I try to contain my commentary on this blog to my house building. But I am making an exception today.
The Age posted this article: "I bought a house and regretted it".
I assume it was supposed to be a moral or pat-on-the-head-it's-ok tale that renting is totally ok, buying a house is not the be-all-to-end-all and just because everyone else is doing it doesn't mean you need to, too.
If that was the intention: fail.
One cannot provide a moral tale for society based on one's stupid individualistic decision. The author could have said "this story is not unique, 3 out of 5 23 year olds make the same mistake" or whatever. It either a) speaks volumes of the authors narcissism that her story of stupidity somehow has a broader reach or b) speaks volumes about The Age online's audience that this story is trying to appeal to. In fact, I don't think its an OR, I'm going to say both.
You could easily replace house with car (The car market sucks because I bought a lemon car and regretted it boohoo), house with discount designer shoes (the discount designer shoe market sucks because they looked a bargain but when I got them home the heel broke boohoo) or whatever you want and this story could still run effectively at a two-bit online media outlet like The Age.
Choosing a crap apartment with crap walls and noisy neighbours is not a reflection on the housing market, the renting market or anything, except one persons poor decision making. This is made even worse as she had a choice not to buy that apartment, had advice not to do so and still failed.
Many people have limited choices when renting and still have to deal with those situations, along with asshole landlords, ever increasing rents and can't just move to Byron to live happily ever after while her tenants, locked into a 12 month contract, are stuck in her hellhole. Chances are, all those people she hated on were all renters.
Edit:
With further consideration, what the article is actually arguing, although it is not aware of it, is that apartment buildings are garbage and governments and councils should be actively protecting both tenants, residents and asset owners against the shoddy workmanship. Contrawise, councils and governments share enormous blame for the terrible state of apartment complexes, both old and young. An enhanced regulatory regime is required to prevent the problems the author of the article had. The moral of the story has nothing to do with buying v renting, it's be careful what you buy or rent, if you can, because the people that build most apartments, and most houses for that matter, do not have your interests in mind.
Caveat emptor, suckers.
