Advice on first BTL and alternatives

DaveCarpetbag

I am taking redundancy/early retirement in November, at age 55. I am considering investing my redundancy payment and pension lump sum in a cash BTL. I have looked at some alternatives to actually buying a house:-

SPREAD BETTING HOUSE PRICE INDEX
As bets are settled quarterly, and require 40% of a largish spread to rollover, I discounted this.

NEWCASTLE BS GUARANTEED PROPERTY BOND
The disadvantages are the fixed 5 year term, so no control over the exit price, and no income during the 5 years. I will just invest £3k in the ISA version.

I've just seen this on iii - does anyone have any opinions? -
http://www.iii.co.uk/property/propertyinvestment.jsp

I would be very grateful if somebody could post the pros and cons of forming a company for a BTL, and any other advice. I will be chatting to an accountant friend tomorrow.

Thanks in advance,
Dave

epz_2

i hope you arnt planning on staying retired long when you pension plans include stuff like spread bets and buying a property at a time when most yeilds are below 5% but prices are going down apart from the south and london.