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Pay off mortgage or buy another house

5 replies

OperaStation · 18/10/2022 12:54

Between my husband and I we have about £250k in savings. We have about £300k left on our mortgage. Our mortgage is £1800 per month.

We had always thought we would use the savings to buy another home. We’re currently in a small 2 bed flat and would really like a house with a garden. In an ideal world we would keep our flat in central London in case one day we want to move back.

If you were me, would you pay off the bulk of the mortgage now, knowing that we would have to sell up if/when we decide to upsize? Or would you hold onto the dream of keeping the London flat and buying elsewhere? Is there even any point having a second home these days given the costs involved with being a landlord? If we rented it out we would be able to get about £2000pcm but we would have agency fees and tax to consider.

To add to the conundrum, our flat is worth a little less than we originally paid for it 10 years ago and there’s no guarantee it will appreciate in the short run.

I would appreciate anyone making any sense of our situation!

OP posts:
onmywayamarillo · 18/10/2022 13:00

Keep the flat rent it out, use profits to pay off mortgage, fees, tax on profits. Etc you can use the interest paid on mortgages against your tax bill now.

Use savings for deposit on new home.

In a few years if you decide to sell the flat it might be worth more... if it's not at least you won't any cgt on it!

BitOutOfPractice · 18/10/2022 13:01

onmywayamarillo · 18/10/2022 13:00

Keep the flat rent it out, use profits to pay off mortgage, fees, tax on profits. Etc you can use the interest paid on mortgages against your tax bill now.

Use savings for deposit on new home.

In a few years if you decide to sell the flat it might be worth more... if it's not at least you won't any cgt on it!

This.

OperaStation · 18/10/2022 13:28

onmywayamarillo · 18/10/2022 13:00

Keep the flat rent it out, use profits to pay off mortgage, fees, tax on profits. Etc you can use the interest paid on mortgages against your tax bill now.

Use savings for deposit on new home.

In a few years if you decide to sell the flat it might be worth more... if it's not at least you won't any cgt on it!

I didn’t know you could use the interest paid on mortgages against your tax bill. Thanks for the tip.

OP posts:
messybutfun · 18/10/2022 13:56

That’s because you can’t.
Not just not mortgage interest, all BTL finance cost such as mortgage booking and broker fees do no longer get tax relief (although a 20% tax credit may be available)
At the previous stress rates £2000 rent would have just about covered the mortgage - I don’t think those are available anymore so you would have to reduce your mortgage accordingly.
That is interest only - no mortgage will be repaid.

onmywayamarillo · 18/10/2022 16:25

That is true ☝️
But I got a lovely 20% credit to my tax bill this year when I added Interest paid

Not off my profits

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