“Living a minimalist lifestyle in a house that you own or you rent” is a topic I come across frequently.
There are many interesting opinions from many interesting people from around the world. Your house is a key component in living a minimal lifestyle. So what is best? Should you buy a house? Should you rent one? What option do you have? What are the costs?

Below is my point of view and it’s highly affected by the country I currently live which is Greece, but still I hope this information will be useful for you anywhere you live in the world. There is also a life-hacking option that you may like 🙂

Minimalist option 1) Buy a house

Depending always on the location you live, if the cost of the monthly payment for the house is lower than 20% of your income, and if the total amount of the house price is being fully paid in less than 10 years, then it may be a good idea to buy the house.

This is not very common in Greece and for most people, this is not an option. Usually, the time needed for the total amount spent on the house to be settled is more than 20+ years. Plus, there are annual taxes demanded from home-owners and these add up to the total amount.

If it is cheaper to buy than to rent where you live and you put little money down on a house you love paying less than 20% of your income a month, your house becomes equity. If renting the same size house would be the same or more a month but no equity, then the option is clear.

Think about what monthly payment makes you comfortable. Make sure you have plenty of extra $$$ for unexpected expenses. There are things that will come up as an owner that you wouldn’t have had to worry about as a renter. I would recommend adding a good $500/month to the mortgage for utilities, other bills, and maintenance. (It can be more or less than that, depending on the house). Then from there, I would find out what that payment equals in the purchase price and find houses in your area that fit your budget AND desired lifestyle.

Minimalist option 2) Rent a house

Renting is my favorite option. I know I may be affected too much from where I live but I always wondered “why to buy a house?” since it’s too much money up-front, and not just renting the house you love until you… don’t love it anymore and then move out. With this option, you can use the money for other things like business, investment, education, traveling etc.

Owning your own house may be cheaper in the long run but I wonder, is it really important to save money on 20 years time-span by spending it all now? What is the opportunity cost? What options do you have and what money are you spending? Are you spending the savings of a lifetime? or are you spending the money you make in one year? There is a big difference there.

Also, an important aspect to think about is mobility. I first heard about mobility from Tim Ferriss on his book “The Four Hour Work Week” (in which I also first learned about minimalism).

As far as income goes, there are three currencies in the world; most people ignore two. The three currencies are time, income and mobility, in descending order of importance. Most people focus exclusively on income.” Tim Ferriss

Mobility is the option you have to move at any time you like. So if you want to live in another part of the country or explore another country you can just rent another house elsewhere and have no strings attached to a location. Living a minimalist lifestyle, I am trying to detach myself from as many things as possible. This gives me the impression that I am lightweight to move forwards.

Minimalist option 3) Share a house

This option is a nice life-hack which I initially saw from a friend and loved the idea. The concept is to rent a huge house with a lot of features like a pool, a nice view, barbecue, garden or anything you like and of course with many bedrooms. The price will be of course very high in comparison with just renting a normal house, but if you share it with 4-5 good friends, you end up paying one fraction of the price of a normal house and living like a very rich person. The only issue that may come up, is that you have to be very organized on the duties that each person should have.

Bottom line

That really is up to you and your family. I live in a house that I rent, which is a great deal (16% of my monthly income), with huge empty space, an office-room, and a small cute bedroom. The location is great, it’s 10min walking distance from the famous Athens Acropolis and one of the largest walking parks in Europe surrounding the Acropolis. It is close to the center but far enough to be quiet. It is close to my office and it has a large train station near so friends can visit me easily. The only problem is that there is no view since it is on the first floor.

Choosing this house was not a matter of chance though. After selecting option #2 from above I started to search for a house to stay. I made a large list with criteria that I wanted the house to fill up and I decided to go for no less than 80% of the criteria I wanted.

My criteria were:

• The house had to be new or renovated (because old houses have a big loss in energy)
• The rent price had to be less than 20% of my income
• The house shouldn’t be on a ground floor (I don’t like bugs)
• I wanted to have a nice view (if possible close to the sea or mountain)
• I wanted to be close to my mother so I could be there if she needed me (but not so close so she wouldn’t get too much into my personal life)
• I wanted it to be close to the center or conveniently connected with the center (because I love Athens and I like to go out a lot)
• I wanted the landlord to be out of my way (it is common in Greece for the landlords to live in the same building)
• I wanted a fireplace

And some other details that I cannot remember anymore. So I put down my wantings and I started to look for houses. It took me almost a month of research and 100 places to check before I chose my current place. It had it all beside the nice view so it was a go-go sign for me.

I love the idea of a very small home in theory, but I read recently that it plays an important role, subconsciously to live in a big space. After living for almost two years in a big house I have to say that it’s great but also that it has cost me that I don’t have a nice view and I may move only for this reason because I like to look far (especially if there is a sea view) and love to have a lot of light in the house. Now, this may not be important for you and it wasn’t for me either but it feels important now and I have the option to pick up my things and move to another house.

Everyone is different though. I don’t want a lot of stuff filling up every corner of my house but the extra space makes me so happy! Having space to breathe is a good thing. I have a friend who has an open floor plan. She sticks to the minimalist style. Here in Greece, people use to get loans and buy houses to live in, that’s why a lot of people are home-owners but now there’s no way to get a loan from the bank and people that have had loans they will have to pay for 25+ years. So basically if you want to buy a house here, you have to have your own money which means 100k for a nice apartment (you can find for 60-70 if research and you get lucky but its still a lot).

Now paying rent for the same apartment would be something like 500€/month which means that in 10-15 years you would have paid the same amount and own a house but if you invest the same amount of money in a business or in your self sometimes the return on investment can be much higher than owning an apartment which (here in Greece) you have to pay taxes to own.

Where would you live when you retire, if you rent your whole life? It may be different in every place in the world. Here in Greece, for example, it’s normal to rent a house for many years. Even when retired. But this is not the point. The point is to maximize the value of your time and your money. If for example you rent a house and you invest the money with a big return, then you don’t care because you can continue to pay rent and still make money and live more experiences.

My conclusion as a minimalist is that living the minimal lifestyle in your house, every room and every space must have its purpose. The bedroom, for example, has only two purposes and neither one of those purposes require much so you can have a small cute bedroom. The kitchen, the living room and everything around must provide the maximum value for their space. In this way, even the smallest houses can provide a great experience to stay in. I hope you find the place of your dreams and I will close this article with a quote from a good friend saying:

A beautiful house is as beautiful as the people who live in