heading-west

we have only one option before arrival in Canada. sell the house.

so far its been on the market since sept '10 and only one viewer (our agents are crappy to say the least!) nothing wrong with the house its all been beautifully refurbished, virtually no maintenance needed. and its not over priced.

there is no way we can afford to pay a mortgage in the UK whilst trying to settle in Canada, besides which we need the capital to be able to buy once we find something suitable anyway.

snowshoveller

I think if a UK property is mortgaged to any significant degree you will definitely need to sell. The cost of renting in the UK is relatively low compared to the mortgages people have, so its unlikely you can rent it out and have it pay for itself. I dont envy anyone trying to sell at the moment!!.

Bucks_Family

We'll be selling up before moving (assuming the FSW1 application is successful of course), we just can't be arsed with the whole renting-out-our-UK-house thing, the concern about good tenants/bad tenants, havnig to come back to visit and sort anything major out etc.. Plus we feel that having a "safety net" would just make it too easy for us to give up if we find settling in Canada difficult. We'd be more likely to work through any issues if all our eggs were in a Canadian basket.

Funky Florist

That pretty much sums it up for us too!

Joe_Sleepy

By the time the U.K. property market collapsed we had all invested so much time, emotion & money that we just went for it.

The move here could only have been financed by the sale of our U.K. home..

For the five months our house took to sell it dropped over £50,000 from it's original valuation. We had originally planned to use the near C$100,000 to invest here as a cushion ()...

Luckily we still had enough to buy our place outright & so avoided the need for a mortgage. The work situation for us is still pretty sucky so there is little in the way of luxuries but at least we have a relatively secure roof over our heads..

Keith

I hadn't planned to come to Canada in November 1962 and had sold our 2 bed bungalow and paid a deposit on a 3 bed house.
In February 1963 I saw an ad in the Sunday Telegraph for a job in Ottawa, applied and got an offer. Talked it over with the estate agent and he advised us to sell the house we were to move in June 1963. Took his advice and made a 10% profit.

I was 33 with a wife and two children and those 6 months flew by and we sold all our furniture and sailed to Canada on the 2 July 1963

cheeky_monkey

Looks like im the only one who decided to keep my Uk home? Anyone sell up and then wished they hadnt?

rivingtonpike

Anyone want to buy a house? Got one going expensive!

JandG

We ended up with two houses in the UK - the one that we live in, plus one that we rent out. It wasn't planned - we were building a house and ended up part-exchanging the cottage that we were living in at the time against a new-build townhouse, then couldn't sell the townhouse when the build finished because of the downturn.

So, we are continuing to rent the townhouse and consider this our bolt hole if everything goes T.U. in Canada. There's no equity in the townhouse, but it brings in a small income, so we'll keep it for another 6 months at least...

Obviously, when interest rates start going up in the UK, we could find ourselves in a completely different situation, but we try not to think about that!

ducktastic

Mmmmm early days yet, only been here 2 months, we made a killing on our sale, so would have been idiots to have not sold it. I do miss my house in the UK, but we are renting, so probably feel that way until we buy here.

SandyWales

We have kept our house in the UK!

We went through an estate agent and currently have tenants - just too difficult to sell at the moment in the UK.......
We just made sure we attempted renew any thing that may need attention (put new boiler in, replaced patio doors, put in new oven and other minor things) so hopefully it'll just tick along.

We rent here in Canada, and will attempt to sell when things pick up. We're also waiting for PNP so not in a rush to buy at the moment.

chobert

We had ours on the market from Oct10 to Dec10 - had plenty of viewings as it's a v good 3-bed semi on a private road only about 20 mins from Heathrow (not on the flight path) but the two offers we had were well under the valuations and what we want for it.

We'll be trying again mid Feb as we intend landing during our next recce trip early March. Fingers crossed the spring time brings more serious buyers and we are hoping to move late summer to NS.

Thought about the rental thing - and may still consider it but as a last resort.

robert_masters

Both sides of our neighbors have had their houses up for sale between 6 months and well over a year. They've drop and drop their prices and still can't sell. So what's the point in us selling, after ploughing money into doing-it-up only to loose the lot which we invested in. Also, another point to mention would be even if we sold the exchange rate is sooooo poor! When the times comes for us to move we will rent it out, maybe leave it for 'retirement' or 'safety net'?

We now have PR and the job hunting isn't going as well as we thought. In my o/h line of work (J.M.Electrician) he either has to be in a union, which is more secure and better pay, or non-union which is a risk. Employers take you on one day and can get rid of you just like that!!! To be in a union you have to be in Canada/Alberta for 3 months, no good for those who just entering the country! The issue is even more forced that o/h has to go alone to get through the worst period, but at what cost????

Hanging onto the house can only be the sensible thing to do for now.

Angela

agr

Not quite the same thing, but we chose not to buy in UK mid-2007 on return from a foreign military posting, and are very glad we did. GBP 250k for a terraced ex-council house in Bristol .. seller wouldn't come down 3k so we walked away. Passport request came through a few months later. Talk about deliverance!

Okotokshometeam

I find it quite interesting to hear about the housing market in the UK.. I can imagine how stressful this move is for British people to move over here without having to deal with their house sale... I wonder how many British people are postponing their move to Canada because they are unable to sell their home...