TRJP

Hi everyone

This is my first post as we are in the process of moving to Sydney.

We are just looking for some advice on whether to sell or rent our UK house.

I think deep down we would like to keep it but are worried we are going to have lots of problems. ie: what if we can't rent it at any time, we will have to pay the mortgage as well as rent in Oz, what if there are lots of repairs that need paying for...

Obviously these are "what ifs" and I think its the money isse as we won;t have lots of spare cash to throw around.

We would welcome any advice/experiences.

Also, has anyone moved/moving to Sydney and if so how are things going??

TRJP

rob&kim

rent it out, we r currently renting our house in uk and have been for last 18 months, and for the foreseeable future! you ll get much better returns and house prices quite expensive at the moment. noosa rob &kim

stevemich

We decided to sell rather than rent as we would need to buy loadsa stuff out there upon arrival and we have no savings to speak of. Things like car, temporary furniture while cargo arrives, deposits for rentals.
That and the removal of the "what of we do not have a tenant, can we afford mortgage AND rental in Oz :scared: " worry.
Although we are concerned that when my visa (temp 457) expires we will return to a highly inflated housing market... But it could work in our favour too if there was a crash...

jtimkey

Rob&Kim,

Are you the same Rob (brickie i think) that i met in Noosa feb/march 2004 ?
I was walking down the main street with my pompey top on and a bloke called rob pulled me up asking where i came from (was with my wife and kids) ????

sunsetsmiler

Hi we are looking to move to Richmond NSW in July on a 457 Visa. Due to the fact that we will be losing my wage until I can get a job, we are in the position of not being able to afford to hang on to our house. The house has been on sale for 3 weeks now, with only 2 viewings. We intend to rent in Aus.

lel_smiff

We chose to sell rather than rent out.

One of the main deciding factors was that we'd be pulling a massive profit out of it for selling right now. This of course is money that will come in very handy for relocating, possibly even buying a new house (if we're allowed) out there.

Another deciding factor is that, although we like where we are living right now, who's to say you'll want to go back to the same place if you do leave Australia? We might decide to go to a different city, or maybe a different country.

That's just us anyway though - we did think long and hard about it, and decided for the above reasons. Not sure if it'll help you decide or not.

Best of luck

bridiej

You need to think long and hard about the tenants, it's so easy to get a bad lot in that wreck the house and leave you to foot the bill - I do some work for a letting agent and have heard of some real horror stories which is why renting wasnt even an option for us! :scared:

Kopites

Hi we sold ours,we are going into rentil for a couple of months before we go to Sydney(Burwood),didnt want the hassle of selling in a couple of years when we hope to still be in Aus and the cash we made on this house means hopefully we will be mortgage free are we will only have a small mortgage to pay.

sunsetsmiler

One of the problems is that when moving out to Aus on a temp visa, you need permission to buy. Does anyone know how easy this is? We don't see the point in buying straight away as we do not know what area we want to settle in until we see for ourselves.

bridiej

We're not going to buy straight away either as until you've been there a few months you wont know which are the areas to avoid etc. or which area is best for you.

Not sure on the temporary visa question, have you tried doing a search of the forum?

stevemich

I seem to remember that you can buy on a temp visa, but how easy it is to borrow money depends on the visa itself.
I am going on a 457 visa, meaning I may have to leave the country on 28 days notice if my employment is terminated, therefore I would not be a good mortgage bet.
I believe you can get them, but you need top place a larger deposit or other surity to get one...
Other posts will help as I only glanced over them..

Steve

Kopites

Sorry mate ,cant help with the visa part,were going out on a pr visa and not planning to buy for the first few months as we ase planning to live with my brother and his family,good luck what ever you decide to do cheers Andy

sunsetsmiler

Good point Steve. I'm sure it's not the same in Aus as it is here, where it's imperative to get on the housing ladder to be able to afford a home. Looking on the estate agents web sites it doesn't look to expensive to rent, although some people think of it as dead money paying rent.

bleugh

how much mortgage do you have?

whats the average rental income for a house of your type in your area?

if you've got a fairly small mortgage, and a rental income would bring in close to double what the mortgage is, do it!.

you could always change to an interest only mortgage to reduce monthly payments by a significant amount and pocket the difference.

at the end of your mortgage, you'll still owe the amount your house is worth,

if you have (say) a 120,000 house, that you bought for 60,000 and rental is around £500 per calendar month, its seriously worth considering rental, it could make you around £100 profit a month.

but, the big problem is being a landlord, you could ask an agency to look after things, they would typically charge around 11% or so of the income as a management fee. they'd handle payments and getting money off the renters, and supposedly screen potential renters (take that with a pinch of salt tho).

you just pocket the cheque every month and pay the repair bills every month - when its not your own house, you tend not to take as much care, so expect a lot of refurbing every new tennant, that all hits your profits

typical figures bandied about for rental properties is that if you can't get 120% of your mortgage payments in rent, then you will make a loss.
if you're looking at using it as an income vehicle then you really need to be looking at a return of around 130-150% of your mortgage (i.e. if you pay £400 on a mortgage, you'd need to look at a minimum of 520-600 rental income)

Grayling

You will also have to pay Australian tax on the rental income.

G