Buy a house in the UK or back in India

[hsmphsmpIndia]

Hi Folks,

I have been wondering for sometime if I should keep paying rent here, or go for my own house. However I get mixed opinions from everyone I talk to.

Some people say its always better to go for your own house, as once you pay the seed amount (around 15-25% of the house cost):

1) You pay mortgage almost equal to your rent in the current rented house.
2) If you plan to go back to India, you can hand over your house to rental agencies who will handle all the letting for you, and the rent will payoff the mortgage, hence you would build an asset in the UK without much effort.

Some people say its always better to rent because:

1) There is no hassle of maintaining the house.
2) There is no binding on you if you want to go back to India in sometime. (these people have never heard of the rental option above)
3) To all middle class Indians, a loan of £150, 000 is enough to lose sleep for months, and normally for the mortgage payment to be anywhere close to the rent, the tenure would be > 25 years. This looks like a huge commitment.
4) Our visa status on Tier1 is flaky to say the least, I will have stayed 5 yrs in 2013, but still cannot be sure if I will get ILR.

So I have decided to have a poll for knowing what people think about this issue. Please share your experiences.

[SBT_Owner]

If you have a stable job and are not planning on moving around the country then buying a house is a great investment .

Why pay rent to help pay a mortgage for someone else (you are basically buying a house for someone else) when you could get your own mortgage and end up owning a house .

For a 1st house do not over aim , by that i mean make sure the cost of paying the mortgage each month is not going to stretch your monthly budget (do not forget buying a house will also bring bills like council tax) I would also say shop around for the best mortgage deal you can find and do not just accepot the 1st mortgage company you find , small differences in interest percentages can result in huge savings for you .

If the UK is your future , then it is surely well worth investing in buying a house here .

[Pakhtoon]

Further to what Rattlesnake said, if you are planning to have wife and kids ( or if you have already screwed it by having them - children I mean ) then go for buying a house keeping in mind RattleSnake's wise advise.

On the other hand if its going to be yourself only or just you and your Mrs, then I would very honestly suggest not to get into the mess.