It’s a significant moment in your life when you buy your first home, creating a space that is truly yours and putting down your roots. While it can feel a little overwhelming with the additional responsibilities, there are far more pros to owning your own home than there are cons.
1. You’re free to create the home you want
When you rent, you’re often restricted to the style and colour choices of your landlord. By far one of the most exciting things about owning your own home is the option and the possibility to tailor it to reflect your style and taste. You can paint any room any color, knock through a wall to create a bigger space, or hang as many photo frames as you wish whilst knowing that it will be you who benefits from increasing your home's value, not your landlord.
2. Build equity
Equity is the amount of your home that you actually own. As you make your monthly mortgage payments, part of that payment will go towards paying off the interest, while the rest goes towards paying off the capital. So each month you pay off your mortgage, your equity will increase, enabling you to reinvest it into your home itself or possibly a new home.
3. Predictable monthly payments
When you rent, there is always a risk that your rent payments could increase. If you own your home and you’ve taken out a fixed-rate mortgage, you'll pay the same amount each month until the end of your term. This can provide stability and help with your living expenses, so when your income goes up it can be budgeted elsewhere.
4. Live by your own rules
Often when you rent you’re expected to follow your landlord's rules, such as ‘no pets’. When you own your own home, you can make your own house rules and have as many puppies, kittens and cute furry friends as you wish!
5. Plant your roots
One of the nicest things about being a homeowner is the strong sense of stability and security it can offer. You can rest assured knowing this is a place you can always call home and make memories with your loved ones, should you wish to plant your roots and settle down for the long term.
Here at Mortgage Advice Bureau, we believe that everybody has the right to own their own home, and we're here to help get you there. We've asked some of our customers what helpful things they wish they'd have known when buying a house so that you can learn from their experiences, and hopefully, this will help when you come to buy your first house.
Feel free to get in touch with our friendly team of mortgage advisers to find out more about how you can take your first steps onto the property ladder.
Important information
Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.
There may be a fee for mortgage advice. The actual amount you pay will depend on your circumstances. The fee is up to 1% but a typical fee is 0.3% of the amount borrowed.