House purchase? Budgeting

brunch

Hello,

I'm looking for some advice on keeping up with the housing market in London. Im an early 30s expat looking at coming back to the UK in probably 3-5 years. I'm pretty anxious that I should be taking advantage of cheap credit available and basically going all in to get the next step on the ladder (ideally in the 1.2m GBP mark) but wouldn't mind some opinions on paying off mortgages or buying a smaller place in the mean time or investing

My state of finances is basically..

House in London - worth ~650,000 GBP (in an 'up and coming area' apparently) with approx. 100,000 left on the mortgage. It is rented and after the mortgage is paid I am left with 1300 GBP/month profit

30,000 USD in cash

20,000 USD equivalent in volatile crypto assets

55,000 GBP in cash

50,000 GBP in investments - shares

0 debt on credit cards or any other loans (excluding the mortgage mentioned above)

My salary is around 180,000 GBP per year and I probably save around 5,000-6,000 GBP per month after tax

I guess a few options are...

Sell house, try and get an expat mortgage to jump onto the next rung

Buy a smaller flat but I am concerned about the UK tax implications of new rent

Keep investing in the markets trying to beat house price rises

Keep buying GBP like its going out of fashion since its so cheap at the moment but obviously holding cash isn't that smart

Ideas? Thanks for your expertise anyone!

badger09

brunch wrote: »

Hello,

I'm looking for some advice on keeping up with the housing market in London. Im an early 30s expat looking at coming back to the UK in probably 3-5 years. I'm pretty anxious that I should be taking advantage of cheap credit available and basically going all in to get the next step on the ladder (ideally in the 1.2m GBP mark) but wouldn't mind some opinions on paying off mortgages or buying a smaller place in the mean time or investing

My state of finances is basically..

House in London - worth ~650,000 GBP (in an 'up and coming area' apparently) with approx. 100,000 left on the mortgage. It is rented and after the mortgage is paid I am left with 1300 GBP/month profit

30,000 USD in cash

20,000 USD equivalent in volatile crypto assets

55,000 GBP in cash

50,000 GBP in investments - shares

0 debt on credit cards or any other loans (excluding the mortgage mentioned above)

My salary is around 180,000 GBP per year and I probably save around 5,000-6,000 GBP per month after tax

I guess a few options are...

Sell house, try and get an expat mortgage to jump onto the next rung

Buy a smaller flat but I am concerned about the UK tax implications of new rent

Keep investing in the markets trying to beat house price rises

Keep buying GBP like its going out of fashion since its so cheap at the moment but obviously holding cash isn't that smart

Ideas? Thanks for your expertise anyone!

With those sort of figures I'd suggest you find an IFA who specialises in investment opportunities for Expats, & their relevant tax implications. It could avoid some very expensive mistakes;)

bigadaj

This seems primarily property focused, so posting or getting it moved to a property board might be better.