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?

Blimey missed the epc changes
Anyone know if exemptions still apply ?
We rent out an old property that we couldn't even get to minimum standards ( think stone floor and vaulted ceilings)
We spent the required amount on insulation and then got an exemption
It's rented to friends who know the situation
We would basically have to evict them in 2028 if no exemption.
The only suggestion the survey came up with was ripping out the central heating and boiler and installing electric storage heaters and an immersion heater which is completely impractical!

I'm really interested in this thread - we are accidental LLs due to an inheritance meaning we could keep our first home and rent it out (1 bed london garden flat) when we bought our family house (3 beds in the country).

We are in our early 40s, have 2 little kids and due to arty, creative "careers", very little by way of pensions or investments.

The flat went up in value a lot when we first bought it, but has been stuck around the £500K mark for the past few years. We have lovely tenants, one is a lawyer, who take good care of it - and they have a vested interest in never behaving badly because it could get them disbarred!

The rental income is 3 x our mortgage so it's a decent profit, and although there are niggles with maintenance (the building is over 100 years old so there's always something!) we feel it's worth the hassle for now.

The flat is gorgeous, the area is lovely, and getting more and more desirable. I feel like holding on to the flat is a financial no-brainer, especially with these fab tenants.

But would I really be better able to take care of my kids and retire (someday) if we sold up and invested instead? If so I'd love to know what that looks like. To me it's always seemed like property was the only investment that kept pace with inflation...?

If interest rates keep going up there won`t be an increase in property prices.

Yeah maybe we could just put the feelers out so not to make him do anything rash

I am an accidental landlord - moved for work and didn't want to give up my home. I believe I will go back there some day.

Last year I took possession again after 8 years. My tenant had trashed the place. It all fell apart during covid, he wasn't paying full rent, I started following the legal process to evict. It was all taking a very long time and he wasn't even living there - he'd gone back to the country he was from months before.

The photos I took when I entered the property would horrify anyone. It cost me £20k to sort every thing out. New, kitchen, fixing damp that had been left to take over (simple glitter fix), full redecoration, new floors - did lots of work myself. The place looks amazing, I refurbed to a standard I would be happy to live in.

I have let again and currently my rent is around £200 below market value. Rents are out of control due to housing shortages in that area. I engage with all the requirements, I'm an NRLA member. My EPC was at D but I have some ideas on how to get to C even though it's an old building.

I'm a higher rate tax payer and it's mortgaged - both have a significant impact on the ability to make any real profit. Due to last years refurb costs and the period of low rent before that I will have years of loss. I've switched to interest only mortgage to help me ride that out. During the years I've kept it, close to a decade, I've pretty much broken even on rental income.

I'm not grumbling about this - the value of the property is creeping up and I can move back there which could still happen in my life even though I've been away for years now. But it isn't all a bed of roses being a landlord, even if you're a 'good one' maybe especially so. The regulation of the market is designed to push out people like me. The landlords remaining will be large corporate landlords (tax breaks more advantageous for companies and they will have the scale to ride out a longer eviction process).

So I'm sticking for now. Mainly because one day I hope to go home - I also see it as a pension investment if not. I will hope for the best. i do have a friend who also hung on to her first home and was wary of the forthcoming changes. She has sold. The stats say that many landlords are selling now. I can't blame them.

I have one that my daughters are currently using for university as luck would have it all three of them are going to the same one so we should be finished with that property in four years time. And then I will either sell it on or rent it out I haven’t decided which at this stage but we will have cleared the mortgage entirely by the time it gets to that stage and I think that makes an enormous difference. The main reason for purchasing was that ive saved £60,000 in rent for the kids accommodation. Its been an excellent investment.

No. Ironically I am finding it very hard to find a new property to buy that's suitable as a BTL in my budget. Nobody seems to be selling anything.

What are you after?

Your EPC should tell you how much it will cost to bring it up to a C

Mine's a Victorian terrace so to bring it up to regs will involve solar panels etc. It's going to cost well over £10k . I was already pondering whether it was worth it with the mortgage interest tax changes and my fixed rate coming to an end next year. I wasn't aware of this change until this thread so I'm definitely going to sell when my fixed rate comes to an end Dec 2023. I feel for my tenants because I charge very low rate and they're very lucky. There's hardly ever private rentals advertised in this area. Just hope getting them out won't be too complicated with the new notice rules. Will have to read up on this. Thanks for the thread, OP.

I usually look for something in a decent area, at least two bedrooms, some sort of outdoor space, that I can rent out for about £495-£600. They seem to appeal to families, youngish people, they're affordable but nice enough. I have three and would like another-dearest one was £130k (I'm in the North). Finding all of those was easy, and I had at least a good handful to choose from. Zilch on the market now!

Does anyone have a share token for this article?

Oh my god, those losers are still on there?!😂They've been waiting for a crash since 2000. That went well, didn't it, guys?

That's exactly the thing, the rogue landlords will stay and the good landlords will sell up! Extremely poor from this government, but what else is new?

Most of them actually do own property now; it's mainly a site for middle aged men to moan about the high house prices and immigrants and how silly the average person is. And how the economy is rigged against them.

Yours sounds like a very good investment. God I wish my rent income was three times my mortgage 😂

Hahaha, they finally accepted the crash was never coming and bought?

Yeah, no chance of this criteria now

@GreenLunchBox if you are on a phone click on the telegraph link then just as it starts loading put your phone in airplane mode and it should load up in full

Oh. My. God. GAME CHANGER!! 👀

I've read the article.

When did this government become socialist?🤔
When it benefits their rich mates! Screw over the small time.landlord with one or two BTLs so s/he exits the market, leaving a captive audience for the rich multi-rental-owning chums

Final salary.pensions have gone, the stock market has tanked, inflation is through the roof, higher rate tax band hasn't changed in years. What are middle income people just trying to better themselves meant to do? Where do you put your money? They've already made it so it's not worth earning more than £50k if you're in that ball park

@GreenLunchBox are you buying properties as a sole trader or through a limited company? A Special Purpose Vehicle company might be better for holding property, if you’re not already doing that.

I’m in Yorkshire and £130k in my area would get a two bed terrace with a garden and maybe a driveway. You would struggle to get a 3 bed though. We’ve seen some high house price inflation over the last couple of years. Rents have also increased, I don’t think there are any two beds for under £500pcm now, they used to start around £400pcm.

How exactly do you get that figure?

Now the economy is rigged against big debt holders, how things change, LOL.

Is it ? The economy is offered me a 25% pay rise in the last two years.

I’m selling up. Just one house. I’ve let it out for nearly 25 years. My issue is that now I am past retiring age I’m intending to give the money realised to DD. We had always planned this. It’s EPC C. The big issue is no fault eviction. The tenants could stay for years! I cannot afford for this to happen. CGT will be huge but we will invest the money in our portfolio until DD needs it.