Selling London family home

[Damien0]

For various reasons we are planning to move out of London. Our family home is in a good area, remaining mortgage is about £500,000 (I know, hideous, but it's about 50% of the value of the house)

DH and I are in a quandary about whether to sell or not. On the one hand having a London property which will gain/hold its value in the long term is such an advantage. On the other hand, selling will allow us to buy a family home outside London mortgage-free, and removes the various headaches of rental agents, mortgage interest payments etc

In our position, what would people do?

Need more information about possible rental income vs outgoings such as mortgage and maintenance to see if it's financially feasible in the first place.

If it’s at all possible, I’d try to hold on to your London house - at least in the short term. That way, you can always change your mind. If you sell up you might find yourself priced out a couple of years down the line. I’ve known too many people move out, and then regret it. And I say this as someone who cordially detests London.

Yes I would hang onto it for now, maybe plan to revisit the idea in a year and see how you feel about living elsewhere. Maybe rent in your new location for a while too.

Most houses in London rent well and it is a shit time to be selling anyway.

Can you buy a smaller place in London eg a 2 bed place to let out so you stay in the London market and then buy your family house outside London? That way your place in London would have mortgage covered by rental income and you would only have a small one on the other

I'd hold on to it and either rent or buy when I moved.

You may hate where you move to and want to move back, so having kept the property will make this easier.

If you don't want to move back and feel it's a hassle, you can sell at that point. But in the first instance I would definitely hold to to it.

We sold and deeply regretted it when we had to move back 5 years later for work. I would rent it out at least in the mid term till you are sure.

depends about work? kids etc?

personally i would love to be mortgage free, that would be my drive. Huge pressure off. But where would the jobs be?

depends about work? kids etc?

personally i would love to be mortgage free, that would be my drive. Huge pressure off. But where would the jobs be?

500k wouldn't buy that much in the nice parts of Surrey Kent or other home counties. Stay where you are.

I’d hold on to it if you can and rent where you are planning to go.
We sold in London 7 years ago for about £900,000 bought a wreck in the country and had fun doing it up but it cost a lot more money than we expected.
We are now selling up in the countryside for about £950,000 our old London Home is now worth about £1,200,000.
We are probably going to buy a flat outright back in London for around £700,000. We still feel like we are in a good position, but we would had made more money if we had just stayed in London.

We kept our flat in London when moved 4 years ago as felt we might not afford to buy there again if ever needed to go back for work.
We have good tenants and rent something bigger in the country. So far I’m glad of the decision as we are fond of our flat and might find it useful again one day.
So far renting has seemed the right thing though we are looking at buying in our new area when can afford to. Meanwhile I’m glad not to have the upkeep costs where we live as in london if there’s a problem with the roof etc at least it’s shared 4 ways (it’s a flat) and also appreciate the flexibility as we can move if ever want to