Renting vs. Buying in Berkshire and Westmount

If you are renting or thinking about renting a townhouse in the beautiful Berkshire or Westmount neighbourhoods in west London, here is some number crunching I did for a client recently to show the immediate financial impact of purchasing a similar property vs. renting from Sifton.

I personally rented two townhouses in the Berkshire area (one with Boardwalk, one with Sifton) prior to buying my first home. I really liked having Sifton as a landlord and they take great care of their communities. Renting makes a lot of sense if you are planning to relocate, are still saving for a downpayment, or other factors are keeping you from taking the leap to home ownership.

That being said; I assume that if you are reading this post, you are at least curious about your options as far as home ownership goes- so read on for a simple example!

For this comparison let's look at a 3 bedroom townhouse rental from Sifton vs. a 3 bedroom twonhouse style condo that recently (July 2016) listed and sold in Westmount.

Here is a breakdown of the monthly difference. This is all relative. You could probably find a rental for more, or less. And you could absolutely buy for more or less- especially if you were willing to look at other great neighbourhoods in London- but this is a decent attempt at an apples to apples comparison.

So basically, in this example you could save approx $50 a month or $565 per year- which is not a MASSIVE savings but when you look back at the checklist and see you will also get air conditioning, likely upgraded finishes/flooring and other benefits it starts to look more appealing.

Finally- the money you put into your mortgage (aside from the interest portion) is going towards YOUR equity. AND your house is likely to be worth more each year. So in a few years you could be thousands of dollars ahead by buying vs renting.

Once you consider all these factors together you can see why it makes a LOT of sense to think about investing you your own home vs spending the same (if not more) money on rent.

Here is a 1 page PDF download of this information.

If you are curious to learn more don't be shy, I'd love to chat about YOUR options and goals.

CONTACT ME NOW!