Renting out house if moving abroad?

irishwench69

Hey everyone

Bit of a long winded query, but hopefuly you can bear with me!

Basically I am likely to have the opportunity to take a job in Australia. This would be a permenant position, where they would sponsor me for my visa, under which my partner could also work.

About 18 months ago, my partner and I bought our first house. It was on a 100% mortgage (please don't shout at me for this - we're not in this for the money - and under normal circumstances weren't planning a move anywhere!)

I'm wondering if it would be feasible to rent our place out here, and what the best way to do this is. I've heard a bit about estate agent schemes, like Romans (http://www.romans.co.uk/renting_why_romans.asp), which look like they'd take all the hassle out of finding tenants, chasing rent etc (I know they'd charge for the priviledge, but bear in mind we'd be in Australia, so easier logistically for someone else to deal with this stuff!)

What would be the best way of getting some figures to look at? I have the house value we bought at, but how do I get an idea of what rental value it would be likely to have?

I'd put down what my mortgage payments are etc, if you guys won't just :rolleyes: at me.......!!

So basically I guess my options would be:

Sell the house here in UK, at a possible loss
Rent the house here, take money to Australia, look to reinvest upon return

I'm imagining that I wouldn't be able to buy in Australia (limited credit, non-resident etc).......

Any ideas?

Thanks

IW x

BTLNEWbie_3

One way to find out what you are likely to be able to rent for is by searching your area in rightmove under rent title.
Also you could take awalk around the letting agents near to you and work out a price that way.
If you have rent void periods which you may get now and again are you going to be able to cover the mortgage and still survive out in AUS.
good luck

zappahey

We rented our house out while we were in Canada and a lot depends on the quality of your house and the agent.

If your house is likely to need work then you need to have confidence that the agent is working in your best interests and you also need to be able to cope with the lack of control that you have over the repairs, such as who's doing them are they doing what really needs done, etc.

In financial terms, for me it was more hassle than it was worth and the only saving grace was that we had somewhere to come home to, since house price inflation would have made it impossible for us to have bought somewhere similar.

Having said that, our house was old, and fairly unusual, and we had an attachment to it so we wanted to hang on to it anyway. Turned out that we came back to another part of the country anyway, but there you go :rolleyes:

I'm not going to pass comment on the financial aspects as you know your own situation best but I would recommend that you do your sums very carefully and take a pessimistic view on costs and occupancy rates to make sure that it works for you.

As an aside, someone who worked for me has gone to Australia and bought a house within 6 months of arrival, so it's possible.