Recaro

At the moment I'm living at home with my parents. Theres no rush for me to move out but I have a good job and I'm thinking of buying a flat to rent.

Flats near me are too expensive so I've been looking at other areas. Found a few in woking, surrey for a nice price.

Is there any advice or information you can give me? I really want to get on the property ladder now. This way I can rent out the flat to pay for the mortgage. Do I have to get a specific type of mortgage to buy-to-let?

Cheers.

imlach

I'd move out and get your own place first. More tax efficient - no capital gains to pay on the profit when you sell it, and no tax to pay on your rental income (minus interest cost on loan).

Get a 2 bed flat, stay in one room yourself, and rent the other room.

You're at the top of the market for buy-to-let right now. Oversupply, overpriced, and overhyped.

GreenMachine

Propertry market has me well confused atm...

I read somewhere that there is a 1.5M shortage of residential property in the UK. If that is the case, how is there going to be an oversupply of rental property in the next decade or so? (and where does everybody live now?? )

Daz34

Generally you need a larger (15%+) deposit for a buy to let mortgage & the interest rate will be 1%+ higher as well.

Darren

unclebuck

Bad time. Wait eighteen months.


UB

ProperCharlie

the thing is, loads of people got on the buy-to-let idea as it was heavily promoted as being better than a pension etc. i would think that for people who have been it it for 10 years or so; it probably will be a good nest egg for them. the trouble is that property prices have reached the point where mortgage repayments are as much or in some cases more than rental value, if you have a high loan to value ratio. you also will need to tie up the capital that you put in to make the difference between the loan and the purchase price. if you can afford that, and are prepared to think long term, it may end up worth it, but i wouldn't say it's easy (otherwise i'd be doing it).

stephen emery

big changes in Housing benefit on the cards. this will impact on the buy to let market.

Ie As a LL you are not going to be able to identify HB claimants.
however single claimants are going to get more cash..they are going to get sub for 2 rooms not the one they are for the moment.

Buy a 2 room flat

ymho

steve

[Edited by stephen emery - 12/27/2003 9:05:12 PM]

imlach

Yeah, our flat we rent out was bought in 1995 as wife's 1st property for her to stay in. It is now prob worth 4 times the mortgage amount outstanding, so rent MORE than covers the mortgage....so it is a no-brainer for us.

However, in Edinburgh now, buying a 2 bed flat would cost over £120k, and a mortgage on that would be around £500-600 interest only. You'd probably only get that for rental, so you'd have nothing left after mortgage paid. If interest rates go up, and property values go down over the next 2 years, there's gonna be a lot of people who have just bought buy-to-lets that may be in trouble......

Do the figures first. If the rent only just covers the mortgage and outgoings now, what will you do if interest rates go up 1% or 2% (or more!).

STi VII

Ten a penny end of next year. Major correction on its way.

salsa-king

I'm still at home

got THREE properties that i rent out.
the First i bought in 1996 (nu 2bed semi... with drive )
second nearly three years ago (studio appartment £13800!!!!!)
third.. another studio app directly under the other one (had to pay £25k for that! )
pix can be found here to give you an idea what a City Centre studio App in Nottm can look like
http://salsa-king.fotopic.net/show_c...n.php?id=28865

pop to the Bradford and Bingley.. they have every mortage on offer and will find one that suits you.
If you go Buy to Let you need at lease a 25% deposit.

Why not.. go buy it for 'yourself' then not move in and rent out!
everyone does it! lol

Also.. there are plenty of NON Benefit ppl that want to rent.. so housing benefit 'ppl' are not always the rentee's that you can go for.
I've never had anyone on benefit paying my rent... they all pay me direct etc

If you need anymore advice.. email me info@neoquip.com


[Edited by salsa-king - 12/28/2003 9:42:11 AM]