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    Kicking the Property Ladder: Why buying a house makes less sense than renting - and how to invest the money you save in shares, gold, stamps and more
    Kicking the Property Ladder: Why buying a house makes less sense than renting - and how to invest the money you save in shares, gold, stamps and more
    Kicking the Property Ladder: Why buying a house makes less sense than renting - and how to invest the money you save in shares, gold, stamps and more
    Ebook58 pages59 minutes

    Kicking the Property Ladder: Why buying a house makes less sense than renting - and how to invest the money you save in shares, gold, stamps and more

    By Robin Bennett

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    About this ebook

    Is property investment all it is cracked up to be?
    Buying a house has become a byword for financial security; renting is dismissed as a lacklustre alternative to a mortgage and the bounties of ever-rising property prices.
    But what if it's not true? What if renting represents far better value for money - and the best financial decision you could ever make is NOT buying your own house?
    Did you know that half of all people living in poverty in Britain today are home-owners?
    In this compelling and witty exploration of home ownership in 21st century Britain, author and entrepreneur Robin Bennett reveals the startling truths behind the modern property myth beloved of certain newspapers and estate agents - and why far from guaranteeing profit, buying a house might be an unnecessary drain on your financial wellbeing.
    He then shows what you should do with your money instead - exploring firsthand how to secure your future with effective investment in stocks and shares, gold, stamps and more.
    Jargon-free, hilarious and wise, 'Kicking the Property Ladder' is a must-read for anyone despairing of ever getting their own house, wondering what it might mean to rent instead, or puzzled by the impossible promises of an ever-expanding price bubble.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarriman House
    Release dateDec 6, 2012
    ISBN9780857192813
    Kicking the Property Ladder: Why buying a house makes less sense than renting - and how to invest the money you save in shares, gold, stamps and more
    Author

    Robin Bennett

    Robin Bennett has set up and run over a dozen successful businesses from dog-sitting to tuition to translation. The list is quite exhausting. Robin is married with three young children. He spends his time between Pau in the Pyrenées and Henley-on-Thames.

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      Book preview

      Kicking the Property Ladder - Robin Bennett

      harriman-house.com/howtomakeagoodliving

      Chapter 1. Life on the Farm

      WE LIVE IN a five-bedroom house about nine miles south of Oxford. Someone started to build it in 1630 and someone else finally got around to finishing the job in about 1940. One of the interesting things about our house – given the shortage of character properties in our neck of the woods – was that between the wars it was very nearly knocked down (it was apparently very cold to live in and, until very recently, it had a disappointing tendency to flood).

      However, attractive lead-windows have been fitted, door frames sealed, roofs mended and ditches widened. It’s what you would call snug now, and when we light a fire in the living room this is generally just for effect and not to stop the children’s extremities going black and falling off.

      The second point of note is that it’s got a secret room. Up one of the chimneys, big enough to sleep in – like a priest hole – although I’m told it was just a place intended for smoking bits of pig.

      The property also has three barns, mature gardens, and an arbour down which my wife and I can wander of a summer’s evening, reciting poetry to one another should we wish. It’s got a paddock, an orchard and around six acres of field swarming with rabbits we like to eat; last summer we kept orphaned lambs there.

      If it sounds idyllic, it almost is. Between April and September our three children spend most of their time outside with the dog. They are going through a camps phase at present and recently an alarming number of temporary dwellings have sprung up around the place. One day I’m going to get up and find that protesters or travellers have moved in.

      Our sociopathic cat, Dennis, loves the barns in particular. This is his realm, where he is Nemesis of Rodents. But I like the barns, too. The property was a real farm up until the 1980s and the previous occupants never got around to clearing them out before we moved in. I’ve got one barn where I can put all the tools I’ve bought since we were married and never use, and another that is a sort of living museum to life on a small holding in the 1950s. 40-year-old copies of The Sun lie in yellowing stacks next to cast-iron beds, a bicycle that looks like it belonged to an Edwardian masochist, sheep-fencing materials and the sort of utensils for goat care you just won’t find at B&Q these days.

      It smells of tractor oil, dust and straw and it’s a great place to hide from the rest of the family.

      On a practical level, our house is about 15 minutes for the school run, five minutes to the nearest Tescos, and 25 minutes to my office in Henley-on-Thames.

      As with all properties, unless you are a gazillionnaire, there are drawbacks – for one, there’s a public footpath that crosses the property. It doesn’t get used much but this just lures you into a false sense of security. On a few occasions, I’ve been caught out by groups of ladies out for an early morning jog. They in lycra, carrying bottles of water, me standing in naught but my boxer shorts, having a coffee. I’ve also been surprised whilst yelling obscenities at the children, wondering why they have gone oddly still – only to find a man with a goatee and a map in a plastic sleeve had been standing behind me, politely waiting for my tirade to peter out so he could ask the way to Didcot.

      And that reminds me, the power station looms about three fields away – its cooling towers look like giant loo pedestals.

      However, if mortgage rates go up, I don’t care. If a tap leaks, a window breaks or the boiler goes on strike, it’s not my problem. We suspect there may be subsidence and the chimney with the secret room looks crumbly, but this does not keep me up at night. The reason for this is simple. We rent.

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