Should I buy a flat to use for Airbnb?

uk_american

NeilCr wrote: »

It won't mention AirBnB specifically. It will likely be one, two or all of the three covenants mentioned in the Brady link. In addition, you might get caught on running a business. Our blocks were built around the same time as yours and have the covenants

Neighbours get twitchy because of seeing lots of different people around who have access to their building. It's not necessarily rogue tenants

Many thanks NeilCr, will definitely give it a further read.

uk_american

Thank you everyone for your tips and ideas, please keep them coming, good food for thought!

jennifermerkle

There are rules in Airbnb where you can not have the house rented on every single day of the year. So check in your city what are the rules and then estimate a projected income. 

theoretica

Has anyone mentioned planning permission yet?  Material change of use may be required (London and Scotland and maybe elsewhere)

https://www.russell-cooke.co.uk/changeofuseshorttermlets/ 

Norman_Castle

jennifermerkle said:

There are rules in Airbnb where you can not have the house rented on every single day of the year. So check in your city what are the rules and then estimate a projected income. 

You're 10 months late.

uk_american

Since this thread has now been revived and it's almost been a year, here is an update. 

I am now 45 years old and I still own my own flat, no mortgage. My buy to let house is shortly starting year 4 of its 5 year lease. In December it will be down to £ 39k left on the mortgage and it clears £ 333/month extra after paying off the mortgage which continues to accumulate for the annual overpay in December.

In December 2019 I informally chatted with the flat owner when I ran into her in the hallway but as I already had a job offer away I wished the owner good luck with her sale.

In January 2020 I moved to a European country I always wanted to live in on a last minute, short term contract to replace another teacher for the spring semester. In March all teaching transitioned to zoom and I ended up grounded there as the borders closed but at least I still had an incoming salary due to zoom teaching.

In May 2020 I noticed that the flat had reappeared on rightmove and I texted the owner. She explained that it had fallen through twice due to covid and buyers losing jobs etc. so they were open to offers as they didn't want to lose their mortgage offer and their dream house. Due to all of the social distancing protocols in place from covid I was able to do 100% of the purchase from outside of the UK.

In Sept 2020 the flat sale completed.

I realised that I quite like living in the European country where I am located but that zoom teaching isn't really for me so I stayed abroad and went back into an IT role. It's also a bit more lucrative than teaching so roll on mortgage over payments! 

The flat became just a standard rental which is managed for me by a local estate agent rather than the airbnb option. There are two other flats in the building that are listed on airbnb but I see on various booking sites that they are mostly available and their nightly cost has been reduced so I consider myself fortunate to be going the traditional route at this time plus the new buy to let mortgage very clearly does not allow for it.

For now I will just enjoy living on the Continent doing a job I enjoy while the new flat does its thing and pays off the new mortgage.