Rental property as main income?

[Givemecoffeeplease]

I’m about to lose my job (ugh). I live in a popular seaside town where there are lots of airbnb rentals etc. I have a small inheritance I could use to buy a seaside cottage and rent it out. Aibu to think I could run it as a job, cleaning it etc myself, and make a living off the rent (obviously more money in summer so would eke that out over the year). Or are the tax implications of a second property just too big and scary?

The thought of unemployment is very scary, but nor do I really want to go back to traditional office work (whatever that is after Covid) when this might give me more freedom around the kids.

Yabu - taxes are too complicated, rents won’t add up

Yanbu - sounds like a good way to make a living to me (and please explain the tax implications!)

Thank you.

You're talking about stamp duty too I assume. The second home stamp duty I mean.

Could you purchase a cheaper place and holiday let your current house?

HMRC website is surprisingly good to find your way around.

(BTW are you the poster who was talking about opening a gift wrap business?)

I think you can easily get a good income from a holiday let
If there’s no mortgage, doing your own cleaning, own bookings etc
If we lockdown again, just put a long let in, obviously at reduced rent , where they’ll pay council tax and bills and you get something back

I get £7k from from my long let. Not my main income
If it was on the sea front I’d get £24k with weekly let’s..approx, but then there’s different taxes and I’d be responsible for utilities
I did very nicely letting to construction workers a room each in one of my properties netted me £1200 a month compared to £600 for a family, But unfortunately it was seasonal work and when it dried up I had to long let to a family but that was a nice little earner
Plus they went home at weekends. Was far cheaper than a hotel for them and they had all home comforts. If you’re not greedy it’s win :win for everyone

@Binswangers

I don't actually think you're being unreasonable. I just don't think you'll earn enough.

This. Just do the maths.

We are converting outbuildings to holiday lets and without mortgages to pay then it’s one to survive and two to thrive but that’s based on our expected rental income minus expenses minus a bit for unoccupied times and wear and tear etc

I don't think the tax implications are as massive as you seem to think. I do think you might need something else to top up your income though. Do you have a skill you could use part time? Or if you are up for cleaning your own property perhaps you could start a business cleaning some other holiday rentals in the same area? I imagine cleaning a holiday rent is slightly different to cleaning a daily home as presumably you also have to strip beds, wash all the bedding and towels, remake the beds and unstack the dishwasher plus probably lots more I've not thought of. I imagine you could charge a fair amount for that and adding that to your rental income might help.

Thank you so much for all the help. I’m working out the costs and it looks like a very painful way to make money, as lots of you suggest, and it’s not equivalent to the salary I could make in a similar role to my current one.

Gift wrap is not me, I’d be terrible at that!

Thank you all