superam74

Hi Everyone,
When I sell my house I'm hoping to take 40k to Oz (along with my wife & 2 boys). BUT , an opportunity has arisen for me to buy my Mum's council house for about 20-25k ,which I think is too good to pass up.IF I go ahead with the investment, our future will be a lot more secure but we will only be taking 20k max to fund our new life down under (finding a house to rent, furniture, car etc).Has anybody out there (with a better financial head than me) got any advice. kind regards, Pete.

phoenixinoz

Presume you mean £20k UK....and the equivlent in Aus which is about $45k AUD ish?

Not a great amount but it should keep you ticking over until you get a job.

All depends of course.

Depends on renting or buying in Aus [cos you'll need a deposit if buying]

Depends how long it takes to find a job

Depends what you need to set you up in Aus e.g. car / furniture etc

I'm sure you'd manage on this if renting and you were frugal with your spending.

Good luck!

Australia_bound?

Yes it'll keep you ticking over for quite a while until you find a job and settle in properly, we're hoping to go with £10,000 but we can stop with family until we're settled 4 to 8 weeks and during this time we would need to find work and somewhere to live.
Don't worry too much buy up your mums house very good investment and in the long term you'll probably get the money back many times over possibly enough to pay off Aus mortgage early Money goes far in Aus I know people who've gone with less that £5000 and managed very well got a house and job within weeks just depends on how fussy you are about your line of work, if you want same position and wages as in UK no chance, if flexible and work area you'll find work no problems

walaj

you can buy a house for £20-25k in the UK? Wow, I did not think that was possible, unless it was in an undesirable location needing major renovation.

Seriously, if you are paying under market value for the house, you could end up with tax consequences, so ensure you know them if this is the case.

Australia_bound?

My gran bought her house for £16,000 2 years ago, is now worth in excess of £100,000 it's in a nice ish area, but how long you you rent a house affects how much you pay for it(longer rent lower price to but home). I would guess that tax would probably not be an issue in this persons case they would end up with far more cash in the long term. Property in UK is going to continue to rise in UK simply due to too many people too few homes. Life is a gamble no point playing it safe and ending up the richest person in the graveyard

The Johnstons

My gran recently bought her beautiful council house for 14K. She'd been a council tenant for 40 years so the discount she got was phenomenal. The house is in a nice area and would sell for around 80K normally.

Maybe this is the case for Pete too?

I would be inclined to buy it if it looks like a sound investment, a little windfall a few years down the line would be good - hope that doesn't sound too mercenary .

isgraham

I hope so because that's what I am going with!!!!!!

Ozceltic

I bought my grans council house shortly before we left. I paid £12000 for it when the actual value was around £150000, the reason I got it so cheap was because she has lived there all her married life and always paid rent, the council now let owners buy the houses, the longer you have paid rent the cheaper the house.
My gran will live there until she dies and than I will sell it. If there are tax implications so be it, i will still come out of it with a smile on my dial.
Go for it mate, buy the house.

Australia_bound?

It does sound mercenary, but we know were you're coming from

walaj

don't all rush at once to prove me wrong
did not realise that council tenants got such discounts - I was thinking that on the open market a house (council house or not) is just not going to be that low.

One of the tax implications I was thinking of, if house was being sold by parent to child below market price for the parent to live in until their death to avoid IHT. That does not appear to be the case for OP