what to do;moving back to Uk from abroad

RAS

anglaisie wrote: »

we are from a hampshire market town, and would be looking at a 1 or 2 bed flat in town as our initial investment and to rent it out, so we would have the rent to go towards our own mortgage if that makes sense?

Really makes no sense.

1. Have you heards of gearing? The idea with Buy to let is that you have the maximum mortgage as the interest payable is tax deductable.

2. You need to assume 2 months void each year and will pay tax on all the non-deductable income. Mortgage providers may not see this as income because it is so much at risk from dodgy tenants.

3. To get BTL mortgage, the same sort of rules apply as to a family home but they will probably look for a monthly rental value of 125% of the mortgage payment.

anglaisie

ok, lots to think about, and plan for. Once again thanks all, it really has been a realistic exercise. One thing is for sure - as with everything else in life, nothing is as simple as it first seems!!!

RAS

Do try www.rightmove.co.uk

You will find some houses in your range @ £150K in Southampton of Portsmouth plus a few others.

Expect your starting point to be ex-social housing but maybe look at something that needs TLC and hubbie can add value to?

And be realistic about auctions; you have 28days to complete and they often go for 2-3 times the guide price.

Nocturnes

Hope I'm not breaking a any rules by suggesting this, but I found the Moving Back to the UK section of Britishexpats forum very useful for our move. Good luck with your plans.

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anglaisie

Nocturnes wrote: »

Hope I'm not breaking a any rules by suggesting this, but I found the Moving Back to the UK section of Britishexpats forum very useful for our move. Good luck with your plans.

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thanks for the tip - just looking now

phoebe1989seb

OP, I wouldn't agree with the poster that suggested buying a larger property in a cheaper part of the country. If you're missing your UK friends whilst living in France you could end up in a similar position here in the UK.

We sold our large family home in Southsea in late 2007 when DS went to uni. Having decided to give up the *rat race* we thought we'd lose the huge mortgage and buy somewhere for cash where we could get much more for our money.

Our original plan was to move to Southern France but we decided it was a step too far and instead chose a gorgeous character house in Essex - don't ask me why we chose that location, we knew no-one there - where we found we were unable to settle or make friends.

Three years later in 2011 we sold up, *losing* tens of thousands of £££ in the process and found our cash would now only buy us a shoe-box where we'd lived originally. Like you we were in our forties and whilst my DH had previously been employed, he had gone self-employed in 2007 and didn't want to go back into the workplace proper. We also wanted to avoid taking another mortgage.

Luckily we found a (major project) period house in a nicer part of the country than where we'd been in Essex, but it's not *home* to me, plus we're still 90 minutes drive from friends/family and when it's finished in a couple of years we plan to move again......

We won't be going back to Southsea though, as prices continue to rise with our former home recently selling again for £65k more than we sold it for six years ago with no *improvements* except the addition of an Aga

In your situation OP, assuming finances allow it, I would definitely consider buying a property to live in, however small.......as long as it was in the area I knew and loved/missed.

GL and hope it works out for you

Errata

He doesn't use the internet

A suggestion: teach him how to use the internet PDQ and tell him to start looking at the price of properties for sale and the cost of rental properties. That will to an extent get his head out of the clouds.
I second the suggestion made in a previous post; he needs to come to England for a few months on his own to understand for himself how difficult it is to get a building job at a decent living wage and what the cost of utilities is. Does he have any qualifications?
You plan to get a job in the UK, but do you realise that even some graduates are finding that difficult and are stacking shelves in a supermarket or slinging burgers in a burger bar. What qualifications do you have?

knightstyle

Hi anglaisie, We did exactly what you are proposing so you can PM me if you like. We used to live in the South of England before moving to France, but on retiring after 16 years in France came back to the UK. Like you found house prices had rocketed and we couldn't sell our French house, so that is now let and we moved to North Lincolnshire where houses are much more affordable. We put down a deposit and got a mortgage quite easily.
So I would not rent unless it was to try an area before buying.
By the way we have no regrets about going to France, we had a fantastic time but have no regrets about moving back to the UK on retirement.

moneyistooshorttomention

I think this is a reminder to many to be as sure...as really really sure as its possible to be for anyone....before "upping sticks and doing a drastic move". The way house prices vary so and then different areas/countries then swopsie around as to desirability and so on....

Personally....I've done a "drastic" move too recently (if not outside Britain) and I thought and thought and thought again. This when, in my case, I am the only one involved. I do sympathise with OP...as there are several people involved here and I only have myself to consider. Even with this....its one heck of a BIG decision to make to either Go or Come Back Again.

I took the view (when I decided to Go) that I had to take a really long-term view and that, once I'd Gone then I'd Gone and that was it. My own personal take was that "For good, bad or indifferent I just HAD to Make It Work after I'd jumped". Houseprices and the way they go respectively in various ways after the event DO have a huge impact on whether decisions are reversible or no. I think possibly, in my case, the boot will swing onto the other foot in a pretty long-term scenario and I could maybe Go Back Home if I chose. But I am very very conscious that for the next few years (and it could be rest of my life) that there is literally No Going Back and "It's I've made my bed and so I must lie on it". I believe I can "lie on it" and feel all the better for such a Major Decision in the long-term....but that's not to say it always feels/will always feel "comfortable". Being just one person though...I am able to remind myself that its nice to have lungfuls of clean fresh air/have more "space" all round/have silence in my own home/more countryside/a safer environment/friendlier people/all those things I came here for.

Speaking personally....if I get a prolonged bout of "What HAVE I done?" then my suspicion is it would get "cured" pretty quickly if I Go Back Home for a visit and spend a couple of weeks getting thoroughly aggravated/upset by choking on carfumes/having to watch my step literally every time I walk out the door in case of blimmin' idiots of one description or another risking life and limb the way they traverse the pavements (MY darn life and limb)/the litter/the graffiti/the flytipping/the noise/the "colder" people/just so many blimmin' people absolutely everywhere/etc. Even the currently fashionable Political Correctness was getting me down on a frequent basis (little things like library assistants too scared of their own shadow to tell off parents that remained in libraries despite their young child screaming their head off). Where I am right now most of them burst out laughing at the thought of Politically Correct Behaviour and everyone seems to know what the norms are for Good Behaviour and basically conforms to them.

Maybe OP's husband could usefully try a couple of weeks or so Back Home and catching up with old mates in the pub to see what they make of things these days.

It's just so much harder when there are several people involved as in OP's case.

AlexMac

knightstyle wrote: »

Hi anglaisie, We did exactly what you are proposing ...and we couldn't sell our French house, so that is now let and we moved to North Lincolnshire where houses are much more affordable. We put down a deposit and got a mortgage quite easily...

Very best wishes, Anglaise, and I suspect with your support (and with such well-grounded kids) things will work out even though DH is a bit rose-tinted about the UK...

But just to ram home the massive gap between house prices, and the ways these have escalated differentially in areas like Lincolnshire (perceived as remote from London), and Alton/Winchester which is close to London and 'silicon vale'...

... searching, for example, for 3-bed homes under £250k, on websites like Zoopla will throw up over six thousand properties in Lincolnshire, but only a handful in areas like those you mention such as Alton. Comparing Lincoln (with over 400 sale properties in this category) with Winchester (only seventeen 3-bedders on sale under £250k) is equally scary as the two cities have similar populations .

Best wishes and good luck