Pros and cons of your own home

30.03.2020

The following checklist will help you get an overview of the most important advantages and disadvantages and weigh them against each other.

Arguments FOR your own home

Your own home is a solid financial investment.
At the moment there are favourable conditions for financing (low mortgage rates).
Your own home means a hedge against inflation.
After the loan is paid off, your real estate expense is low.
In retirement you don't have to pay rent.
You can use real estate as collateral for other loans.

Your own home means a long-term financial obligation, which is quite high especially at the start.
Refinancing could take place when interest rates are high.
Possible unemployment could place a load on the financing or make it impossible to keep up.
With your own home you're quite inflexible when it comes to changes in the amount of space you need (due to children, divorce, children leaving home, etc.) or a change in location (new job).
Real estate ties up your assets, which are no longer available for other purposes.
Your own home requires more initiative (plus time and effort) than a rented property.
In the case of multiple heirs, it's not very easy to split up real estate.