Second home ?

ozzy13

Hi sorry this is a long post please bare with me -
my partner owns his home outright and I’m currently in a private rental property we are both 50yrs of age , my partner would like to keep his property as a retirement fund but we are aware of the stamp duty we would have to pay out for purchasing a second home which would be £7000, we would have a deposit of at least £20,000 funded by my partner 
For the new property , our dilemma is do we opt for a mortgage or do we just rent a property as we think it’s unfair that he is penalised by the stamp duty on the second property as he’s worked hard all his life to pay off his mortgage and now we want to live together , any advice would be appreciated 

lees80

Retirement fund? In what way? 

Nothing unfair about it, we all have to work and pay our taxes.

Any mortgage you do get will be limited in terms of duration due to your ages vs value of the property.

You could both live in his property and just enjoy yourselves? 

oldbikebloke

he wants to buy a second property - the taxation for that has nothing to do with you living with him or not.
there is one one kind of advice to give: pay up or don't buy. It is that simple.

Not paying tax so that he can pay rent until he dies in X years time is madness compared to the one off cost of tax. Unless of course you split up before then and he avoids the aggro of having to split the house with you becuase you are only renting and there is nothing to split?.

diggingdude

I don't like paying tax on pringles but i have to pay if I want pringles.

SpiderLegs

I think it’s unfair that I have to pay 40% marginal tax rate as I’ve worked all my life

ozzy13

My partner was in the 40% tax bracket too all I was asking was is it worth buying or renting at our age yes it’s a disappointment about the stamp duty but that wasn’t the main point of my post 

[Deleted User]

ozzy13 said:

My partner was in the 40% tax bracket too all I was asking was is it worth buying or renting at our age yes it’s a disappointment about the stamp duty but that wasn’t the main point of my post 

Then why mention the "unfairness" of the higher rate of SDLT for the purchase of additional residential properties at all?
You've not given anywhere near enough information in your OP for people to say one way or another which would be the best option.  It's not even clear that your partner keeping the current property as a retirement fund is sensible in terms of investment.

Are you able to get a mortgage over a reasonable term to purchase somewhere you would want to live? 
Do you want to rent or own?
Which works out less expensive in the long run, renting or buying?
Why does your partner think his current home will make a good investment?  What is he intending to do with it?  Rent it out to long term tenants?  Run it as an Airbnb type rental?  Leave it sitting empty?

Davesnave

I nominate this as the weirdest money saving dilemma of the week. It's almost as bad as the ones the team at MSE Towers make up!