Tied rented house - want to buy (first time) as holiday let and holiday home, pls help!

Ubertotty

Sorry for the ridiculously long title, it's just so specific that I thought it might be best to outline the situation up front.


We live in a tied house with my husband's job. We pay a small amount of rent (not peppercorn, but less than half market value). We love our house and don't want to move. We don't want to buy in our area. We would like to buy a house up north, halfway to my mum's and on the coast because we'd get more for our money and could holiday there with my mum. Living in a tied house means that we are always at work otherwise! We'd also like it to be a holiday let the rest of the time so that we are not just paying for an empty property for most of the year, with someone local hired to manage the property.



Does anyone know if this is even vaguely possible? If you get a mortgage I know you have to ask for permission if you plan to let it (or get a buy to let mortgage) but is that also the case for Air B&B or similar?



We are first time buyers. We have some savings and my mum has also offered to help in any way she can - either by being on the mortgage in some way (she has had a few mortgages and owns her current house outright) and/or by providing us with a large deposit. I'm not keen for her house to be a stake in this though.


It's such a minefield I'd appreciate all advice. I just want my seaside house to escape to for holidays basically and can't see how we'll ever get on the property ladder without doing something like this either.

Bass_9

I can't provide much advice on this but I know certain holiday let hotspot areas are starting to crack down on this type of thing, as some new build developments on the coast are turning into ghost towns.

Would you be looking at new builds?

Ubertotty

Yes I can understand that. We stayed at the coast at Easter and it was new builds and all of it seemed to be holiday lets!


I'm not tied to new builds. I live in a lovely listed building at the moment. It would just be whatever came up that was right for us, affordable and in a good location.



We're looking at the area around Saltburn and also Northumberland (that seems to be more expensive though) as well as possibly Lytham St Annes on the other side but also open to looking anywhere that's on the coast halfwayish from the midlands to Scotland.

eddddy

Ubertotty wrote: »

Does anyone know if this is even vaguely possible? If you get a mortgage I know you have to ask for permission if you plan to let it (or get a buy to let mortgage) but is that also the case for Air B&B or similar?

A 'buy to let' mortgage probably won't allow holiday letting - you would need a 'holiday let' mortgage.

(And a 'normal' residential mortgage would definitely be unsuitable for a number of reasons - including that this won't be your main residence.)

If the property you buy is currently a residential house, you'd probably need planning consent for change of use to holiday letting (and there's the risk that you buy it and then can't get consent).

So you might have to restrict your search to properties which already have consent for holiday letting.

Bass_9

Ubertotty wrote: »

Yes I can understand that. We stayed at the coast at Easter and it was new builds and all of it seemed to be holiday lets!


I'm not tied to new builds. I live in a lovely listed building at the moment. It would just be whatever came up that was right for us, affordable and in a good location.



We're looking at the area around Saltburn and also Northumberland (that seems to be more expensive though) as well as possibly Lytham St Annes on the other side but also open to looking anywhere that's on the coast halfwayish from the midlands to Scotland.

How funny, Northumberland is exactly the place I was thinking about! :rotfl:
One of the parish councils were recently taking votes on what to do about this issue, not sure what the outcome was.

It is a really lovely area though, I'd highly recommend.

Ubertotty

Northumberland was where we stayed at Easter and it was all holiday lets. Must be quiet in winter.



Probably can't afford that area, sadly. Beautiful beaches.



I guess the question boils down to - can first time buyers get mortgages for holiday lets. :huh:

Ubertotty

I'm also wondering if it might end up cheaper to get a residential mortgage and not let it out at all just go there ourselves as much as possible.

franklee

A quick google found this:
https://www.which.co.uk/news/2017/07/could-listing-on-airbnb-put-you-in-trouble-with-your-mortgage-lender/

An alternative if to have the new house as your main home and get a lodger. If the lodger was mainly Mon-Fri and you were mainly home at weekends it would be quite convenient.

Ubertotty

Thanks for the article, that's really interesting. It looks like some lenders are more open to things like this than others. Should I go and see a broker?


I'm not sure the lodger thing would work as we wouldn't live in the house, our current tied house will be our main home for the forseeable future. So the lodger would actually be a tenant I suppose.

Tom99

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]If you go for the holiday let option don't forget to factor in all of the additional costs.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]For example just the cleaning and laundry could easily be £100 for each tenant change if you don't do it yourself and that alone can make a big dent in non peak letting weeks.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Plus about 20%-25% of the rent if you employ an agent to advertise the property.[/FONT]

Ubertotty

Thank you Davesnave.



I don't feel in the least guilty about the vague possibility of finally being able to afford our first and only house IF we buy one 3 - 4 hours north from where we live and only spend small amounts of our time there AND are able to let it out some of the time to help (AND get help from my mother). I'm far from being some kind of holiday let tycoon pushing up prices. :rotfl:



Thanks for the advice about costs - it's definitely something that would need to be considered carefully. I guess even with fees it would be better than nothing. Ideally we need a mortgage we can afford even if the property is empty that month.



From searching it looks like some residential mortgages will give you 'permission to let' for this kind of circumstances (sometimes restricted to 90 days or similar). I'd love to hear if anyone has any experience of letting out their home.