sicklyman

No one here seems to have mentioned that the 3% stamp duty is only on properties over £40K. You can easily get decent rental properties for less than that in many parts of the UK which give a good ROI.

Johnnyboy11

Meow

Do you not fancy owning a mobile home?

Sabi Star

There was a headline in a UK paper a few days ago saying - ''BTL is dead - investors are buying shops instead of residential property now'' etc.

sicklyman

BTL is dead if you rely on a mortgage because of Osbourne's tax changes. Still very much worth it if you have cash to invest. Most UK-based investors don't have the cash flow to buy cash on a regular basis. ME-based investors are a different beast though.

Millhouse

Agreed.

Not forgetting that even if interest is no longer tax deductible, it is very low and unlikely to go up thanks to the total mismanagement of the global economy.

If you can do c. 60% deposits it works well.

Johnnyboy11

Or buy your B2L through a Limited Company, which gets round all of the recent tax changes, until that route gets closed...

Might be difficult for an expat to secure a commercial mortgage though, and you'd need to offset the costs of running a Limited Company and probably a higher mortgage interest rate than an equivalent retail deal. I'm going to look into this, and already have a Limited Company set up and lying dormant.

Millhouse

Very limited mortgage options for a company - issues on disposal as well as annual SDLT charges.

dominoman

Errr. Really?

I just did a quick search on Zoopla and nothing came up except Shared Ownership.

Even if you did get a house for under 40k the kind of tenants you could attract with that would make it a disaster in terms of your time and committment.

The best BTL is a 2 bed flat in a modern building, close to transport links, that you can let to professionals. Give it to them at a price 10% lower than the going rate and with a little luck you will never hear from them again.

If a tenant calls with a dripping tap, offer to send a plumber, but also casually drop in that you were meaning to contact them about a rent increase because you are charging below market rate. Next time they will fix it themselves.

Sabi Star

If a tenant calls with a dripping tap, offer to send a plumber, but also casually drop in that you were meaning to contact them about a rent increase because you are charging below market rate. Next time they will fix it themselves.[/QUOTE]
But not so easy to do if you're in ME - most people will have to use a management company for their UK properties.

sicklyman

Gotta know where to look ... and what you're doing.

No one should take being a landlord or investing in property lightly. Your goal should be to maximise your return and making sure you buy right and get the right tenants requires a lot of research not a quick Google search.

Feel free to buy properties that attract SDLT though if you don't believe me. After all, some guy in a pub once told me landlords who buy expensive properties are guaranteed problem-free tenants.

Dordogne Roofer

Houses are the highest they've ever been in the UK, if you buy here you're buying at the top of the market.

If I were you you've got no rush to buy here, they ain't going any higher that much soon, and if you;re lucky they might crash or go down.

Obviously i'm mainly talking about London, not sure exactly where you're looking?

sicklyman

this indicates that you clearly don't know anything about the legalities (let alone the ethics) of letting properties in the UK. No landlord can arbitrarily impose a rent increase on a sitting tenant. Not to mention the fact that no communication between a landlord and a tenant over the phone carries any authority.

Johnnyboy11

Whatever happened to the OP, another hit and run?

dominoman

I'm not talking about increasing it during the fixed period of the AST. But once the AST has run (usually 12 months) it automatically renews as a periodic tenancy with the same notice period as the original contract. That's what most landlords, and tenants, want so it's a good thing.

From that point on the landlord has the right to increase the rent, giving the notice agreed in the contract (usually 1 month). Call it arbitrary if you like, but luckily we don't live in a society where I have to justify why I am increasing the rent on my property.

You seem to assume I am an ignorant or unethical landlord. You are totally wrong. I treat my tenants fairly and kindly. Thanks to that, and to choosing tenants carefully at the start, means my tenants stay many many years and I have never (touch wood) had any problems so far.

Your statement, and misuse of the term sitting tenant, shows that it is you, not me, that doesn't know anything about the legalities of letting in the UK.