[VBprogrammer]

In the UK there is stamp duty which you pay when you buy a house. First time buyers though get a pretty good deal, nothing on up to £250k, I think we paid around £2000.

However, there aren't property taxes which you wouldn't need to pay as a renter. The closest thing to my knowledge is council tax but that is the same whether you buy or rent.

On the other hand, I've spent hundreds of pounds on rental contracts, referral fees, unfair deposit deductions etc.

[ido]

All those things you mentioned in your last paragraph are illegal in Germany (or at least in Berlin). You just cant easily compare between countries like that - it can very well be that it "always" makes sense to buy in England because the rules ensure it while the opposite is true in another country.

The rental/real estate markets work differently in Austria and Germany and that's (partially) why home ownership patterns in those countries are so different to England's. Vienna and Berlin both have something close to 90% of the population renting rather than owning, and it's not because they are idiots.

There are massive incentives erected to keep renting tenant-friendly in a way that would never fly in a more capitalist country like the UK or the US.

[VBprogrammer]

I didn't suggest that buying always makes sense. I was only trying to point out that comparing month to month costs isn't a fair comparison, since a significant part of the money you put into a mortgage becomes available to you in the fullness of time. With rent, once you've paid it it's gone.

[ido]

You're right, sorry I just wanted to reiterate as i often experienced that people in other countries don't understand how regulated the market is the German speaking countries.

E.g. many large american cities like chicago would have purchase prices similar to berlin but 2-3x the rental prices due to these regulations keeping Berliner rents artificially low.

Trying to actually check my vague memory: if numbeo[0] is anywhere near accurate (I anecdotally believe it's close enough to give you a good rough estimate) Berlin is both drastically more expensive to buy than Chicago (almost 50% more expensive) and drastically cheaper to rent (a bit over 40% cheaper).

Obviously this completely changes your buy vs rent calculous!

[0]https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?cou...