what to do;moving back to Uk from abroad

anglaisie

After 8 years living the dream in rural France, we are thinking of selling up and moving back to England. We used our capital from seling our UK property to buy here in France, and after the sale we will end up more or less with what we came with....problem is the prices have gone up alot back in England....and we have an extra child too. We don't have enough money to buy a big enough property outright, and understand we won't get a mortgage straight away....so, I was wondering if it would be viable to buy outright a flat as a buy to let, and rent somewhere else ourselves for a year, and then apply for a mortgage on a property for ourselves using the flat as collatoral? does that make sense? Looking at rent prices they are astronomical!! but if we want to make the move we need to plan a course of action. We are in our mid 40s, so also thinking of the future as we don't have pensions or anything - we will only have the capital from the sale of our french property. Look forward to your thoughts

notanewuser

I think this has disaster written all over it.

anglaisie

thanks - why do you think it would be a disaster?

DigForVictory

I'm hoping the thought is eggs in one basket, but as soon as you get back please sort GP, dentist & pension!

jonewer

Why not just rent until you get your mortgage together, then buy?

Out of curiosity, why are you leaving France to come home?

notanewuser

anglaisie wrote: »

thanks - why do you think it would be a disaster?

Mid 40s, no pension arrangements.

Accidental landlords relying on house prices.

Kids involved.

Unstable employment market in UK.

Hints of "grass is greener" syndrome.

ognum

Firstly welcome to the forum.

This is an interesting post because for many people in the UK they are exactly where they are with house prices equal to 8 years ago. In some areas prices have escalated in other areas not so.

Well done on considering your best move, it is always hard to return from 'living the dream' but life moves on and changes and we all have to do the same.

I don't think I would get a buy to let with the money you have and then rent. I assume you will be looking for jobs, you buy to let income will be fully taxed as you have no mortgage interest to reduce it.

I would buy the best place you can afford and live in it. You will then be able to save like mad with no rent to pay and look to buying somewhere nicer and bigger when you have some employment records and are able to get a mortgage.

I know this wil be tough, you have probably lived somewhere nice with space for the last few years but you may just have to sacrifice the pleasantries for a few years to get back on a stable footing in the UK.

Well done for putting adventure in your lives, so many people come to the end and wish they had done something different, you have, you should be proud and ready to work hard on the next part of your journey.

anglaisie

thanks for the replies and welcome :beer: basically, my husband is missing the buzz of the UK...we live in a very quiet rural area, and have had the 'good life' experience and it has been wonderful, and the weather is great!! oh, and quiet supermarkets, free carparking, slow pace of life etc etc, but trying to make a living here is like banging your head on a brick wall. My husband is in the building trade as he was in England, and is/was self employed. He has done brilliantly in the last 8 years as has found work to support us and renovate our fermette. But the government take so much that we only cover the cost of living and haven't been able to save or take a holiday in the 8 years we have been here. Also, we have not made proper friends here. There are culture differences, and as we aren't completely fluent in french sometimes it gets awkward and it gets in the way of a really true friendship, and the expats here are either retired or want to live a solitary life. So we find we miss our friends (family always visit, so we get enough of them!!). But, it worries me that the things we miss are really expensive in England...even just a bottle of wine to take round a friends as I said we are in our mid 40s with 3 kids (17,15 and 6) and wondering what to do with the next part of our life....no regrets about what we have done, just trying to work out the next bit...and work towards our old age. We started off with a little 3 bed victorian terrace in a southern market town....personally I could live in a shoebox if I was happy with my life, but my husband (builder in him) wants to own his 'character' house and wants too much too soon, he thinks it will be easy to go back and get a mortgage as we will be in a similar position moneywise as when we left....he has offers of work, but will still be self employed. He doesn't use the internet and doesn't understand how the Uk has changed in the last 8 years with regard to mortgages (we took our first mortgage in 1990). Sorry, gone off on a tangent

jonewer

Thanks for the update. It certainly can be hard moving country, specialy with a language barrier.

If I were you, I would simply rent the cheapest tolerable house until my finances were in order such that I could get a mortgage and buy a place.

Is your husband aware of the eye-watering cost of property in the UK?

RAS

anglaisie wrote: »

my husband (builder in him) wants to own his 'character' house and wants too much too soon, he thinks it will be easy to go back and get a mortgage as we will be in a similar position moneywise as when we left....he has offers of work, but will still be self employed. He doesn't use the internet and doesn't understand how the Uk has changed in the last 8 years with regard to mortgages (we took our first mortgage in 1990). Sorry, gone off on a tangent

If your husband is self-employed, chances are that he will need 3 years books to get a mortgage now; the day of the self-cert is dead.

Any chance that you could find a cheap deal to come back to the UK for a visit and while you are here visit a number of mortgage advisors (whole market)?

Any chance that you could consider some of the cheaper areas of the UK in which to live?

What is the school situation regarding your eldest two? The oldest would be in year 12 or 13 here and completing A levels/BTECs etc at the end of year 13. When do they complete the Bacc?

And the youngest would be doing their GCSEs which most places use to assess eligibility for level 3 courses.

A move at the wrong time could completely screw up their education long-term.

anglaisie

no, that is the problem - he thinks we can just go back and pick up where we left...get a mortgage and buy a similar property. He will be a self employed builder with a part time working wife, 3 kids (17,15 and 6) no credit history for 8+ years needing to borrow about 100 k, (we will have around 150 k as deposit) ....he isn't considering how it will really work - ie; camping at his parents until we find a rental property, paying an eyewatering amount of money for rent, only having patchy work due to old contacts helping him out until he finds his own work, teenagers wanting to do and have everything. The cost of living for all those things he misses will cost a fortune (just a bottle of wine to take round friends for example) we have no idea how much a pint of guinness at a pub is nowadays.....we have a wonderful life here, but it is starting to feel a bit empty (the 17 year old is already living in england with grandparents and going to 6th form college) the 15 year old boards at a lycee (college) during the week...so, don't know whether it is empty nest or time of year or just really that it is time for a change (the thought of retiring is scarey as we have no provisions) or that we just want to be back with those we miss........crystal ball is needed but getting back into the rat race looks quite difficult.
Do you think it would be about a year before we could apply for a mortgage based on what you know about our circumstances? I need to find out as much as I can before we make a final decision. I know how much rents are, and by looking at other threads I have roughly worked out what monthly outgoings are likely to be. My husband just has it in his head that he wants to go back and buy a 'character' property and everything will be sorted within 3 months (we bought our first house in 1990!!so that was his last experience of mortgages)