Firstly to acknowledge I know I'm in a privileged position and don't take any of this for granted. I own a flat in London which is currently rented out to tenants. I've paid off roughly 75% of the mortgage and the remaining mortgage repayments are easily covered by the rent. I separately have a much larger joint mortgage with my partner (we're not married) on a separate property, also in London.
I bought the rented flat when I was married to my ex husband, it was bought purely in my name and I kept it in the divorce in return for a cash payout. I've always wanted to hold on to it a) for the rental income now b) as a pension for when I stop work and c) to leave to my daughter when I die.
I'm at a real crossroads with my job which for all sorts of reasons is giving me a lot of stress and grief (partly structural reasons to do with the industry I'm in and partly that I hate the current management and the way the business is run). I don't think my job is in immediate danger but I can well imagine having to leave in the next 12 months and I'm doubtful that I'll be able to find anything that pays as well again so I need to think about the future. It feels like a real millstone around my neck: I'm constantly worried about what I will do if/when this job goes down the pan. I really want to free up some cash to give me a bit of a cushion in case I have to leave it and I hate the idea of having to do a distressed sale if the shit hits the fan.
Selling my rented flat would generate roughly £250k after capital gains etc. It's enough to make a serious chunk in the mortgage for the shared property or to put a big wedge into my pension plus some cash left over, but I still think net net the revenue from a property is more valuable long-term than a pension annuity. I'm also just worried about frittering the cash away if I did sell it and not doing anything. So all things being equal I'd rather hold onto it.
I'm doing various things to reduce the size of the overheads on the property I share with my partner (remortgaging etc) but my daughter is at private school and for the time being I can't seriously cut these.
In my position would you sell the rented flat or ride it out and hold onto it?