Do you own your current property?

[deweyzeph]

Bank owns it. One day when I'm old it will be mine.

I look at a mortgage as a sort of semi stabilized rent. Every year it becomes less and less in real terms, and after 10 years or so it becomes an insignificant part of your budget, and way less than rent for the same property would be.

You should really only consider the interest portion of your bond repayment as a form of rent. The capital portion of your bond repayment is just paying back the cost of an asset that will (in most cases) increase in value over the years.

 

[duckgray]

You should really only consider the interest portion of your bond repayment as a form of rent. The capital portion of your bond repayment is just paying back the cost of an asset that will (in most cases) increase in value over the years.

Agreed, and add in a few extra thousand per month to help pay it off faster.

 

[Sinbad]

Isn't building a house more expensive than buying and renovating?

Not really. There's a big property crunch here. It's being built by a developer and sold off plan, price is pretty reasonable and you get the benefit of all the latest technology in energy efficiency (and a 10 year warranty)

 

[shooter69]

Bought a house this year that we live in now and also own an apartment that we rent out now(both properties are bonded).

 

[Neuk_]

Isn't building a house more expensive than buying and renovating?

It also depends on the house you bought, what renovations you want to do, what extra needs to be done for the renovations, etc, etc. You also need to factor in limitations with renovating which you don't have when building new.

 

[MaisonP]

Bond.

 

[Geoff.D]

After reading the various views about owning vs renting property in another thread (link), I'm curious to see what your current living situation is.

Wrong survey. The banks own most property. They just allow us to live in it

 

[chrisc]

Never had a bond. On the two times I did not have the negotiated purchase price, arranged with the buyer or his agent/attorney to pay the balance over a period ranging from 9 to 24 months and a very low interest rate

This ensured that the net rental received always more than covered what was due over the period

Many of the houses were bought real cheap - an auction, deceased estate, forced sale, liquidation sale, etc.

Never paid anywhere near the original auction price or reserve. Once went to an auction where it was raining hard and I was the only bidder. The sale had to be concluded by 15h00 that day. The auctioneer tried to cancel the sale but the liquidators were having none of it

Found that Nedbank's property division would employ dirty tricks to squeeze more money. Some 6 years after I took transfer of a flat, they sent me a letter of demand alleging that there were outstanding fees due. The offer to purchase contained a clause stating that the sale was free of encumberances, past and present. The outstanding amount was R43000 and they had added R108000 fees and interest

 

[Johnatan56]

Renting, am here till at least ~August 2022, after that will see if move out of the city to our house in the country-side or find a new place in a nicer district (though I like where I currently am, very well connected, lots of light in my apartment, grocery store 50m from me, restaurant across the street, small cafe 60m west, etc., and I live on the nice side of the district, but unsure of where I will be working in a year or two and will move based on that).

It's not normal in Vienna to own your property:

Vienna has one of the highest percentages of renter households in the world, with about 75% of residential properties rented.
In Austria as a whole, households own 56.4 percent of primary residences, while 41.2 percent are rented. Austria’s home ownership rate is way below the European Union’s average rate of more than 70%.

https://www.thelocal.at/20150624/rents-in-austria-up-15-percent-in-five-years/

Looking at pricing, if I'd gotten here two months later, I could maybe have shaved off 1/3 in rent since lots of places are starting to go vacant, but not really bothered.
Most annoying is that I don't qualify for subsidized housing, lol, some of those new places are actually looking really nice:

SMART wohnen

wohnservice-wien.at

Costs: max 7.50 EUR/m^2, price is adjusted based on income, includes maintenance and tax, though once-off 60 EUR/m^2 for building.

Example one, translated it's 2 room "SMART" apartment of 55m^2 would be 413 EUR/month, 3300 once-off.
Note "Zimmer"/room does not include bathroom, kitchen or store rooms, must be bedroom/living room/room you can use for any purpose. Balcony square meter is halved, you usually also get a few square meters in the basement for storage.

A type C/D looks quite interesting, 70 = 525 EUR, 85 = 638 EUR, 100 = 750 EUR.

My current costs are 700 for rent and maintenance for 78m^2, like where I'm located more, but that place isn't too bad, soccer field about 60 west, subway is a bit far at about 500m walking, not sure if a bus line runs through there. Definitely looks affordable enough for a 4 person family with a 100m^2 one, minimum wage is 1250 EUR or so, think 1500 EUR/month if part of collective agreement (note you have 14 checks, so averages more like 1750 EUR).

To qualify:

Note that is netto, so after tax: https://wohnberatung-wien.at/footer/einkommenshoechstgrenzen.
If you have 2 adults, 2 kids, don't think many wouldn't qualify as a family for the 100m^2 at nearly R100k income after tax.

 

[zerocool2009]

Bought my first house in 2003. Worked hard... paid if off in 5 years! Since 2010 bought 5 more properties! The last 2 cash buys!

Nothing beat the power of a flexi bond (to use it smartly)

 

[TofuMofu]

Own my house (still paying the bond though). Planning on buying a new house in a year or 2 and thinking about selling this one.

 

[Other Pineapple Smurf]

8 years into the bond, plan to pay off in 5 years.

Buying a holiday home in 2023 as a retirement option

 

[rh1]

Other: Std Bank is the collector of my monthly payments, but the loan has been sold to the Chinese, but the loan agreement state, that should I default, Std Bank on behalf of the Chinese will repossessed my home.

 

[zerocool2009]

I had to make a choice turning 40... buy an new audi R8 or another property....

I went the brick way!

 

[Priapus]

Own my first property since 2019. Planning on maybe one day buying another for rental.

 

[zerocool2009]

Own my first property since 2019. Planning on maybe one day buying another for rental.

It snowballs in time! Pay your bond off, keep it open. Buy another property, keen on pushing the new bond... in time you will smile!

 

[Pudding McTwinkle]

We live in one, and rent out the other. We both had homes when we hooked up. Then we moved in together.. That's when the fight started...

 

[Scooby_Doo]

Who wants to have a buy vs rent argument now?

 

[Pineapple Smurf]

Other: FNB owns my flat

 

[krycor]

Renting..

Income vs cost of ownership wasn’t possible in the past, I moved around a lot and requirements for what I need also changed.

Things are changing though, household income exceeds spend and debt levels are going down fast yay.

Will be making a decision on buying vs renting next year June when I likely also need to decide if to remain in SA (pandemic, politics, SA outlook).