Why I Rent My Home Despite Owning £3.5 Million of Property
September 9, 2026
I own more than £3.5 million worth of property, but the home I live in is rented. In fact, when I recorded this video in September 2026, I’d been renting my own home for about seven years.
People sometimes find that strange. I spend plenty of time explaining why I like property investing, yet I’m quite happy being somebody else’s tenant. To me, it makes sense because choosing somewhere to live and choosing an investment are two separate decisions.
My reasons come down to flexibility and opportunity cost. I want a home that suits my family, and I want my investment capital working where I think it can earn a worthwhile return. Sometimes those aims point towards owning the same property. In my circumstances, they don’t.
Why flexibility matters so much to me
I’ve experienced some significant financial highs, but I’ve also had some deep lows. During Covid, owning a taxi business meant seeing my income effectively go to zero. I moved out of my lovely home in Henley and back in with my mum, aged 38, with four children.
Going through that changes the way you think about large monthly commitments. It’s easy to feel comfortable with an expensive home when everything is going brilliantly. It’s a different experience when your circumstances change and reducing the cost isn’t straightforward.
Renting gives me more flexibility to adjust where I live and what I spend. If things are going well, I can choose a house I really enjoy. If I want to reduce my outgoings, I can plan a move without also having to sell a property.
That doesn’t mean a tenancy can always be ended overnight or without a cost. The contract and local rules still matter. But avoiding the process of finding a buyer, agreeing a sale and releasing capital from my home has real value to me.
This isn’t just a theoretical preference about flexibility. It’s shaped by having needed to change my living costs when business circumstances changed dramatically.
The numbers behind my rented home in Dubai
The house I discussed in the video is in Dubai and is worth approximately £1 million. I pay about £2,700 a month in rent, which is £32,400 a year.
To move in, I needed a rental deposit of a few thousand pounds and the money to pay the rent. In my circumstances, buying an equivalent property would have required around £400,000 of my own capital, followed by a mortgage payment of roughly £3,000 a month.
Those are my approximate figures, expressed in pounds to make the comparison easier for a UK audience. They aren’t a standard Dubai deposit requirement or a mortgage quotation for somebody else. A different buyer, property or financing arrangement could produce a different result.
What stands out to me is the capital commitment. Even after putting around £400,000 into the house, I would still have a substantial monthly payment. Renting lets me live there while keeping that capital available for other purposes.
The comparison also needs care: if a mortgage payment includes repayment of principal, that portion builds equity. It isn’t all a cost in the same way as rent or mortgage interest. I wouldn’t make a serious buying decision by comparing only the two monthly payments.
What I mean by opportunity cost
Opportunity cost is simply what I give up by choosing one use for my money over another. If £400,000 goes into the home I live in, it can’t simultaneously go into investment properties, a business, index funds or cash reserves.
In the video, I used an illustrative return of 8% a year. Eight per cent of £400,000 is £32,000, which is close to the £32,400 annual rent on my home.
That explains the comparison going through my head. It doesn’t mean an index fund would reliably send me £32,000 every year to pay the landlord. Returns can include changes in asset value, can be negative and can arrive unevenly. Tax and fees also affect what I can actually spend.
For me, £400,000 is serious capital. I could spread it across several property purchases, put some into a business, invest elsewhere and retain some cash for opportunities. The point is having choices about how to use it.
Buying the home isn’t automatically the wrong choice. It simply has a cost beyond the mortgage payment: the alternative uses of the money committed to it.
The compounding example needs one important distinction
I also mentioned that £400,000 growing at 8% annually for ten years would become roughly £864,000. The arithmetic works out at approximately £863,570 before any tax or fees.
But that example assumes the returns remain invested. If I withdraw them to pay rent, I can’t also count them as fully reinvested and claim the same final pot. They’re two different illustrations of what the capital might do, rather than two benefits I receive in full at the same time.
I think that distinction is essential when comparing renting with buying. Otherwise, it’s very easy to produce a wonderful-looking spreadsheet that gives the renting option both free living costs and uninterrupted compounding.
The buying side needs the same fairness. A home may rise in value, mortgage repayments can reduce the debt, and eventually the owner may have no mortgage at all. Equally, property values can fall, maintenance can be expensive and buying and selling involve costs.
The exercise is to compare realistic alternatives over the same period. It isn’t to pick whichever assumptions make your preferred answer look clever.
A lovely home isn’t always an attractive rental investment
The property I want to live in might have a large amount of space, be close to particular schools or simply suit the way my family wants to live. Those qualities matter to me as an occupier, but they don’t necessarily make it the best use of investment capital.
At £32,400 a year on a property worth £1 million, the gross rent is about 3.24% of its value. That is before the owner pays maintenance and other costs. In my example, the landlord also pays a service charge of about £400 a month.
From my side of the arrangement, I think paying that rent to use the house is a cracking deal. From the owner’s side, there may be a different purchase price, financial position or expectation of capital growth behind the decision to let it.
That is another reason not to assume two people looking at the same house must reach the same conclusion. We may have completely different objectives and starting points.
My own buying preference is often much more ordinary: a sensibly priced house with a strong rental relationship to the purchase price. I’ve also explained in my houses versus flats comparison why the figures can persuade me to buy something different from my usual preference.
Where I’d rather put the capital
In the video, I described the type of opportunity I like: a house worth around £150,000 that I can buy for £135,000 and rent for more than £1,000 a month. The attraction is the combination of a sensible purchase price and rental income relative to the capital invested.
That doesn’t make the rent pure profit. Mortgage interest, management, maintenance, empty periods, insurance and tax all need to be considered. A property that looks attractive on gross yield can disappoint once the full costs are included.
I also need evidence for the claimed value. An asking price of £150,000 doesn’t prove that a house is worth £150,000, and negotiating £15,000 off a hopeful asking price doesn’t automatically create £15,000 of equity.
The principle still matters. I want to use my capital to buy investments on terms I understand, rather than assume the most expensive house I can personally occupy is necessarily the best investment available to me.
I still want to own more property. I’m choosing which property to own according to its investment merits, while choosing my home according to the life I want to live.
When buying your own home makes complete sense
If you find somewhere you love and want to stay for twenty or thirty years, I can absolutely understand buying it. Security, the ability to make changes and the feeling of having a settled family home are valuable.
Renting has disadvantages too. Rent can rise, the landlord may eventually want the property back, and you have less control over major changes. The rights and notice rules depend on where you live, so my Dubai experience shouldn’t be treated as a guide to UK tenancy law.
There may come a point when I buy my own home again. I’m not opposed to ownership, and I don’t think every tenant should be trying to imitate my circumstances.
What I question is the assumption that buying must always be the financially intelligent choice. Sometimes people are paying for a feeling of ownership or a particular lifestyle. That’s fine if they understand what they’re choosing and can afford it.
I just don’t personally get enough value from saying, “This is my house,” to justify the capital commitment in my current situation.
How I’d make the comparison for myself
I’d start with the same kind of home in the same area. Comparing the rent on a modest house with the cost of buying somewhere much larger won’t tell you much about renting versus buying.
Then I’d list the cash needed upfront, the ongoing costs, the likely length of stay and the money left available to invest. I’d distinguish mortgage interest from capital repayments and include ownership costs that don’t appear in a headline mortgage payment.
I’d also consider what happens if the assumptions disappoint. What if investment returns are lower, the home needs an expensive repair, rent increases or I need to move earlier than expected? Flexibility and security deserve a place in the comparison alongside the arithmetic.
Most importantly, I’d be honest about whether I would actually invest the money saved by renting. Keeping capital available only creates an investment advantage if I use it sensibly. Spending it all on a more expensive lifestyle would be a very different plan.
My aim is wealth that supports the life I want
For now, I can rent a home I enjoy, keep capital available and adjust my circumstances more easily. I judge my financial position by the assets and businesses I own, rather than whose name is on the title deed of the house where I sleep.
That sits alongside my longer-term property retirement plan. The aim is to build investments that support my life, while being deliberate about how much capital I commit to each decision.
If you want to talk through your own property goals, book a free strategy call with me. For support with your first investment, explore Starter Club, or Done For You and a 20-minute suitability call for more individual help.
Watch the original video
Watch why I rent my home despite owning £3.5 million of property, published on 9 September 2026.