60k where/what to buy?

[Milloew]

Because of divorce, exh and i are selling our London home. I live in the EU now with the dc, but would like to keep a base in the UK. Dc consider uk home, and would possibly like to return there in 5/8 years..
Ive been looking on zoopla, but obviously cant afford anything in the SE, which is all i know.
So, where/what would you buy if you had approx 60k cash? Something rentable with good transport links. Not too dodgy or remote. Interesting enough for a young adult?

Yes I was scouring Rightmove last night and there’s not much at all in Scotland under £60k. One in the whole of the Highlands 🤣 Some in the central belt but not in great condition and not where I’d choose to live. Some in Aberdeen which are actually not bad but you can’t give flats in Aberdeen away just now the market’s so bad.

But where you start is often where you remain. You can move outwards to a less desirable postcode to gain space but people can rarely afford to upgrade house to a better area once they’re on the ladder, without the help of inheritance/major financing.

Starting life in Bradford is a bad idea unless you have family there and want to stay there. Much better to stretch yourself and live somewhere decent, to then have options later to get more house for your money in a (worse) area.

£60k is a good sized nest egg but I would not consider it investment money.

I would certainly not invest in property if living overseas and buying somewhere merely on the possibility that my child might want to live there some day.

Do you have a year’s expenses in savings?

Do you have a proper pension?

Honestly, I would just put the money into a Vanguard ISA (one in your name, one in your child’s) and forget about it until the child is ready to commit to a location.

Property is an illiquid investment for people with a lot of spare cash after making liquid choices.

Agree. Also, reading this thread has puzzled me in that everyone seems to think there will never be another property boom in the UK. Your £60k flat isn't going to carry on being £60k while savings or money investments continue to climb. Property has outpaced the stock market over the past 20-30 years, and booms typically see prices rise by 50% in just two or three years. That's without factoring in rental income during ownership.

Obviously, the risk profiles are very different. I can see why OP would like would like to increase her UK bricks & mortar while having some active business here.

Sorry you're going through this, OP, it's a shitshow.

just put the money into a Vanguard ISA

FFS. See that big red box? It says "For UK residents only".

Fair enough. I didn’t read all the posts advising the OP to buy because it’s dickish advice, so I missed that she wasn’t Uk resident for tax purposes.

The stock market still exists.

I love your positivity! But realistically people can get into loads of monetary problems with a bad property deal. It's very unlikely someone would part with a property for 1/5th of the going rate without some worrisome strings attached. In this case I really think it's kindest to be realistic about the potential for disaster!

If you co owned a family home in London surely you should have more than 60k?

You could buy a 1 bed flat in Swansea or a house in need of work.

Or would it be possible to put £25k down as a deposit and mortgage the rest ?

Thanks all. Good opinions and advice. I had totally different plans for this 60k, but the recent events have me worrying. The dc have a possibility of gaining a commonwealth passport also. Maybe i should look further afield in sunnier (cheaper) climes 😄 Trouble is they only consider here and uk home. Dc1 is happy here, but also misses the uk a lot.

Still co-own. Hasn't been sold yet. House has a mortgage. I dont know the exact equity on it and it depends on the market anyways. Plus i could use some of that equity here. My house here needs some work.

You can get a one bed flat in Dudley. Great bus and trains and soon to be a tram link to Wolverhampton and Birmingham.

Lots in Yorkshire? How about found this property on the Rightmove Android app and wanted you to see it: www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/160766636 this. Currently tenanted so might suit.

I've sold two at much less than I could have got. I had reasons, of course. Neither was a bad property, both had long leases. I made three young adults very happy! Now we're in an unofficial recession and small BTL landlords are anxious, there probably are quite a few wanting to offload to cut their losses.

I didn't sell at a fifth of the going rate, where did you get that from? None of the places posted here are worth anything like five times the price - but many have been reduced recently.

Good call! Dudley's in the early stages of a £1bn regeneration scheme.

You can’t buy anything for 60k..

I found 35 properties in Barnsley on RightMove when I filtered £60k max. Some of them looked pretty decent.

Barnsley town centre has had a lot of investment, and there are regular train services to Leeds and Sheffield.