If you are a landlord are you thinking of selling up?

[Didyousaysomethingdarling]

Are you reassessing your continued role as a landlord, due to the changes to tax (S24), proposals regarding EPCs, the recently published private rented sector white paper, along with interest rate rises and increased maintenance costs, etc? I'm having to let one of my properties go and my tenants can't find anywhere. Is it because lots of landlords are issuing section 21s at the same time? It looks like there's a bottleneck. How do you see it playing out in the short/medium term?

Definitely going.

I've just got a great deal on a 2-year fix BTL mortgage for mine and then planning to sell after that comes to an end in 2024. But in the meantime the monthly payment will be lower than it's ever been in the 5 or so years I've been renting it out. The capital gains tax is depressing though - the value has gone up a fair bit since I bought it around 10 years ago (to live in) but not at all since I've been renting it out for the past 5 years or so. I'm going to put the money towards buying somewhere nicer to live in (selling my current house too) and it's obviously difficult as prices have gone up everywhere in the past few years. I'm not on a high income at all so paying up to £20k or so to the government really hurts!

One set of tenants have left as recently bought and the other is going as will be traveling. Perfect timing for us as youngest going to university so we are selling and moving back up which works perfectly for me wanting to move home.

Usually tenants stay for about 8 to 10 years and I was dreading them staying for ages, didn’t want to give notice but wanted to move back in . Couldn’t believe my luck when text to give notice arrived recently.

To the landlords who are staying in the sector, will you buy more rental properties?

I'm waiting to see what happens and will make a decision next year .
I'm retiring soon anyway and don't want the aggravation anymore .

On a practical note if all the landlords sell up where are tenants going to live because there's not enough social housing and what's left to rent privately will cost the earth as it'll be more scarce

Only if something came up very local to where I am, and was ideally priced.

my original property was the flat I grew up in with my grandparents. The second is the neighbouring one and I only bought that because the shit landlord who owned it wanted out when they brought in a landlord registration pilot locally (and a shit load of social housing was built) and he offered it at a lower price than I expected.

I wouldn’t actively go looking, if that makes sense.

We are in the process of buying a 3rd, but this thread has scared me.

Im not that savvy, I do all the necessary things but we are doing it as a long term investment for the future and the kids.

we are very benign landlords, never raise rent and get problems fixed immediately. That’s not pertinent I just want it state that we are not a-holes!

If we are going into this with a very long view, are we still in trouble? The house we are in the process of buying is old semi with a whole load of issues, EPC currently E49. Other two are are great, lovely long term tenants who we have an excellent relationship with.

Are we mad to go for another?

The borrowing to income ratio still remains, as does the need for a deposit which is the biggest barrier.

there are changes here afoot too because of the we pay 1k rent but mortgage will only do £500 etc, specialist lenders who will do 7 or 10 x your salary. I think they work a bit like help to buy/shared ownership.

Yes considering. Especially as the property will sell very easily and for a good price.
Renting is a challenge. I haven't enjoyed it v much and it doesn't make a lot of financial sense really ... though I could raise the rent. Currently it's a housing benefit rate as I think that's important, that a normal family can have somewhere to live, but yeah it's not good business wise.

@hattie43

On a practical note if all the landlords sell up where are tenants going to live because there's not enough social housing and what's left to rent privately will cost the earth as it'll be more scarce

Good question, it makes you wonder why the government didn't think of putting something in place, before they started fiddling with the market.
They really NEED to relax the loan to value income multipliers, so good reliable tenants can pay the same price to buy their own home as they spend on rent. I think it's coming with fixed for life mortgages but not happening soon enough...

The UK government will explore ways to hand borrowers larger and longer mortgages in the hopes of encouraging more people to buy homes, with a review to be launched in the next few weeks.

The joint review by the Treasury and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities will consider 30-year fixed rate mortgages, debts worth almost 100% of the property and ways to blend renting and owning a property, according to people familiar with the matter.

www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-16/uk-housing-market-review-to-explore-30-year-fixed-mortgages

If the government continue to push out private landlords what do they plan on doing with all the tenants exactly

@MakkaPakkasPO
Are we mad to go for another?
Yes, there are better ways to plan for your children's future.
The CGT on properties are punitive, especially when you're passing on the wealth to your children. You need to carefully consider inheritance tax implications. Imagine your three rental end up being worth £1m through inflation and you died, your children might well end up paying 40% inheritance tax that's £400,000. There are much more savvy ways to invest for your children. You need to learn about stocks and shares.

This is interesting as I am hoping to buy and almost everything that comes on to the market in our price range is a former or current rental property. I would love to buy my current home if that was an option do you think it is worth approaching the land Lord ( we rent through an agency so I’m not sure if I even have his contact details) ?

Definitely speak to your landlord. I'd love my tenant to ask to buy mine. I'm just waiting for them to move out to sell mine.

We rent and one of the previous houses we rented, the landlords sold it to another landlord who appeared to be lovely when we met him and within a month, they'd increased the rent and moaned about everything from our choice of decor (the previous landlords let us decorate) to the fact we had a baby (at the time) and used the garage as he wanted it as storage himself. We didn't stay long he was unbearable .

Where we live (East Miss) when rental properties come up they go very very quickly and there are lots of people interested in each one. My neighbours moved out and she had about 15 different people viewing one Saturday on an open day and nearly all of them wanted it so there is definitely a shortage of rentals.

@ElephantGrey101

I would love to buy my current home if that was an option do you think it is worth approaching the land Lord ( we rent through an agency so I’m not sure if I even have his contact details)?

Yes definitely ask. The government have made noises about giving landlords, who sell to their tenants, a CGT discount. If it happens it could work to your advantage. As part of your letting agreement I think you're meant to have your landlords contact details but if you can't find them, look up your address on the Government Land Registry site and download them, it costs £3. Best of luck I hope it happens for you!

@Didyousaysomethingdarling I will have to pay it though if I still own my btl flat after selling my current residence (when I buy my new place to live)?

What difference will abolishing S21s make if you can still evict a tenant (ie to sell)?

We already have quite a sizeable amount in stocks and shares, and we are trying to diversify.

what if the houses are put in the kids names when we get old?

the other option we considered was getting the investments to pay us a monthly amount, but we thought that property in general is slightly safer. Perhaps this is no longer the case?

I’m a good landlord but am getting out - inflation/interest rate rises, together with an ageing house and the war the government is currently waging on landlords has me convinced it’s the right time to exit. I’d rather put the money in premium bonds. It’s certainly nowhere near as profitable as some people would have you believe.

We issued a section 21 to our tenants last month. There are 3 properties in the local area big enough for them, and they have pets so will have to see if they find anywhere after the 2 months or if we need to start eviction proceedings.

As far as I can tell, the government has scored a complete own goal and it’s the tenants that will lose out, certainly in the short term. Time will tell if they will win in the long term.

Its to stop revenge evictions. It happens a lot when there are defects in the property. I deal with it a lot in my line of work.

@roarfeckingroarr

I will have to pay it though if I still own my btl flat after selling my current residence (when I buy my new place to live)?

No you won't have to pay it, if you're selling the house you live in to buy another house to live in. Your BTL is irrelevant in this situation. If you were buying a second home or another BTL then you would have to pay the additional 3% stamp duty.

No, I have 8 btl. I will sell 1 cheaply toy son and then sell 1 a year. I won't be buying more. 6 months of no rent paid before even being able to apply to court on a section 8 is a joke.

We have sold our rental, just about to exchange . We had 2 years of a nightmare Tennant, who owed us £16k in rent, we did finally get it but having to pay for repairs & maintenance when we had nothing coming in was soul destroying. I'm not willing to risk staying on that path, so we've sold and will be reinvesting the profit in a business for our adult son.