Buy a property to rent out or not

Mumoffourkids

AlexMac said:

As you obviously have your head screwed on, I think the otion of a BTL is a reasonable one. I was well in my 40s when I bought a rental property,  23 years ago and I've never regretted it. I used an agent to find, thoroughly vet tenants and set 'em up, but then, as it was local, I managed it myself, thus saving the 10-15%. Nver had a problem tenant, so, when the opportunity arose, we bought a second little (ex local authority) flat 10 years ago.

However, we've benefitted from unbelievable house price inflation due to a lucky accidental choice of location. We bought at £34k and £153k respectively and each are probably worth getting on for £300k now. That crazy uplift won't  happen again.

If you do buy, location would be critical. I saw an interesting article in last weekend's press about regional differences in rental income ROI on BTL rentals; ranging from 3-4% in parts of the SE to 10%+ in some northern regions. You'd also want to buy in the right  micro-location, in an area of high rental demand. For example my two are in less fashionable but very commutable areas (London Travel Zone 3) close to shops and transport.

Finally,  there's  no tearing hurry. Insofar as you can believe experts, people like Which, Savills and Knight Frank guess that prices will dip 5-10% in coming months, so you'll have time to continue planning,  identify likely areas,  do a couple of recees (nothing beats walking around an area and chatting to local retailers and agents) and using the interwebby to track local markets..
Good luck

Thank you for your post. This makes a lot of sense and I wouldn’t go rushing into anything. I don’t think I would buy in the south, it’s far too expensive down here but I would look north of me. Something not too far away that I could get to in a couple of days and realistically spend a day there without having to stay overnight. I will keep researching but it’s good to hear from someone who has done this already.