Owning a property in England but moving overseas - ADVICE NEEDED!

MrXYZ

I am looking for some advice; I’m in an awkward situation or maybe it’s me making it awkward.

My girlfriend lives in Ireland; we have been seeing one another now for a couple of years over long distance, every couple of weeks one of us travels to see the other. I must be an expert in getting cheap flights by now!

She is about to buy a house in Dublin and I have had an offer on a house accepted on a property in England. My offer for the house is £130k, and I have a deposit of £20k. It’s a 3 bed semi and the going rate on the road is about 150k.

The house does need some work doing rewire, central heating etc but I have put some cash aside for this.

The house has been purchased on a residential mortgage. This is a 3 year fixed and was agreed before the last rate rise. It would cost me £3k to leave this mortgage within 3 years.

I currently live with my parents so it would be my only property. I was thinking maybe the mortgage company would give me ‘consent to let’ this in the future if I was going overseas to work, live?

I was originally planning on doing the house up and renting it out in 3 – 6 months and then moving to Dublin/Ireland to find work and live with my girlfriend.

I think the house is a good opportunity at this price

I want to see what things would be like when we’re living together. We only spend short snapshots of time with one another at the moment so I am wary of what it would be like for me to move and to get used to life in Dublin. If I didn’t like it, I could come back and I would still have my house.

I have a number of questions and would be grateful for any feedback

Do people think I am doing the right thing buying the house before planning to move?

Is there anything that I should be wary of?

Am I being naïve thinking this is a good purchase?

Will I be making life harder for myself? Will it become more difficult to move?


Thank you

wecanhelpu

When I was going out with your girlfriend a few years ago she tried the same trick on me.

It's a scam. Tell her to get lost.

MrXYZ

Thanks for that, I would be grateful for any genuine comments / advice

smogzy

To do this legitimately you should get a Buy-to-let mortgage but then you say you've got a good mortgage deal at the moment. Hmmm..tricky.

I don't think you have a high enough deposit for a buy-to-let (30%). It really depends on the terms of your mortgage (i'd check through them with a fine tooth comb) and how nice your mortgage company want to be. They could, for instance insist that you remortgage to a BTL and then you may have to pay the £3k early redemption fee.

Have you thought about investing your £20k and see how it goes in Dublin?(are you sure? beer is 5 euro a pint!!). You wouldn't get such a huge return but then you still have your house deposit if it all goes wrong. The house market then may have completely changed for better or worse though.

Doozergirl

I don't think there's a lot of profit in the house you're looking at. Certainly not enough for me to bring a huge investment like that into a future where you are potentially about to settle down with someone. Why bother buying? It's a lot easier to adapt to a new life without a house that you don't even live in tied around your neck.

Go to Dublin, see how it goes and then think about buying a place. Either with your girlfriend or back home.

pariskate

We did something fairly similar to you. When we were sent abroad for my husband's work our bank let us continue on the same mortgage (it's a woolwich/Barclays offset thingy) but gave us official permission to let the house. Four years later we have had remarkably ittle hassle with tenants or agents and of course we have had the security of always having property in the UK should we wish to return. You need really to talk to the bank about what they can offer you - if going and spending time in a foreign country increases your earning ability then they may be quite keen to keep you as a customer.

Jonbvn

For the mortgage company to accept that the property is let under an AST, the rent would have to be at least 1.2 to 1.3 times the mortgage interest.

So say you have a 110k mortgage at 6%; Interest is 6600 per year, 550pcm.

Therefore, the required rent would have to be 550 x 1.2 = 660 pcm minimum. Is it feasible to attain that sort of rent in the area you are buying? I know that in the area I live it would not be possible.