Rent or buy the house – Making the tough decision?
The election is done and dusted. Normalcy has returned. Interest rates remain stable as per the Reserve bank’s announcement. But the question you are faced at some point is – Should I rent or buy the house?
It seems recently there has been a lot of talk about financing your first home, especially with rising house prices and a limited housing market, and as a result, renting can seem like the better option when it comes to living. But rent can sometimes feel like money down the drain, and there’s a good chance you could be financially closer to owning your own home than you may think.
If one thing is consistent when being a tenant, it’s the inconstancy of rent, especially if you live in Auckland – the more central you are, the more you are expected to pay, and when it comes to renewing a lease, it’s almost expected the rent is going to rise. When it comes to why landlords are charging so much, a lot of factors come into play: maintenance on the house, insurance, property and water rates, compulsory standards such as smoke alarms, increase in interest rates, the list goes on.
If you are a couple living in a 1-2 bedroom apartment in the central city, on average you could be paying between $600-900 on rent per week, this weekly amount could easily be a large percentage of an average weekly loan repayment on a mortgage. This weekly repayment suddenly goes from your landlord to an investment in your own property and future.
If you want to do some quick math and see if you could make the jump, why not give our simple mortgage calculator a try right now! Even better schedule an appointment with our expert mortgage advisor and see how much you can borrow for your first home.