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Personally I feel like buying housing, at least in the UK, makes a lot of sense. However, I have a friend who is currently in that kind of situation where it's

Personally I feel like buying housing, at least in the UK, makes a lot of sense. However, I have a friend who is currently in that kind of situation where it's certainly made me think twice. She bought a new built flat about 5 years ago in the outskirts of London. Following the Grenfell disaster it has gotten caught up in the inspections for fire safety and is now practically worthless until ~£70k worth of remedial works are carried out. She cannot remortgage it, she can't rent it out and she can't sell it. Pretty nasty scenario.

XorNot 5y ago
Apartments have always been kind of a sucker's deal compared to houses though. Houses in almost any condition can still be worth a ton, because you the owner have complete control over the state of the building on the land (including, knock it down and put a new one in).
- ClumsyPilot 5y ago
  that because the laws in UK basically turn a apartment ownership into a indentured servitude - you pay 100 years of rent for the privilege of being bound to the place, taking the cost of any remedial works, having no stake in the land and on the hook for ground rent and any feed the management company dreams up In Czech Republic you actually own a share of the whole building and the land it stands on.
  - keerk43 5y ago
    Owning a share of the building has its own issues as well though. If your neighbours suck and don't care about maintaining the building adequately, then you're basically out of luck. Even worse, at least here in Finland some older apartment buildings in smaller cities are worth too little to get funding from bank for larger renovations, effectively making them impossible to do unless every tenant is capable and willing of getting a personal loan. I will never buy an apartment from reasons mentioned above. Just way too risky, at least with my own house it would be up to me what gets done and what doesn't.
    - ClumsyPilot 5y ago
      Certainly its a difficult subject, but I prefer owning something, rather than leasehold "renting for 100 years" as if we still have feudalism
      - VBprogrammer 5y ago
        Freehold is one thing on a block of flats. The poor people who got conned into buying a house on a freehold basis where the legal protection for rent increases doesn't apply. That is a different matter.

XorNot 5y ago

Apartments have always been kind of a sucker's deal compared to houses though. Houses in almost any condition can still be worth a ton, because you the owner have complete control over the state of the building on the land (including, knock it down and put a new one in).

ClumsyPilot 5y ago
that because the laws in UK basically turn a apartment ownership into a indentured servitude - you pay 100 years of rent for the privilege of being bound to the place, taking the cost of any remedial works, having no stake in the land and on the hook for ground rent and any feed the management company dreams up In Czech Republic you actually own a share of the whole building and the land it stands on.
- keerk43 5y ago
  Owning a share of the building has its own issues as well though. If your neighbours suck and don't care about maintaining the building adequately, then you're basically out of luck. Even worse, at least here in Finland some older apartment buildings in smaller cities are worth too little to get funding from bank for larger renovations, effectively making them impossible to do unless every tenant is capable and willing of getting a personal loan. I will never buy an apartment from reasons mentioned above. Just way too risky, at least with my own house it would be up to me what gets done and what doesn't.
  - ClumsyPilot 5y ago
    Certainly its a difficult subject, but I prefer owning something, rather than leasehold "renting for 100 years" as if we still have feudalism
    - VBprogrammer 5y ago
      Freehold is one thing on a block of flats. The poor people who got conned into buying a house on a freehold basis where the legal protection for rent increases doesn't apply. That is a different matter.