rent or sell flat in Cardiff?? where to get good advice???

Elizabeth13

Hi,
Im hoping i might be able to get some good advice from this forum re whether me and my other half should rent or sell his flat.
OK this is the situation - he owns a nice flat in Cardiff Bay - its a 2 bed flat, all neutral, well decorated and in very good condition. I own a 2 bed house in Cardiff too (vgc), and we are looking to buy a larger house together in a couple of months time. So thats the plan.
We dont really know what to do as we are in the fortunate position of owning 2 places and we dont know whether to rent his place out or sell it. Is it a waste of rental opportunity to sell or likely to be more work than its worth to rent?? I dont really know how tax things work either if we decided to sell in say 2 or 10 years time??
Obviously no one has a crystal ball to say whats going to happen in the future, but ive no idea really whos best to ask for advice so we can make our minds up - is it estate agents or mortgage advisors???? anyone else??
I don want to sell the place and then really regret wasting a fortunate opportunity.......
If anyone has any ideas id be really grateful.
Thanks, Elizabeth

lynzpower

What Id do is have a look in your local loot, or speak to a few letting agencies and see what the demand is. If the demand is wildly fluctuating, work out whether you can afford to ride out void periods.Also see what rental income you would be loking to get and whether it covers a) the mortgage ( do you have to change mortgage to do so- will this cost you eg £800 to change product as mine did when I looked into it) b) maangement fees if you need them c) wear and tear and posible replacement of things that tenants might wreck d) your own effort and hassle If the projection is you making good money once these things are stacked up, then you should consider it.

I considered letting my place but the void periods here in London are anecdotally massive, and I just cant take that risk. Addirtionally, Id only make 300 a month over my mortgage so once you take into account wear & tear and all that jazz, there was no point. I might as well sell it at a profit from what I bought for - much easier money!!

Jorgan_2

Speak to the agents that specialise in the Cardiff Bay/Penarth Marina area, they will be the best to advice you. Use things like nethouseprice.com to see what sale prices have actually been achieved recently. Get the Echo on a Thursday & the Western Mail on a Saturday for there property sections, try & keep track of similar rental properties advertised in there, if they are advertised every week for 2 months & don't rent their probably asking to much.

There is a lot of competition in your area at the moment with lots of new developments
in the last couple of years, builders are offering incentives to buyers and offering 2yr fixed rental deals and the like to landlords. This may indicate an oversupply of apartments on both the sale & rental side.

Tom_Jones

I have to be honest I would sell the property, it seems to me that Cardiff is being over developed as regards flats, the huge building near the Mcdonald Hotel in the city centre that is being turned into flats is currently only 30 % sold and various new developments in the Bay area appear to struggling as well.

If you want a decent property with good rental potential then go to Barry shorefront developments.