As the housing market is becoming more unstable does that mean that the rental market will increase?

[McDreamy]

It's just that we have reduced our house price by 5% and are not prepared to go any lower. If, by the time we move back to the UK (July time) we have not sold our house at the price we want we are not prepared to lower the price anymore so we were thinking of renting it out until we want to buy (a year or 2).

It's a 4 bedroomed family house. We were just wondering if renting it out was a good option at the moment as it seems to me more people are renting.

Sorry no but Wiltshire is lovely this time of year

We are in a similar situation. We have a house in the UK on the market and need to sell by end of summer or will have to rent and sit tight and not buy where we are for a few more years. I did rent the house last year and got 20% less than the mortgage (and not high mortgage ratio on buy price either) on rental income. If we have not sold by end of summer (and I am more flexible than 5%) I think we will have to rent again and pay the loss or hope rents increase over the next few months (well from my point of view only obviously) until market is more stable again. This is a tricky situation for everyone right now - buyer, seller and renter.

I'm like you McDreamy, HM Forces abroad, and we have been renting our large 4 bed house out since Nov 06, and have only had 1 months void. The tenants pay £850 per month rent, plus CTAX and Water Rates. I didn't think anyone would want to rent it, as it was built in 1835, and suits me, but wouldn't suit everyone. We only have 1 bathroom, and no garage, but off street parking, and no garden, but two patios at the rear of the house, and a bit of garden to the front. The rent is the maximum I think that my part of Cornwall can yield, and the mortgage is covered irrespective of the rent, so that doesn't come into the equation. The rent money is used for maintenance on the house, and the buildings insurance. My tenants aren't DSS, and my mortgage provider doesn't charge me a premium to let as we are HM Forces, but won't allow DSS.

My tenants seem to want to stay there for the long haul, which is great, as we want to see if DH can get a third job out here. I'd hang on to the house and rent it out, as you don't want to find your DH outside the mob and nowhere to live. It amazes me how loads of Army people here are coming to the end of their careers and are still in MQs and have no UK property. I'm glad DH is RN and we've always had our own place.

oh, yes, rental market is very strong at the moment (in the UK)

it's strong in some places, dinny, in others it's saturated.

really? saturated with un-let buy-to-lets?

You need to speak to an etate agent. I was under the impresson that the rental market is usually dominated by oen and two bedroom flats and smaller places. But I guess families do need to rent.

no chance of a rental to American forces? We have managed this and its a better rental than through letting agents and our tenant wants a 2 yr rental which is how long we're overseas so its a good situation?

Completely depends on the area. I was warned that rentals would go up and that we would struggle to find a place, but we've just moved to a much bigger house for the same rent. We're in the SE by the way, so not an unpopular place to live.
I would definitely check out local property papers and find out what the market is like. A four bedroomed place doesn't seem like a typical rental place for most areas, so that would be something to check too. A first-time buyer priced out of the market probably wouldn't be able to afford to rent your house.

You could also try Countrywide who do the private lets for the UK forces...i.e: if there aren't any quarters for a certain rate or rank available, you get rent allowance, and countrywide help to find you a place. As I understand it, some landlords do remarkably well out of the MOD on this scheme.