Living in Australia, Buying in the UK

MoneySaverDownUnder

Hi, I've been a long time user of Moneysavingexpert.com but this is my first post so firstly I'd like to thank Martin Lewis for all the money he has saved me over the past 5+ years.



I moved out to Australia at the start of the year but fully intend to move back to the UK in about 2 years. I don't currently own any property but am torn between saving my money or buying a house in the UK now. My idea would be to buy a property now and rent it out until I come back to live in it.

I don't know a thing about getting a mortgage from overseas. I am a first time buyer but presume this means nothing when buying a house overseas with the intent of renting out the property until move in? I'm hoping someone here will be able to clarrify this for me

Now secondly, let's say for example that I am able to save 40k a year, the interest rate here is 5.5%. I figure the interest rate here plays little part in how much I will be able to bring back to the UK as the transfer rate is what will make the big difference. So am I better buying a house now with the price of housing being pretty low at the moment and a good dollar to pound rate or waiting until I return? I realise that housing could go up and the dollar could drop but on the flip side housing could go down and the dollar could keep going up.


Any advice would be appreciated, I've tried to keep this as short as possible but hopefully this should give you guys a good idea of my dilemma.

Thanks for any help

HappyMJ

Don't try and manage a buy-to-let from another country...You will not be able to shop around for the best/cheapest labourers when something is needed to be done. You won't be able to check on the workmanship of any work and basically it's a big hassle that you won't need. I'd save as many AUD as possible and either save them in high interest AUD accounts exceeding 5.5% and/or transfer them into GBP whilst the exchange rate is so low but then you will only get 3% interest on GBP. Even then you are taking a risk that the exchange rate won't drop further instead of rise.

Personally I'd hedge my bets and keep 50% of my net worth in Australia in AUD and 50% of my net worth in the UK in GBP.

Kynthia

Being an overseas landlord sounds like a nightmare to me. You'd be completely reliant on the letting agent to find suitable tenants and properly look after your property, and there have been horror stories on this site and others from overseas LLs. If they don't protect the deposit or forget the gas safety certificate renewal then it's you who are breaking the law.

Do the figures stack up when you factor the tax that will need to be deducted from the rent, the LA fees, the higher buy to let mortgage interest rates, the LL insurance, the repairs and maintenance? A good savings account might give you a much better rate of return.

pcrosland

I use northern alliance for my wind turbine insurance. you could give them a call, i know they do LL insurance. Good service.

http://www.northernalliance.co.uk/private-clients/overseas-property-insurance/

Fire_Fox

Old thread resurrected.

Justicia

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Old thread resurrected.

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