Would you keep the house?

[SummerDog]

A year ago we moved from London into a rented house while we looked for where to buy. We have tenants in our house and after all the horror stories I've read I was prepared for it to be hard going but it's honestly been fine. They are a really nice couple who seem a tiny bit anal but take really good care of the house. We always intended to sell our house but now the tenants want a long term lease and we could afford to buy another house albeit far more modest than what we could afford if we sold the house in London. I'm tempted to just leave the tenants in our first house as I'd really like to go back there when we're older and the kids have gone. I've always thought if we sold that house we'd never be able to buy in london again....WWYD?

We are in a similar position. we became landlords when we couldn't sell our flat but couldn't afford to leave it empty hoping we'd get a buyer. The market has now recovered but we have decided to keep the flat for our kids. When the kids are older they can hopefully live in the flat or we can sell it and help them but their own flat.

We did the same (although intentionally) with our London flat. Similarly - great tenants who treat the place much better than we did. Our intention is to keep it - it's a really good security net for us financially, gives us the option to move back once DC have grown and left home, or for them to live in if and when they want to live in London, etc, and we feel very fortunate to have been able to keep hold of it.

Keep the London property. DH and I had this debate back in 2006 and 2011. Both times he wanted to sell, I wanted to rent out... we agreed that we’d market it for a month and then go down the rental path.

Both flats sold in sealed bids within the first week. The first one has over doubled in price since and the second one (much more expensive to start) has gone up by 50%!!!

I’m so pissed that we didn’t keep either of those properties. We could never buy them now and they were both in amazing locations and period (beautiful) buildings 😭

Don't forget that the rules on tax for landlords are changing very soon. I can't remember the ins and outs but basically you'll be paying more tax.on your rental income.. We were accidental landlords as we couldn't sell our flat bought at the 2007 peak when we relocated 400 miles. We've just sold partly for the tax reason (and partly so we could buy a house in a new and expensive area).

@TomorrowsDiet that's painful! Why twice did you lose that argument? We have looked up the tax implications and that's all fine. I'm more worried about the stamp duty on the second house. The IFA recommended placing the house in london in a trust for the kids but I'm not ready to that I don't think.

Would your jobs need moving back. A friend of mine was forced to come back to London after moving out. They were made redundant had to come back as they couldn't find other opportunities.
It worked out better for the family to have the place to move back eventually. Ofc Landlord tax is a good point to consider.

Keep the property - as long as you can manage financially without needing the equity there is in it.

Keep it! Such a good investment to have, despite landlord taxes etc. If you can square the finances ongoing, don't sell.

Wish I'd been able to keep my flat when we moved out of London but needed the equity.