm nearly 32 and I rent by myself in the CC. Largely cool with not owning a home, just have a few problems with Dublin's mutant rental market...

alexonhisown

People worry too much about buying a property. I wish I was still renting and not paying a mortgage. Few reasons for that. When renting if your rent goes up a lot and you cant affort it you can move somewhere cheaper. If you dont get on with your neighbours you can move. If the estate becomes scumbag land, you can move. If you want to move abroad to work, no problem. Lots of other reasons.

Colonel Panic

I'm in my 30s and renting in Dublin 10 mins from the city center. Almost bought a 2 bed house in Malahide back in 2007 but felt I would be spending too much on payments to actually have a life so I skipped it.

Most of my friends bought earlier so they're not too badly off in terms of mortgage payments but I'd be in serious negative equity if I'd bought then.

I'm fine with renting although I don't think I'd like to be renting in 40 years time on a pension.

noxqs

A mortgage, for me, would be a ball and chain around my ankle I would be extremely reluctant to get. Maybe in a healthy market where it could be disposed of within a reasonable time - but now? I would feel burdened just by the mere thought of it.

I am pretty happy renting - always have been. Get a one-bed rental in your area, and you don't have to share with anyone. Much the same as owning except you havent become a serf to a bank. It'll never be as cheap as a room of course, but to the best of my knowledge, rent relief is still available ? If that it still not an option, owning surely isn't either but I'll get to that

The continent and many other places - 60% or more will rent, for life. And quite happily so - Ireland is just .. a bit behind the times in terms of regulation. To say the least. But I feel that this will change to be more in line with the continent.

By the way, no one owns their house/apt before the last payment to the bank has been paid. They're just paying rent to a different landlord.


I'd say a lot of people would love to be in your position, given that they're up to their ears in debt and negative equity. Property prices have returned to 1999 levels at present and are accelerating. 12+ years of equity wiped out - and even at 3% per year gains from this day, it would take 47 years to recover (without factoring in inflation). Don't worry - you haven't missed out on anything.

P.S: I am surprised theres very few co-op rentals in Ireland - it's all mostly private. However an interesting construct seen on the continent is co-op housing where a cooperative owns appartments and runs it, the loan to the bank, being paid back out of the rent of each renter over x periods of years - the co-op is non-profit and serves only the current tenants. I think perhaps all the apts in NAMA may end up in a government like scheme sort of like this. We will see, but I expect being a renter will only get better here.

carlosvan

i remember years ago renting a nice house with 2 /3 others over the 4 years i was in there, there was one guy there the whole time, he was a nightmare, peole wouldnt stay long because he was very awkward, i just ignored him, anyway in the end it all got to much and i found a 1 bedroom flat just outside the town, the rent was half as much and it wasnt nearly as nice as the house id been in, i was worried about this, after the 1st week livin g in the 1 bedroom flat i'd realised id been MUG!!! it was great, i wish id made that move years ago,

LordSutch

Jehuty42 wrote: »

Most people your age probably took out huge mortgages back in their early twenties and while they may now have a house, they are straddled with debt and negative equity. You have the freedom to move if you have to, if your house develops a structural fault or some other problem, you have a landlord legally required to amend it for you, without you having to worry about it and organise workmen and such.

Your post is indicative though of a problem in Ireland, that renting is seen as something only for students and young people, an attitude that is damaging to the rental market and is not, I think, seen abroad. It's the old (nonsensical) "renting is dead money" argument.

Good post that, and very true^

I have friends & family on the continent, all professionals, all renting, as they always have done, and always will do (through choice)!

inforfun

OP,

I am somewhat older than you and still renting.

But then again, i am from a country where it is normal to rent, where there is no obsession to own a house (or better, have a mortgage) before you have pubes.

Buying a home is something you do when you know you are "stuck" in life. I dont mean "stuck" in a negative way. But more i nthe sense of being married, having school going kids et cetera.

And to add, i dont mind renting but sharing with strangers is a nightmare.
Fortunately i can afford to rent solo otherwise i would be sharing a prison cel by now

syklops

OP, you said you can't afford to rent a place on your own. When your lease is up I would say look good and hard, because there are some great rental bargains out there at the minute. My sister, albeit not in cork, just started renting a 2-bed appartment on her own for 80 euros a week. It is way nicer than what I had 5-6 years ago in Dublin at half the price for what i was paying to share.

An empty flat actually costs a landlord money, be it security, heating, taxes and charges, so some landlords(the ones who live on the planet earth) are willing to ask for very small rents, enough to cover their costs and no more, so you should be able to get a bargain on a nice small apartment. There comes a time in your life when you don't want to live with other people. No matter how laid back they are.

jobless

OP have a look here... you might find someone in the age range you'd like to share with

http://www.daft.ie/searchteamup.daft?s[browse]=1&s[search]=1

chris_ie

The good old "rent is dead money" vs "no its not" debate

There are pros and cons to both owning and renting. I'm approaching my 30's, myself and my fiancee are buying a house now. We have been looking to buy for the last 4 or 5 years and had planned last year on waiting until around 2013 but a house that we had our eye on dropped in price significantly and also accepted below the asking price so the time and price was right for us. The mortgage repayments will not be much more than our current rent for a bigger house and nicer area (more privacy etc).

The thing I liked about renting was that we could move when we wanted, get landlord to fix any issues with house etc. as many people have pointed out. But I didn't like the idea that nearing the end of a lease the landlord could easily decide that you had to move out. This all depends on the situation of the landlord though and probably isn't that common.

With our own house we will be able to do what we want with the house also. There is nothing wrong with renting in the same way as there is nothing wrong with owning a house. There are alot of people that say rent is dead money and alot that are completely against that idea. However, some people against this idea like to make owning out to be a bad thing too!

Ray Palmer

Just make sure you have a good pension so you can afford to rent when you are retired.

One of the biggest problems building up in Ireland is when people get old and can't afford to take care of themselves and there will be less young people to support them.

noxqs

Ray Palmer:

That is a policy problem the government could solve with a penstroke when they decide to emulate 50+ years of continental policy to housing and elderly.

Ritchi

noxqs wrote: »

and even at 3% per year gains from this day, it would take 47 years to recover (without factoring in inflation).

How are you working this out? At 3% increases per year, something will quadruple in value over 47 years. Is there something I haven't factored in?

By my calculations, it would take about 25 years for things to double at 3% a year, which would make up for the approx 50% drop. Still a long time though.

Ray Palmer

noxqs wrote: »

Ray Palmer:

That is a policy problem the government could solve with a penstroke when they decide to emulate 50+ years of continental policy to housing and elderly.

Your own personal finances are always your own personal problem.

I'd love to know what penstroke you think will solve this problem. It's not like you can suddenly tell all the LL in Ireland to offer cheap accomadation to over 65 at some point in the future.

The people who provide accomadation in this country are radically different to the large companies that do it on the continent. They can not emulate what exists elsewhere becasue the market is so radically different.

noxqs

Sorry that figure was from an earlier argument and I realize it's out of its original context and doesn't make sense. Here's an alternative calculation.

Assuming we bottom out around 60% drop from peak, and prices flat line for a number of years - say 5, with a doubling time of 23.5 at 3% - the time for prices to return to peak will be:

It'll take 31 years at 3% interest to go from 40 to 100 or 36 years based on a period of no growth. My previous figure I realize now was based on a 70% drop from peak (such as appartments) which stands at 45 years and 9 months and so on.

My argument is simply; People who bought in 2006/2007 will never have equity as cost of interest versus inflation will have cost significantly more than any equity left at the end of term. This argument extends all the way back to 1999 currently and may even go back to 1996 or further at the end of this crisis. These people will have paid twice the amount or more for an asset worth half the price at face value and a fraction post-inflation.

noxqs

Ray Palmer wrote: »

Your own personal finances are always your own personal problem.

I'd love to know what penstroke you think will solve this problem. It's not like you can suddenly tell all the LL in Ireland to offer cheap accomadation to over 65 at some point in the future.

The people who provide accomadation in this country are radically different to the large companies that do it on the continent. They can not emulate what exists elsewhere becasue the market is so radically different.

Did you miss the memo on who owns most property in the country? It's the taxpayers stake in NAMA. The government, that's us by extension, decides they could very well emulate the continent.

Private LLs may always exist - but the idea that they alone should be providing rentals can be challenged. No one said LLs should provide below market rents for elderly - simply providing a scheme like rent allowance/relief for elderly to subsidize cost of housing would do. You seem to have a very narrow and limited world view in the sense that you seem to assume status quo rather than changes will be made. We don't live in a vacuum - we don't owe LLs in Ireland anything especially not with so many amateur LLs and bad quality houses being offered currently with too lax regulation. This can, and will, change.

A generation of Irish are growing up having watched what happened with property and I doubt they'll be falling over themselves to bid on houses.

(that won't stop vested interests from desperately trying though).

Ritchi

noxqs wrote: »

Sorry that figure was from an earlier argument and I realize it's out of its original context and doesn't make sense. Here's an alternative calculation.

Assuming we bottom out around 60% drop from peak, and prices flat line for a number of years - say 5, with a doubling time of 23.5 at 3% - the time for prices to return to peak will be:

It'll take 31 years at 3% interest to go from 40 to 100 or 36 years based on a period of no growth. My previous figure I realize now was based on a 70% drop from peak (such as appartments) which stands at 45 years and 9 months and so on.

My argument is simply; People who bought in 2006/2007 will never have equity as cost of interest versus inflation will have cost significantly more than any equity left at the end of term. This argument extends all the way back to 1999 currently and may even go back to 1996 or further at the end of this crisis. These people will have paid twice the amount or more for an asset worth half the price at face value and a fraction post-inflation.

I didn't mean to be picky, just wondering if I was doing something wrong. That all makes sense. Thanks.

p

Ray Palmer wrote: »

Just make sure you have a good pension so you can afford to rent when you are retired.

Yea, I see that here. People who don't intend to buy, do put that extra money in to pensions etc...
The nice thing here too though, is that if you rent a place, you can paint walls, redecorate a kitchen/bathroom etc.. so you have a lot of flexibility to make a rental place your own.

Ray Palmer wrote: »

One of the biggest problems building up in Ireland is when people get old and can't afford to take care of themselves and there will be less young people to support them.

Actually, we're not in such a bad position compared to other EU countries, as our population is just leveling off and stabilising.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/health/2011/0628/1224299677508.html

Ray Palmer

noxqs wrote: »

Did you miss the memo on who owns most property in the country? It's the taxpayers stake in NAMA. The government, that's us by extension, decides they could very well emulate the continent.

Private LLs may always exist - but the idea that they alone should be providing rentals can be challenged. No one said LLs should provide below market rents for elderly - simply providing a scheme like rent allowance/relief for elderly to subsidize cost of housing would do. You seem to have a very narrow and limited world view in the sense that you seem to assume status quo rather than changes will be made. We don't live in a vacuum - we don't owe LLs in Ireland anything especially not with so many amateur LLs and bad quality houses being offered currently with too lax regulation. This can, and will, change.

A generation of Irish are growing up having watched what happened with property and I doubt they'll be falling over themselves to bid on houses.

(that won't stop vested interests from desperately trying though).

Oh I see now you think that the governement should hold on to the property and wait till it's needed and then use. That is a ridiculous idea as it ignores cost of maintence and current problems.

While you think LL are owed nothing you think being old means the state should subsidise the people who didn't plan for their future. Things will change but how you think the state will be able to afford to pay for accomadation for so many people in the future. There is a limit to what the restrictions they can and will put on LLs.

The government owe LL a hell of lot. They provide accomadation so the state doesn't have to and they pay a lot of taxes. a lot of LLs exist as they bought for retirement funds. You seem to suggest robbing from them to pay for those who didn't plan for their future. Unlikely to happen especially with the EU watching.

A lot of the NAMA property is useless as nobody wants to live there. It's not like they have a mass of prime properties. I can uy an appartment in Donegal tomorrow they are so cheap but there is no body who wants to live there.

noxqs

Ray;

Your point of view seems to be property is a pension fund of sorts. I find several problems with that view;

Property is an illiquid asset - you can't extract money from it unless you sell it outright (Assuming its a family home) or rent out a room (which may not be ideal for elderly). Now, you can live in it at old age but old age pensioners still require money to live. Cost of maintenance, property taxes etc would take out a few thousand per year as well at the very least.

You seem to ignore the alternative scenario:

Renting while saving in a private pension scheme.

With this scenario you wouldn't need a house necessarily - your private and state pension may very well provide the money needed to continue renting and living without dependency on others.

I just fail to see how a house is a necessity as you get older - providing that the person in question has planned for their future with savings, pension scheme and so on. I certainly won't be relying on family, kids or state to help me out as I get older - I've planned for that - and it doesn't require me to pay a mortgage - necessarily. I may buy a house if my situation changes but I would still keep adding to my private pension and other savings.


Another thing which we have already frequently discussed is that a property is a pretty poor performing asset relative to stocks and bonds and using it as a pension scheme as you point out and becoming a landlord thinking tenants will eventually provide their pension in the form of a house - that's really gambling with ones personal finances as it dramatically increases ones debt to assets/income ratio assuming of course that one already has a primary residence. It is bad financial advice as it is gearing. And as pointed out in the calculations above its very likely to under perform the market especially relative to inflation for those who bet on that horse in the last decade.

There's perfectly viable alternatives.

Ash.J.Williams

rebel without a clue wrote: »

Hi, im 31 year old single female. I have accepted that i'll be renting forever at this!!! Just wondering are there any other males or females around my age that rent and are happy to rent?? I couldnt afford to rent a place on my own so sharing is my only option. The problem is that im finding it hard to find people around my age that rent/share houses. Anybody else think the same????

35 and renting..thought it stupid to buy in a boom and thought i'd wait it out until the crash, I thought being debt and negative equity free would be enough to get me a morgtage....would love my own place but happy enough being free of the burden!

wijam

37 and still renting, no chance of buying the house in the near future. Have been sharig the last 10 years and the main thing is getting good housemates, and that's really the luck of the draw when moving into rented property.

Luckily enough, I've had decent housemates over the year and I think that makes a big difference when I consider renting by myself, no need at the moment, but that will probably change the older I get, as people say, it's a younger generation renting in Ireland.

chris_ie

Ray Palmer wrote: »

I can buy an appartment in Donegal tomorrow they are so cheap but there is no body who wants to live there.

May be less of a demand than Dublin but its a bit harsh to say nobody wants to live in Donegal!

Ray Palmer

noxqs wrote: »

Ray;

Your point of view seems to be property is a pension fund of sorts. I find several problems with that view;
etc....

What you seem to fail to realise is that a property rented out generates income. Stocks and bond dividents aren't really that great the market is generally based on selling them.

The point I am making is your pension better be enough to pay your rent and feed you. After that you have to hope your pension is enough to match inflation. You may notice that rent can go up a lot and on fixed income that can be pretty awful.

I'd rather pay my mortgage and save for a pension so I don't have to pay rent out of my pension. I wouldn't rely on the government to provide me with a place to live becasue I can't afford to live on my pension.

My point stands if you are going to rent all your life you better make sure you have a good pension.

I wasn't saying nobody wants to live in Donegal nobody wants to live in property that is for sale there against the suggestion this could be used to house people who have not got enough money to rent with their pensions.

StillWaters

Ray Palmer wrote: »

The point I am making is your pension better be enough to pay your rent and feed you. After that you have to hope your pension is enough to match inflation. You may notice that rent can go up a lot and on fixed income that can be pretty awful.

I'd rather pay my mortgage and save for a pension so I don't have to pay rent out of my pension. I wouldn't rely on the government to provide me with a place to live becasue I can't afford to live on my pension.

I think that is a time bomb we have, not only people who are renting without providing for an adequate pension to house them in old age, but also people who have interest only mortgages, who too will look to the State to house them.

not even wrong

Ray Palmer wrote: »

The point I am making is your pension better be enough to pay your rent and feed you. After that you have to hope your pension is enough to match inflation. You may notice that rent can go up a lot and on fixed income that can be pretty awful.

I'd rather pay my mortgage and save for a pension so I don't have to pay rent out of my pension. I wouldn't rely on the government to provide me with a place to live becasue I can't afford to live on my pension.

My point stands if you are going to rent all your life you better make sure you have a good pension.

Of course as a general rule it's a better longterm financial decision to buy rather than rent if you can afford to do so, you'd find very few people to disagree with that. But that is a general rule and in the specific context of an insane decade-long property bubble which has yet to fully deflate coupled with the biggest financial crisis since the great depression that general rule does not apply.

The argument is not "buy now versus rent forever", the argument is "buy now versus buy in a few years when things have settled down".

Ray Palmer

not even wrong wrote: »

The argument is not "buy now versus rent forever", the argument is "buy now versus buy in a few years when things have settled down".

What you would be missing there is that the OP is in a now rent forever situation and the advice is make sure you have a good pension.

There is also the fact that there is an age element to the post.

Saying a person in their 30s goes to buy in the next few year how long a mortgage are they going to take out? lets say 25 years
at 30 that means 55 when you paid it off but
at 39 means 64 pretty close to retirement

Yes some saved but out of people I know none saved as much as they could have and not a massive help to buying a house. They buy things like expensive cars instead is what I noticed. Past 40 you are pushing it to buy a home for the first time.

Some will be able to get small mortgages and do it but those are rare enough .

toexpress

think of this way property prices are still falling and there is no sign of any great changes so in time you might be able to buy something for half nothing that cost hundreds of thousands at the height of things. In Portarlington (Co. Laois) you can buy a one bed flat for €45k and a two bed one for €55k. Now an area like Portarlington may not be what you want for the long term but as a starting point, given your age it would be a huge step on the ladder if you could live with it for 5/6 years

Raladic

Ray Palmer wrote: »

My point stands if you are going to rent all your life you better make sure you have a good pension.

Or live in a country where rent law is pretty strict and you have a contract from 100 years ago that can only be adjusted to inflation.

jobless

toexpress wrote: »

think of this way property prices are still falling and there is no sign of any great changes so in time you might be able to buy something for half nothing that cost hundreds of thousands at the height of things. In Portarlington (Co. Laois) you can buy a one bed flat for €45k and a two bed one for €55k. Now an area like Portarlington may not be what you want for the long term but as a starting point, given your age it would be a huge step on the ladder if you could live with it for 5/6 years

that's kind of contradictory.... if prices are still falling why would she buy down there to live for just 5 or 6 years... chances are she'd be selling at a loss when she wants to move...
also i thought the term ladder was dead and gone.... most of those ladders people got on are now slides!

toexpress

jobless wrote: »

that's kind of contradictory.... if prices are still falling why would she buy down there to live for just 5 or 6 years... chances are she'd be selling at a loss when she wants to move...
also i thought the term ladder was dead and gone.... most of those ladders people got on are now slides!

It's not really contradictory at all. Firstly I didn't suggest she move to Portarlington, if there are properties in Portarlington at those prices they are surely to be had elsewhere.

The bottom is going to hit, most likely later this year so therefore sitting on it for 5/6 years is sage advice.

jobless

toexpress wrote: »

It's not really contradictory at all. Firstly I didn't suggest she move to Portarlington, if there are properties in Portarlington at those prices they are surely to be had elsewhere.

The bottom is going to hit, most likely later this year so therefore sitting on it for 5/6 years is sage advice.

eh yeah...probably in places like Portarlington.... but that's not the point... telling someone to but now and move on in 5/6 years time isnt really good advice in a falling market...especially when they will probably make a loss by doing so...
how do you know the bottom will be later this year?...given the **** state the country is in and all the bad budgets yet to come i'd say its still a long way off

Ray Palmer

toexpress wrote: »

It's not really contradictory at all. Firstly I didn't suggest she move to Portarlington, if there are properties in Portarlington at those prices they are surely to be had elsewhere.

That's kind of funny you are effectively saying becasue there isn't demand in one place the same pricing will apply where there is demand. Are you missing the 3 fundamentals of property location,location,location;)

toexpress

Ray Palmer wrote: »

That's kind of funny you are effectively saying becasue there isn't demand in one place the same pricing will apply where there is demand. Are you missing the 3 fundamentals of property location,location,location;)

Right well in the NAMA fire sales there are flats going in Dublin for €60k. You may have to accept the fact that you wont be living in Ballsbridge or the general RaRaRa but there you go such is life.

As for buying when the country is in freefall it's the perfect time regardless of what you might think but it is entirely dependent on your being able to sit on it for a protracted period of time which of course may not be something everyone can do in which case you will lose your shirt.

bohsfan

To get back to the OPs situation and question...

I have just turned 30 and am still renting. I do feel those 'I would love to own my own place' pangs, but that time is a good bit down the line yet. I was living in a houseshare for 4 years after I moved to Dublin. It was good craic sometimes but a nightmare at others. I felt the need to move as I felt a bit old compared to the people who always came to look at spare rooms in our gaff.

My advice is to get yourself prepared for a move. Save a bit of cash (if possible) over the next couple of months- enough so that you would have a deposit without having to wait for your original deposit to be returned.

This will allow you to keep an eye on the market and go and view some houseshare (keep an eye on studios aswell). You then have the cash to put down a deposit on the new place while you hand your notice in at your old place. That should make things easier.

Ray Palmer

toexpress wrote: »

Right well in the NAMA fire sales there are flats going in Dublin for €60k. You may have to accept the fact that you wont be living in Ballsbridge or the general RaRaRa but there you go such is life.

As for buying when the country is in freefall it's the perfect time regardless of what you might think but it is entirely dependent on your being able to sit on it for a protracted period of time which of course may not be something everyone can do in which case you will lose your shirt.

Post a link to a place that is actually complete and ready to move into for 60k in Dublin. I haven't seen them so I would be curious what you can get and does anybody want them.

toexpress

Ray Palmer wrote: »

Post a link to a place that is actually complete and ready to move into for 60k in Dublin. I haven't seen them so I would be curious what you can get and does anybody want them.

I'm sure you can use google. I read about it in the Independent at the time it happened sometime last summer. I don't believe it was "complete" I imagine it had to have things like cookers and hoods and carpets etc installed but that's the same no matter where you buy

quietsailor

rebel without a clue wrote: »

Hi, im 31 year old single female. I have accepted that i'll be renting forever at this!!! Just wondering are there any other males or females around my age that rent and are happy to rent?? I couldnt afford to rent a place on my own so sharing is my only option. The problem is that im finding it hard to find people around my age that rent/share houses. Anybody else think the same????

Hey OP

I'm in the odd situation of being a mature student at UCC and an owner occupier renting out rooms near UCC at the same time. Most of the people who've rented a room off me in the last 2 years are in the 20-25 yr old bracket and I've seen there is a difference in personality/interests/dislikes alright.

I'd go back renting again off a LL if I could find people to move in with - I'd have to rent with people in their mid-30's though and among my group of friends in Cork (circa 40 people) only two of us still rent/haven't gotten married/set up a house with the other half. Its hard enough to find people in this age range.

Maybe you should take a list of all the people on here who are agreeing with you and pm them in the summer when you go looking for a house(I'm joking people, calm down!!)


One thing is though people like us who've been renting for a few years seem to get better deals from the LL/agencies. Maybe its because we (any of my friends who rent) have gone in making lists of damage in the house in fromt of the LL/Agent, pointing out things that have to be fixed before they move in, geting the agents to sign photos etc - the agents/LLs seem to realise we're more steady and also more likely to cause trouble if our deposit is messed with on exit.

Ray Palmer

toexpress wrote: »

I'm sure you can use google. I read about it in the Independent at the time it happened sometime last summer. I don't believe it was "complete" I imagine it had to have things like cookers and hoods and carpets etc installed but that's the same no matter where you buy

I think you will find they were missing things like walls and floors and were not sold as individual units. In other words I don't think they exisited as places you could buy and live in.

Heathen

OP, fear not, do what makes you happy because that is all that matters in life

Im turning 34 in a few weeks and still renting, i could get a mortgage if i wanted as i have 2 jobs and very steady income (have been in full employment for 18 years), but i like the idea that i can up and leave in a heartbeat.. some of life's most amazing opportunities come at a moments notice and i have been lucky enough to be able to up and move around the country when things have come my way in the past..

I have 2 brothers that are stuck here now because they bought in the boom, it really p1sses me off to see this because they have worked their asses off their whole lives and now are stuck with houses they cant sell and in heaps of debt same thing happened to a lot of my close friends.. im not saying that this happens to everyone who buys a house.. just that for me, renting is all i need for now and im happy!

H

XenaLady

Im still renting in my 40s and always will. Its kinda stupid to buy me thinks, when you have a landlord youll always get things repaired without any cost, you are always free to move if ya get bored woth the sofa or the colour of walls.
Even when Ill be gone, its much easier for the minors not to worry about whos gotta do what with the heritage, theyll have their own lifes to worry.
Why should I suffer from mortgages and all instead of living full while I still can. Ill be happy going into a nursing home in my 70s, cant remember anything anymore anyway.