I can go into numerous reasons why you MAYBE shouldn't do it, but lets stick to the reasons why I KNOW you should NOT do it.

1) You're 19....and you need to learn how to ask questions properly. If you don't you'll make mistakes.

2) You talk about bank loans, and buying a condo/apartment/house, and don't mention your income, the house price, interest rates, how long the interest rate is fixed for, etc etc.

3) You talk about how the Apartment WILL go up $20K/yr but not the reasons WHY it will go up. What happens if the situation changes and it falls? How do you know it won't? How will you react?

4) You don't talk about how much savings you have, how secure is your job, your other opportunities to use the money.

5) You assume people must have money to understand it. While yes I have money, and Yes I understand it, it's not correlated 100%.

6) I don't think I need to continue.

Rule 1 of making mistakes, don't make a mistake so large you can't recover. Going deeply into debt for a mistake is one of the ways.

Best thing in life when you are young is taking risks making mistakes, but never so large you can't learn/recover from them. Start asking what could go wrong when it comes to finances. Want to make larger risks? Go travel for a year on a work visa, take up MMA, do something that hurts in the short term, but not long term.

Why? Because I was dumb at 19, you probably are too (no offense).

PS: Learn to ask questions better. Good luck.

Your dad is right.

Renting is basically paying landlords loan. Landlord gets apartment, you get nothing.

My advise - check if you have “rent to buy” options in your location. It’s quite popular in Europe. You don’t require downpayment. Downpayment would be split across 24 monthly payments, while you can live in your new apartment. Then after 2y you can take a loan with the accumulated downpayment. In total, you spend the exact same amount of money as just buying with a regular loan.

But if “rent 2 buy” isn’t available, definitely don’t waste money on renting.

Yoo,

Not the richest person, due drawbacks with business and break up, but I will try, haha.

1. $30,000 in the next 12 months, get a bank loan and use that money to buy an apartment or unit outright. Take in a count not only % from the deal, but all the commissions and expenses, hidden costs. As the general rule - if bank loan does not exceed 7% of the whole deal, why not? Also, consider 30/30/40 rules or some budget strategies when taking a big financial decisions. Money should make money - that is why debt has no taxes. BUT

2. Do not know where are you from, but sometimes banks require prepayment % from the whole deal, based on your income - so firstly, I would suggest to get a consultations from several banks (to review their offers to decide the best option for you). Also, I would consider Real Estate auctions if it is possible - lower costs..

3. Going full-time with work and part-time with college/university

General rule of thumb, if you can afford College/University, go full time, finish and use the education to earn money, if not, Full-time work, related to your education and after finishing, earn benefits from the experience gained and degree gained!

What do you think is the best decision to make with this situation?

Do what your gut tells you. It is your life and without your intentions you can get in a resentments and other stuff when something goes off the road.

Good luck bro,

Debt is financial slavery. Avoid it at all costs.

However, today, I had a long conversation with my dad,

You are taking financial advice from a party with a conflict of interest.
In other words, he is giving you advice based on what he thinks would be better for his own finances.

I can also sell the property in a few years time for a definite profit,

Says who?

I cannot imagine how horrible waiting another 12 months would be for my mental health

Then just rent a place.

Don't overcomplicate your life and don't mix family and friends with business decisions.

I have always, always hated the noise that they produce and the general lack of freedom and independence I have.

Living at home is rough.

Naturally, I made plans to move out and rent a place for myself. I am currently in a financial position in my life where doing such a thing is very feasible. I have already bought some furniture and appliances and have gone to many inspections for some nice new apartments.

Awesome.

However, today, I had a long conversation with my dad, who said that I would be "much better off" if I were to just save around $30,000 in the next 12 months, get a bank loan and use that money to buy an apartment or unit outright. I would be able to renovate anything I dislike about said apartments and I would be paying less in loan repayments than I would for renting.

He has a point......... How much is the rent though? If you can save $30k in 12 months at home, can you save $30k in 18 months if you move out?

I can also sell the property in a few years time for a definite profit, meaning that the house would be increasing my net-worth at a rate of around $20,000/year thanks to the housing situation of my city.

This is past rises. This is not future rises. The market goes up and down (generally up though).

This sounds all fine and dandy, but the biggest drawback for me would be having to stay with my family for another 12 months.

How cheaply can you rent if you compromise on just about everything else? A room in a shared house can be relatively cheap and means avoiding family. One tip for you though: always rent in a place with a living room. Places with just-rooms and no common area suck.

I know for most people, this may not seem like a giant issue, but my family is not very rich and I have done quite well for myself for my age. Both my mother and my brother have descended almost into madness where they dwell on fantastical ideas and generally do nothing with their lives. The noise makes it hard to sleep and my room is more like a storage room with a bed and table.

Yeah,, this sucks. You do need to get out.

I cannot imagine how horrible waiting another 12 months would be for my mental health and this is making me heavily consider just going full-time with work and part-time with college/university, allowing myself to make more money, so I can just save and stay at my own place with a 12-months lease at the same time.

I'm a little confused..... how come you can theoretically save $30k in 12 months, but can't afford to rent and save? Drop me a pm and we'll talk through the financials a bit if you like.

But I would love for some opinions on this, especially on people who are wealthy and understand money very well.

Not wealthy yet, but doing ok. Have rented and owned enough to know the rough sketch.

Not sure where you are, but I'll assume it's a medium sized city in the US.

Chances are the market will go up a bit in the next few years, after that it might well crash. Covid has increased housing demand in the short term (people need home offices and to avoid their spouses). Longer term there will either be conversion of offices to homes or people will return to their offices. There may be an economic crash still (seems unlikely, but it always does in boom times). There is also a population decrease due to more older people dying than usual, this drops housing prices.

So a perpetual house cost increase is far from guaranteed.

Short and medium term it is usually more expensive to buy than rent. You can rent a small room in a shared house. You have to buy a whole property, pay taxes on it, bills are higher and there are maintenance and mortgage renewals costs. Bills higher too.

You SHOULD buy your own place, it's awesome. But it won't save money in the short term.

I rented dirt cheap (and awful) until I could afford a place to buy. This gives you a lot of flexibility in terms of where to live, which job to get, etc. This is 3 to 5 times cheaper than the mortgage on buying a place. If you can save $30k in 12 months, how much longer would it take if you rented somewhere cheap? Probably not more than 18mths?

Hopefully you have completely separate finances from your family: family always claim to love you and then when you have a big chunk of money saved up they mysteriously find a use for it that you become obligated to pay.

Anyway, PM me and we'll discuss mortgage downpayment you'd need, income, etc.

Use earplugs and earmuffs.

My instinct is to say to get your own place because I stayed at home trying to "save money" for way to long and regret it.

But...

The problem with your situation is that you're not going to have time to spend at home anyways. I regret living at home because I missed out on some dating situations that would have gone better had I had my own place. But if you're at work or college all day I'm not sure it matters much.

So I have 2 thoughts:

1. Most college students get roomates so they have a place to sleep and live without it costing to much. If you're never at home seems like a consideration.

2. You could possibly ask your dad if he wants to loan you the money so you could buy the place like you said.

I honestly can't tell you to stay there if you're not into it though - I didn't realize until I moved how much better I slept, how much more relaxed I was an in the moment of not being at the end of my families neurosis.

Noise-cancelling headphones cost $300. I use mine on airplane trips but your situation may warrant them. I spent $18k/yr on rent. Instead of making a down payment on a house I invested it in wheel strategy on S&P 500 and make enough to cover the rent plus cover food. Somebody else pays all the taxes and maintenance on the property so it's a net gain for me.