General   (General discussion, talk about anything.)

Private rent is an option but the amout you have put down and then pay each month gets me down because if i can pay that i could pay a mortgage,

I think this is one of the reasons why buy-to-let could now fall over. Rental prices could become so high that the cost of renting is comparable to the cost of buying. The average price of a house in the North West is now about £150k. If someone who buys such a house decides to let it intending to make 5% per annum, the person who rents it would have to pay about £145 per week. This could be viable if the cost of housing were to continue to increase over the next few years because then, the cost of buying would move well ahead of the cost of renting. It all depends on what is going to happen to house prices in the future - and, of course, on interest rates.