Changing mortgage to buy to let after a year for FTB?

[hb789]

Dh and I are in a position to buy our first home after lots of hard saving. In comically bad timing we now have an opportunity to move abroad for a few years which we want to do as it's a big dream of mine, but it is time sensitive. So our plans are now a bit scrambled.

The area we want to buy has increased in price massively recently and is really up and coming, we are fearful that if we don't buy now and wait until we come back we'll be priced out.

We were hoping that we might be able to buy our property and live in it for a year or so, and then change it to a rental property so we can rent it out when we move abroad. Has anyone ever done anything similar before?

We have started conversations with a mortgage advisor so I'll be asking all of these questions to them and not just MN! And very aware they will likely tell us its just not possible. But just wondered if anyone had any experience of something like this

DD and her partner were in the same position and recently bought their first home. They want to get on the property ladder before they go abroad for couple of years (hopefully this time next year, although it's not definite).

They went through a broker and he said lenders are more likely to give permission to rent if they put a bigger deposit down, so they did 25% - is that a possibility for you? Obviously don't mention your future plans to the lender at this stage. Another thing they've done is take the mortgage out over a longer term, I think 35 years - purely to keep the payments as low as possible over the time they are away. I think if lenders see that the rent you'd be getting is a lot more than the mortgage payments this helps. They are now paying quite a bit less on the mortgage payments than they were paying rent on their previous home. But they are continuing to save like crazy, and the plan is to pay a lump sum off the mortgage when they return from abroad, and then after a while possibly to remortgage and shorten the term. It gives them flexibility.

Another thing to consider is to choose a property that you like yourselves, but which would also be attractive to tenants.

I hope some of that will be helpful to you, but obviously your situation will not be exactly the same as DD's.

Some lenders will give "consent to let" after a certain amount of time rather than changing to a BTL mortgage. If its short term then maybe look into that.

You'll also need to think very seriously about whether you actually want to be a landlord, especially if you're not in the country. Who will manage the property for you? What happens if something breaks and needs replacing (boiler etc)? What if the tenants stop paying rent? What about if they refuse to move out when you come back?

It might be possible. You’ll need minimum 25% equity (do you have that much deposit?) and it’ll need to have a rental income at least 125% of mortgage payments for most lenders. Choose your lender wisely.

If you're only moving abroad for a couple of years then the mortgage company will likely give you consent to let (I did so as moved to now DH's place a year after i bought) as long as you lived there for 6 months minimum. This allows you to rent out for a set period (up to two years usually) without changing the terms of your mortgage. HSBC do it for free but you can't remortgage in that time but some charge you so look into it before you purchase your mortgage