Buying a 2nd Property as BTL - Should I pull out?

Thrugelmir

Any assumption that lock down will end, a switch flicked and the economy returns to life as before is misguided. Impossible to see anything but an impact across the board for an extended period of time. 

jumperabv3

Thrugelmir said:

Any assumption that lock down will end, a switch flicked and the economy returns to life as before is misguided. Impossible to see anything but an impact across the board for an extended period of time. 

That's a very scary thought, if this would be the case then I'd pay back the full amount back to the lender instead of investing it and have the 1st property mortgage free again - the option is still available anytime, I don't reject that option

If you look at China you can see in China they are back to pretty much normal life now, they were under a very extensive and excessive lockdown but now things are changing back to normal:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/trump-weighs-coronavirus-lockdown-york-live-updates-200328234401911.html
So they did in some way, flipped the switch and gradually going back to "normal" life.

Also many respected doctors have expressed their view that the summer and the heat are going to be very effective against the coronavirus (the trouble in Europe is that the summer lasts for barely 3 months, so that's not enough, but last year I remember it was extremely humid in the summer, people were rushing into buses because they were looking for air conditioners to cool down the heat).... many countries with hot weather are not suffering so greatly from this pandemic (and Australia is not a great example even though their numbers are not so bad neither, but it's already fall in Australia).

If others however do believe life would never go back to normal then I'd pull out, by all means that's the last thing to do if life would never go back to be normal again.

hazyjo

There are many rumours China is far from normal and there's a big cover up going on over daily deaths. Lots of videos out there of bodies in streets etc. I suppose it depends what you read and what you believe.

I wouldn't touch BTL on a good day, let alone in this current climate!

Thrugelmir

hazyjo said:

There are many rumours China is far from normal and there's a big cover up going on over daily deaths. Lots of videos out there of bodies in streets etc. I suppose it depends what you read and what you believe.

Plenty of indicators that the news has been controlled by the State. 

greatcrested

The news there is always controlled by the state. As evidenced by the doctor who first tried to raise the alarm and was forced to sign an apology and undertake to keep quiet. That was the local Public Security officials' instinctive response. Bad news so cover it up". Ok, those officials were later made scapegoats when the extent of the problem became clear, but in reality they were just doing exactly what they were trained to do.

The same is, no doubt, true now, with news being sanitised before released....

jumperabv3

Thanks for your comments, looks like it's worth waiting then... we'll think about it in the next few days. Thank you all.

Crashy_Time

buglawton said:

House moves are more or less banned. Most letting agents have suspended business. I'd bet that all new rent guarantee schemes will have vaporised or have massive loopholes built in. I'd only consider a BTL if there were a price reduction of a years rent compared to its value in January/February.

Exactly, anything that weakens landlords is a vote winner now, and depending on how they come out the other end of this crisis they may need vote winning strategy.