As millennial and house owner in Berlin, I totally disagree with those statements.
If you try to rent an apartment as a family of 4 (say, min. 85-90 m²), you have to pay at least something not less than 900€, excluding annual costs review, electricity, internet and so on. On top of that, there's the "incremental-steps", set usually on 3%.
Sure, owning a house is not easy and requires efforts, but in the era of 0% interests or negative interests, buying a house in a Big City IMHO represents a far better investment than keeping money in a bank account or giving away for rental.
A House can also work as insurance: if for some reasons you are facing economic difficulties, you can think of selling it and moving in a smaller apartment. As renter, what happens if you're already in difficulty and can't afford to pay the actual rent?
I hate much everything of the "rental" services: you can access something but you can't own it. What happens if in 10 years I want exactly access that thing again? Will it be there? I'm sure it won't and there are tons of examples already (See: Disney content flying away from Netflix, Music disappearing from Spotify due to copyright/labels, Games not available anymore on Steam due geolocalization, etc. etc.)
I hate much everything of the "rental" services: you can access something but you can't own it.
Universities in the US are doing this with course material now. I had to pay for a subscription service to access my assignments, so that my professors didn't have to review anything. I had to pay for the service to get credit for that portion of the class, and then all my work in that service vanished after the semester ended. No more access to the work I had done despite having classes the next semester that I would need that work to reference. The professor didn't pay a dime, and 100 students had to pay the cost so that the professor didn't have to review our work. Involuntary consumerism at its finest.
I started a petition, and tried arguing with the admins of the school to see if we could have these services banned or at least paid for by the professor.
They asked "How is this different than buying a book you need?" Answer is obvious, books don't disappear after the semester, they can be found in the library if you can't afford them, and they don't do the professors' job.
They asked "Well you can afford tuition, can't you afford the subscription?" No, I can't afford tuition, now you want more?
At the end of the day, I went back and forth with them, and they wouldn't budge. And I could tell it was really tearing their moral fabric, but no one in power wanted to budge because $$$$$
but in the era of 0% interests or negative interests, buying a house in a Big City
You’re contradicting yourself here. Remember, a loan from a bank is technically renting the money from the bank. So unless you’re paying cash, you’re renting something. Plus, with a loan, you’re taking on insolvency risk (e.g., you lose you’re job and can’t pay the mortgage).
Your comment on selling if you face economic difficulties is just as contradictory - what happens if you are laid off in a recession, when it is harder to find buyers and the price is lower?
There are risks either way, they are just dressed up in different clothes. Make sure you understand those risks as opposed to repeating things that just sound good .
Comments
As millennial and house owner in Berlin, I totally disagree with those statements. If you try to rent an apartment as a family of 4 (say, min. 85-90 m²), you have to pay at least something not less than 900€, excluding annual costs review, electricity, internet and so on. On top of that, there's the "incremental-steps", set usually on 3%. Sure, owning a house is not easy and requires efforts, but in the era of 0% interests or negative interests, buying a house in a Big City IMHO represents a far better investment than keeping money in a bank account or giving away for rental.
A House can also work as insurance: if for some reasons you are facing economic difficulties, you can think of selling it and moving in a smaller apartment. As renter, what happens if you're already in difficulty and can't afford to pay the actual rent?
I hate much everything of the "rental" services: you can access something but you can't own it. What happens if in 10 years I want exactly access that thing again? Will it be there? I'm sure it won't and there are tons of examples already (See: Disney content flying away from Netflix, Music disappearing from Spotify due to copyright/labels, Games not available anymore on Steam due geolocalization, etc. etc.)
Universities in the US are doing this with course material now. I had to pay for a subscription service to access my assignments, so that my professors didn't have to review anything. I had to pay for the service to get credit for that portion of the class, and then all my work in that service vanished after the semester ended. No more access to the work I had done despite having classes the next semester that I would need that work to reference. The professor didn't pay a dime, and 100 students had to pay the cost so that the professor didn't have to review our work. Involuntary consumerism at its finest.
I started a petition, and tried arguing with the admins of the school to see if we could have these services banned or at least paid for by the professor.
They asked "How is this different than buying a book you need?" Answer is obvious, books don't disappear after the semester, they can be found in the library if you can't afford them, and they don't do the professors' job.
They asked "Well you can afford tuition, can't you afford the subscription?" No, I can't afford tuition, now you want more?
At the end of the day, I went back and forth with them, and they wouldn't budge. And I could tell it was really tearing their moral fabric, but no one in power wanted to budge because $$$$$
You’re contradicting yourself here. Remember, a loan from a bank is technically renting the money from the bank. So unless you’re paying cash, you’re renting something. Plus, with a loan, you’re taking on insolvency risk (e.g., you lose you’re job and can’t pay the mortgage).
Your comment on selling if you face economic difficulties is just as contradictory - what happens if you are laid off in a recession, when it is harder to find buyers and the price is lower?
There are risks either way, they are just dressed up in different clothes. Make sure you understand those risks as opposed to repeating things that just sound good .
I'm not contradicting myself. The house is part of net worth, while renting a place isn't.
Sure, the price might go lower, but it is still worth something