We are hoping to buy our first home this year after assuming it wouldn't be an option, and what I've found from researching the whole process is how differently people see it to me. I want to have stability, not have a landlord put up the rent or sell up from under us, the knowledge we'll still be living there this time next year, the ability to not have fucking magnolia walls; I've had 13 addresses since leaving home and I really don't want to keep collecting them. We're looking at places that are about big enough suit our needs, even if in theory we could ask the bank to lend us more money to get somewhere bigger or fancier and spend less each month on actually living our lives- if leasehold wasn't a thing we'd be buying a flat. We're not going to inherit anything and we want to be able to retire someday without having to pay private rents, it gives us a bit more control over that.
Others see it purely in terms of investment, building equity, the home as merely a vehicle for the property ladder, complaining that any house that doesn't have offstreet parking or multiple toilets is terrible because it doesn't hold value, or saying that you'd be better off renting and putting your deposit money into investments in order to build wealth. Start with a flat then rent it out after a couple of years to build a portfolio. Dreams of winning the lottery and using it to buy HMOs when you could be booking a cruise instead. That kind of thinking is quite alien to me, which is probably why I'm not rich.
If I'd won a million quid on a scratchcard when I was 20 I would have spent it all within a year. I remember getting my student loan for the first time and thinking 'this is more money than I've ever seen in my LIFE, it will never run out' and then going straight through it. Imagine that but with more access to expensive ways to waste it.
