4 Real Benefits of Owning A Home
Buying a house is not only exciting, but it’s often one of life’s biggest achievements. While it may sometimes seem challenging, there are many benefits that come with owning your own property.
In the short-term, renting can be a great way to decide where you want to live and could help you save up for your home loan deposit. But here are four ways that owning your own home could create value for you over time.
1. Building Equity
Your equity is the amount of the property you own. Equity can increase naturally when you pay down your mortgage or when the market value of your home appreciates. It can also be given a boost by making extra payments on your mortgage. Here’s how to calculate and access your equity.
Equity can usually be accessed by redrawing on your loan (if you’ve made additional payments) or through refinancing for cash out. These funds can then be used to renovate, buy a new car, or even as the deposit on another property.
2. Living Securely
While renting, your situation is in the hands of the landlord, who may decide they no longer want to rent their property out. Moving house is expensive, inconvenient and not to mention emotional. When you own your own home, you can sleep sound safe in the knowledge that you decide when you move.
3. Create Your Dream Home
When you own your own home, you have complete creative freedom – you can decide to completely renovate the bathroom in a jungle theme, or to paint the walls in bright colours without worrying about getting your bond back. Home improvements can increase the value of a property, so if you sell, then every dollar that your home has gained in value will be yours. Check out our guide to kick-starting your home renovation.
4. Save Money
It might not feel like it, but your mortgage repayments could save you money. Many repayments include principal as well as interest, which means you’re putting some money towards owning more of your home. While renting seems to be cheaper, you won’t get any of that value back in the future.
When you're deciding to rent or to buy a home, there's a lot to weigh up. You could start by finding out how much you might be able to borrow using our home loan borrowing power tool in just minutes*.
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