Need resources to learn from.

-nobody

I've been searching for books and doing a little bit of researching online, but can't really find anything in depth, just small amounts of knowledge, there are a lot of books on amazon but most of them are american, the fundamentals are similar to the UK.

I've also been trying to find housing auctions, but usually find the prices of the houses to be roughly the same as buying used, nor do I know how to find the rent prices for the area, in the book it recommended to look at rent prices in the area to get an idea of what you could rent your house for, and compare that to the house price, for example somewhere like london is high rent to house price ratio, so it would make more sense to rent out your first house. But that data is not easy to get as few people rent and where would you even find that data? It would be nice if there was like a heatmap with rent/house price ratio.

Also I wonder, would it be better to get a buy to let mortgage or help to buy? The books recommended to let as you can pay your mortgage off easier, with help to buy however you can get a 95% mortgage, the interest rate on the amount the government lend you is only 1.75%.

I have some documents from kellerink.com, but nothing really to expand on that, and going through the checklist of what to look for, I don't know where to look.

Pixie5740

Eh? Lots of people, millions of people in London rent. If you want an idea of how much rent in for a particular area then check out Rightmove and Zoopla. That should give you an idea. Whilst rents in London are high, rental yields are pretty low because property is so expensive to buy there.

If you want to let out property then HTB will not be an option for you. You would not meet the eligibility criteria for the HTB loan or any lender's HTB mortgages as you need to be buying a home to live in yourself and not own any other property. Information freely available in the HTB FAQ.

-nobody

I mean, is there some kind of tool that let's you search by average house/rent price, so you know the exact place you will get the most return on the investment. Like mouseprice.com but with the ratio of rent/buy.

hazyjo

This might help a bit http://www.zoopla.co.uk/market/uk/


But that's not to say that somewhere that's already been performing well will continue to rise at quite the same level.


You need to work out where the NEXT hotspots will be... it can be hard as it's obviously not a given.


Jx

cashbackproblems

If you are looking to make big quick money in BTL, you have missed the boat!! And if you are not a current homeowner, banks are not easily giving BTL to FTB's.

AlexMac

Even a basic google search
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Buy+to+let+in+the+UK#
reveals stacks of books about the UK BTL scene so I don't see why you're searching the stocklist of one minor American publisher?

Not only books but newspaper articles like

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/buy-to-let/11161497/Buy-to-let-my-top-ten-tips.html

If you are inexperienced and dependent on borrowing, auctions are not a good place to start; as you say, houses sell for what they're worth, sometimes because they are not mortgageable, and the normal requirement for completion in 28 days means you could end up losing your deposit - usually 10%- if you're not a cash buyer. Look at pending auctions and past results via the links at
http://www.propertyauctionaction.co.uk/

generally, I'd say start by buying your own home- so the government scheme might help, but if you are set on BTL- just look at local sale prices or current valueations for sample properies in your sample area on Zoopla or the other site, then check local rental offers on the same site and do your own spreadsheet or calculation.

Youre right that % returns may be worse in high purchase value areas like London. But it varies even within postcodes

For example in suburban London, in SE3 0JF (where I have a little ex- council BTL) Zoopla reveals that two such 2-bedroom flats are currently valued at £241k and £277k (so call it £250k) but one was up for rent last year at £1250 per month.
http://www.zoopla.co.uk/property-history/7-chiswell-square/london/se3-0jf/37267920
So the gross yield, before expenses like maintenence (in my experience anything from £50 p.a for a Gas inspection to £5k p.a. for new windows or external maintenence by the freeholder), mortgage (use a mortgage calculator) and service charges (in my experience typically £600-900 p.a) is 6%;

(asset of £250k divided by annual rent of £15k, expressed as a %; 15/250*100=6)

Whereas if you do the same maths on SE3 0AA (near where I used to live there's a flat allegedly worth £538k, which was up for rent at £1600 pcm a couple of years ago
http://www.zoopla.co.uk/property-history/1-morden-road/london/se3-0aa/27837241

So a gross yield of only 4% even after allowing for a bit of inflation for the rent.

Following me? If not, maybe this game ain't for you...?

Best wishes; I'm an accidental landlord, but even though BTL isn't as easy as it used to be, if you get in young, in my view it's a great idea; as is home ownership. I've written elsewhere here about the wreck I bought in Brixton, London in 1975 for £10k... on a 10% loan... so a toppy rate of interest then; but it sold last year (35 years after I left) for £900k!