Did you ever wonder why the saying “Home Sweet Home” isn’t “House Sweet House” ?
I think the answer is quite obvious… “a house” is just a thing and yet “a home” has a much deeper meaning that is far more intangible.
A house may be decorated from floor to ceiling with the finest furnishings money can buy, but that will never ever make it a home. A home is a sanctuary, it provides comfort and can be your home is a refuge from the world.
Home sweet home … a place where you celebrate events, can decorate as you want, can leave a pair of shoes in the corner or a coffee mug by the bed. A home does not always need to be tidy and you will often find the kids fingerprints on the windows and may have their heights marked in the door frame.
A home does not have to be perfect, but it’s more than just a house.
Do You Need To Own Your Home?
Most people in New Zealand want to own their own home, but it’s not something that you have to do.
Plenty of people will rent all their lives and be quite happy doing that. A lot depends on your situation and the landlords situation. One of the biggest problems that we hear with people renting is that the houses (their homes) keep getting sold and therefore they are made to shift at the most inconvenient times.
It’s not an ideal situation when you are forced to move and struggle to find a replacement house to call your new home.
But it’s also not always easy to get onto the property ladder.
Stepping Onto The Property Ladder
What’s stopping you taking that step?
Interest rates for home loans are at record lows and mortgage brokers and banks are seeing a lot of people trying to get onto the property ladder.
It may be that you could be buying your own home for a similar amount to the rent that you are paying.
But the banks still make getting a home loan quite a difficult process with all the rules around how much deposit you need, how steady your income is and what your bank account contact and credit scores are like. The various banks and lenders all have different sets of rules and many of them don’t make sense even to mortgage brokers who deal with these every day.
There seem to be a lot of barriers to getting the money for your home from saving your deposit, accessing any assistance and getting the bank to give you the home loan.
And that is even before you have really started looking at what houses are available.
Buying a home has never really been easy, but sometimes it does seem excessively hard and especially saving a big enough deposit.
If only there were affordable home loans for people with low deposits.
When Owning Seems Out Of Reach
A house can be a home regardless if you rent or if you buy.
As we have covered, renting does come with some problems and especially given that you have no long-term security in many rental properties. The owner may decide to sell the property or even shift into it themselves, in which case you are forced to shift.
Owning does offer you that security and the ability to really make the house a home for you and your family, but sometimes it is just out of reach and no matter how hard you try to save the houses just keep increasing in cost.
It can be very frustrating when you know that you can afford the repayments, but cannot get a big enough deposit.
So what are your choices?
- Stay renting
- Co-ownership – where you buy a percentage of your home
- Full ownership – with a mortgage
Many people think that the only options are renting or full ownership, but the option to use co-ownership is a great step onto the property ladder.
It’s definitely worth considering co-ownership as a way to your into a home.
