Rent or Buy? That’s Andrew’s dilemma.

Andrew’s getting married next year, and starting to think about home ownership. He wants to honour God with his money – and doesn’t know whether it’s better to buy his own place or rent one.

Andrew says that if he and his new wife stay in Sydney their options are to pay rent  (which has traditionally been not as preferable to paying off your own home) OR to (in Andrew’s words) “pay exorbitant amounts of interest to feed the profits of a large financial organization”.

He says he'd really like to find the option that makes best use of his money and frees him up to focus on the Kingdom of God – having time for Christian work, for relationships, and not being so time poor that he only has time to work and sleep.

Andrew doesn’t want to be encumbered with a 30 year debt  - but he doesn’t want to throw money away either.. What your advice for Andrew in solving his dilemma?

DISCUSSION POINTS:
• Is it better to rent or buy a property? Have you done the calculations? What did you decide to do?
• Is it OK to have property debt – or does the huge amount of interest that ends up going to the banks make it not really all that worthwhile?
• How is it possible to live in an expensive city like Sydney – and not be so weighed down by soaring property prices – that you don’t have time to serve God?
• What are the best options for putting a roof over your head, particularly for a newly married couple?