When's the best time to do this?

smartpicture

My daughter is in her 1st year at Uni, living in halls. I'd like to buy a house for her to live in (with a couple of mates) for the next 2 years of her course. When should I start looking? I don't want to end up owning a house for 6 months without any rental income, but I don't want to miss the boat either.

poppysarah

You can start looking now - take advice from her on which parts of town are prefered.

She'd need to have something lined up by June I think to convince friends that it's real - no one wants to not have anywhere to live the next year.

However she should (or you could) contact her student union and see what advice they offer - whether there's a glut of properties in the town already etc.

Research is the key, and confidence that the investment will be worth the hassle.

smartpicture

I already did quite a bit of research about buy-to-let in general a year or so ago (though not in this area), when I concluded that house prices were unsustainable and it wasn't the right time. Fortunately prices have dropped since then, although of course the difficulty is knowing how much further they have to fall, and it's not ideal me having a specific deadline in mind. However, I think I want to give it a go - just not sure if it's too early to start looking. It's quite some distance from me.

Any ideas when uni students themselves start looking for next year's house?

Anyone else had experience of doing it this way? Anything I should be aware of specifically to do with renting to my daughter & her mates?

mchale

I wouldnt bother if i was you, i used to rent to students in liverpool, now because of loads of purpose built stud accom in the city centre, I now rent to working people. Univ should have a accom office ask them, lpl students started looking for next yrs houses round Jan time, official student homes house hunting was early Feb.

Austin_Allegro

smartpicture wrote: »

My daughter is in her 1st year at Uni, living in halls. I'd like to buy a house for her to live in (with a couple of mates) for the next 2 years of her course. When should I start looking? I don't want to end up owning a house for 6 months without any rental income, but I don't want to miss the boat either.

Is it really worth the hassle of buying and maintaining a house for someone to live in for just two years, after which time resale value (and rental yield) are likely to have dropped?

Assuming you wish to keep on the property after she leaves, is there a big market for student lets in the area - as has been pointed out, a lot of university private lets are suffering due to increase in halls of residence availability.

Might it not be a better use of your money to pay for your daughter to have a decent place in halls?

smartpicture

Thanks, I will definitely look into the availability of halls before I commit to anything. I was under the impression that halls were only available to 1st year students, but I might be getting mixed up, so I'll check that.

The problem is she hates living in halls - I admit she's probably lived a sheltered life up to now and it's good life experience for her to spend a year sharing with people who think it's okay to get drunk every night and throw up over other people's stuff, keep their ashtray full of butt-ends in the shared fridge, and think she's a freak because she owns a bottle of Kitchen Flash. I know that sounds snobby, and she needs to experience some of this and learn how to handle it so I've told her to stick at it for a year, but I don't want her to be miserable for three years, so I'm not sure halls is the answer.

Financially, I'm thinking a property is as good as anywhere to put my money at the minute, probably a bit of a gamble but what isn't nowadays?? I had money in Iceland, my pension & isas are worth half what they were, and I've come to the conclusion it's better to spend my money on something that improves my familys quality of life instead.

boggie40

your better off investing your money elsewhere - students have no respect for rental properties (not in cardiff anyway !!)

IT_nerd

Students are the worst tenants ever.
Edit: Also, you're going to cash in your pension for this? I would think that cashing it in now would be a very big mistake.

smartpicture

IT_nerd wrote: »

Also, you're going to cash in your pension for this? I would think that cashing it in now would be a very big mistake.

No, I wouldn't do that, don't worry!

silvercar

In some towns there is a glut of student properties and the ones in demand have all the facilities - broadband, plasma etc

In other areas there is a shortage and the need to find your daughter somewhere decent to live is greater.

As well as uni halls, there are many large companies specialising in student village type accommodation, it could well be easier to put your daughter somewhere like this for the next 2 years. The big advantage being that she can choose who to share with rather than be stuck with whoever the uni chooses.

Generally halls are restricted to first years from outside the area, but it is sometimes possible to sneak an extra year.

Students start planning their flat mates and housing areas from around March and look to sign up April/ June time.

neas

you know your gut is telling you its a wrong idea.... if you had done this 4-5 years ago.. then you'd make a tidy profit.....

But now instead of am profit you will be literally paying 10k a year for a rental property for your daughter...

Just let her pay 300 quid a month in a house share.... not all students are bad tenants... she will hopefully make some girl friends in her first year who have similar aims to running a good house as her.

Sometimes its best to let children go without too much help otherwise they dont get all the skills necessar for life.

Living in a house shows you how to be humble, how to accomodate others because its not only ou, how to be diplomatic and how to get along with others... really ... it might not be a 'all fun' experience but it shapes people better.

Plus put yourself in her shoes... shes young at uni! maybe she will come out of her shell a bit and want to have the odd house party or too... its not all about studying at uni lol. If I was wanting a house party... i certainly wouldnt want to have it in my mums house.

Theres a reason student proprties arent the best, because students have more to care about than cleaning.