toon williams

We are at the moment seriously thinking about renting our house out for about 12-18 months when we leave to go to Oz, for various different and we feel valid reasons. We are both uming and ahing over what to do, rent the house or sell the house?? There seems to be a list as long as both arms for both!!

So just wanted to hear from people both the good and the bad stories!! Or any advice, basically anything that we can throw into the pot that can help us make a decision!!

Many thanks

gina

hi guys

toughy!!!

if you havent got enough money to go ..............sell

if you have .................dont

hugs geex

Darren S

Hi We are hoping to sell our current house to release some cash and then buy a smaller property to rent out. This keeps you in the UK housing market and gives you an income from the rent

Wendy

I've got no intention whatsoever of coming back to the UK, so for us it's sell now.

Can't see the point in making a big commitment moving to another country then holding on to this one.

Just my opinion. I hope you make the right decision for you

Mrs Jackaroo

We're moving across next month and have decided to rent the house out. As soon as we made this decision the relief was immense. We have been lucky in that we have already got someone lined up to rent it at top whack price and for a minimum of 2 years (through an estate agent). We will have about £10k to take across with us which should be plenty as my hubby already has a job lined up and we're being put up in a hotel for a month when we arrive - then its down to us to find our own rental property. The only downside I can see in not selling the UK property yet is that there is no way we could afford to buy in Oz. To be honest though we're quite looking forward to being in rented for a while!!

Good luck with whatever decision you make!

Rach xxxx

Dreamaway 10

If you can afford to do it .Rent.
Once you have made your decisions then you can put it on the market or again if you can afford to hold onto it and keep up with the mortgage payments and use it for a second income when you retire.
Most people do not have an option us included as everything is tied up in the house.
If you do decide to sell Good Luck.

MummyKarin

We have decided to rent. Basically we bought the house a few years ago relatively cheap, so don't have much of a mortgage. We have re-mortgaged so that we can take some more savings with us to decrease the amount we have to borrow to buy in Australia. You really have to consider your own situation, if you can afford to keep the house here for a while taking into consideration the estate agents fees for rental, then I think it is a good idea, especially seeing how the house prices have moved over time in this part of the UK (Surrey & Sussex). Also remember that mortgages are more expensive in Aus by about 2%

Scottishmum

We have two houses, one we live in and one we rent out, but we've just decided bugger it, sell the two of them then that way we've got more pennies to go out with.

What was the basic clincher for us was that we made the decision that we're NEVER coming back, we're committed to doing this. We have a tenant in the other house at the moment and we know we could continue to rent it out and its there if we do ever need to come back, but quite frankly we'd rather have all the money available to give us the best possible start in our new life.

Best of luck whatever you decide to do.

C xxx

rcladin

Me too, if you can afford it i would say rent.

You can rent it out and see how it goes, if it doesn't work out wait 6month or a year and sell.

Consider what the market is like in Area you are moving too, i know Sydney house prices are dropping and melbourne is flat. so if you sell in UK and plan on buying in Aus consider where you are in the cycle.

If you rent you can claim mortgage interest payments off your tax paid in Aus, this can reduce your tax payable to the ATO and may be advantageous,

try and cover all bases with insurance,

if you are in it for long term no matter what happens you cannot lose

i would say anyway

Tweenies

Completely agree...if you can afford to not sell, rent it out ! ......If not sell

caleb2003

Renting out is all well and good especially if the prices rise and rise but...

When your in Oz on OZ dollars and the house may be 'between tenants' then you gotta stump up the mortgage for any amount of time from 1 to xx months that its empty so you need to have a nest egg set aside for that and repairs.

Hopefully you'll get a good estate agent but if you get the wrong un then it could be a disaster for your property. For instance we have 2 rentals 1 brilliantly managed no hassle but the other has been a nightmare with things like the EAs quarterly inspection saying the properties in great order when the reality is our once proud home looks like squatters are in.

Another problem to consider is when you come to sell it is very very difficult to get a) people to visit with tenants obviously not wanting them there and tenants suddenly becoming hard to get hold of to arrange access. b) the tenants will never have the place looking clean an airy like you would so its likely to be less sellable c) the value of the house may depending on the condition lose a considerable amount of its value purely on the looks.

A house near me has been rented for 3 years and then put on the market to sell for the last 2 years ( and also vacant), the owners went to new zealand but god knows how they must feel with this burden still there.


If your going to do it then consider at least these risks and also the fact the market may not rise in value enough to cover any potential losses.

For me I'm trying to sell up and leave behind all concerns starting afresh with a clean slate.

Hope that helps.

spottydog

We thought about renting our place out incase we didn't like Australia but decided to sell. Our reasons were:

Kelli28

we have rented ours out it gave us the opportunity of not having to wait for the sale to go through I'm very happy with the tenants and they may even want to buy it in the future the rent covers all costs and we even get a bit extra in the bank it just means that i cant buy here yet. and there's no capital gains for 5-6 yrs on the UK house not sure if that is still true when you buy here though something i need to look into a bit more

isgraham

If you can afford to rent I have done and am quite enjoying having someone else paying my mortgage and most of my rent here!!!!!

flip

We rented because we couldn't sell. Our tenants bought it - Today!! Not that I'm relieved or anything!!

Lost a bit by renting (rent didn't cover mortgage & had to find extra for insurance, etc) but it gave us breathing space and we're now glad we didn't sell immediately as we'd have bought early and may have made the wrong choice.

You'll win on some bits and lose on others depending on exchange rates, concessions, market fluctuations there and here. You can't predict it all - just have to do the best you can.