Today I was talking with a friend in Italy and I mentioned that I rented a flat and I'm renting out the other rooms.
He asked me why I don't buy a flat and do the same.
I do believe he has got a point, since I'm likely going to stay here for some years.
My salary is not very high, but I should be able to get a mortgage for a cheap flat in the center of Santiago.
In Santiago housing is quite expensive, much more than outside the city, however cheap housing is quite scarce, so it should be easy to rent out the rooms if I do so.
However it's not yet clear to me how advantageous this would be; not accounting any expenses and assuming the rooms are rented all the time I should be able to get the monthly mortgage payment through rents and a bit more.
Now I'd like to understand if that bit more that I'm getting will be sufficient to pay for expenses and periods I'm not able to rent.
It could be a bit risky to do so because the down payment would require most of my savings and maybe I'll have to raise some money through friends or family; but I'm quite sure I'd be able to rent out the rooms.
My other concern is that housing outside Santiago is much cheaper, thus I'm not so sure that a house in the center will actually retain it's value in the future.
I do not have a car, thus buying a house outside the city would be senseless.
Do you have advices and resources I could study to make a more reasoned choice?
