What’s the best thing to do with money from the sale of a property?

SRob5on

Hi everyone, just wanted some advice on what do do with money from the sale of a property? So, we were looking at putting £100 to £150k into an account to earn some interest and add extra to it monthly (but don’t want to be tied into having to do this every month). We don’t necessarily want to have instance access to those funds either. What do you think would be the best way forward and what type of account do you think we should go for? Thank you

eskbanker

Much will depend on when you're likely to need the money, but probably worth reading through the MSE guides about the different types of account:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/which-saving-account/
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/savings-accounts-best-interest/

Depending on your broader financial circumstances it may make sense to consider pensions, other investments, properties, etc, rather than simply savings accounts....

kinger101

Whatever you do, it's worth reading up on the FSCS protection limits.
I believe proceeds from house sales will be covered fully for six months, but after that, it's £85 K (single account) or £170 K (joint accounts) per bank.

eskbanker

kinger101 said:

Whatever you do, it's worth reading up on the FSCS protection limits.
I believe proceeds from house sales will be covered fully for six months, but after that, it's £85 K (single account) or £170 K (joint accounts) per bank.

Perhaps worth clarifying that it's specifically proceeds from selling your main residence that are covered by the FSCS temporary high balances provision - OP's reference to selling 'a property', without any mention of rebuying, made me wonder if this was their home or not....

RobM99

kinger101 said:

Whatever you do, it's worth reading up on the FSCS protection limits.
I believe proceeds from house sales will be covered fully for six months, but after that, it's £85 K (single account) or £170 K (joint accounts) per bank.

Not "per bank" as a parent company may own two banks. Make sure they're not linked.

SRob5on

eskbanker said:

kinger101 said:

Whatever you do, it's worth reading up on the FSCS protection limits.
I believe proceeds from house sales will be covered fully for six months, but after that, it's £85 K (single account) or £170 K (joint accounts) per bank.

Perhaps worth clarifying that it's specifically proceeds from selling your main residence that are covered by the FSCS temporary high balances provision - OP's reference to selling 'a property', without any mention of rebuying, made me wonder if this was their home or not....

Thank you for your replies and maybe we should have been more clear. The property is ours, is mortgage free (it was an inheritance) and is our main home. I am 31 and my husband is 28. We want to sell because the property is no longer big enough for us and needs a lot of work. We are looking at renting for a short time to see what the market is doing and then buying in the future hence wanting to put money aside for out deposit fund on our next home, which is why I’m asking where the best place is to put it. Thank you again 

greatcrested

How far in the future before you buy again?

6 Months? 2 years? 5? Or just no idea at present?

The answer could significantly alter the advice about where to keep the money.

SRob5on

greatcrested said:

How far in the future before you buy again?

6 Months? 2 years? 5? Or just no idea at present?

The answer could significantly alter the advice about where to keep the money.

We were looking at renting for 2 to 5 years actually. We set ourselves a ‘no more than 5 years’ target. Not sure why but this was the sort of time scale that seems most realistic to us. Thanks

happy_hazelnuts

If you are going to use the money in the 2 to 5 year time scale to buy a house then what you need is for the money to be invested in such a way not only to beat inflation but to beat house price inflation

In my opinion to do this you will probably need to take some risk. And actually depending on your view of where you think house prices will go you may not even be able to achieve this so your savings will be losing money in real terms when measured against the increase in house prices

What I don't understand is if you are going to buy a house using this money why don't you do it now rather than waiting 2 to 5 years?

SRob5on

happy_hazelnuts said:

If you are going to use the money in the 2 to 5 year time scale to buy a house then what you need is for the money to be invested in such a way not only to beat inflation but to beat house price inflation

In my opinion to do this you will probably need to take some risk. And actually depending on your view of where you think house prices will go you may not even be able to achieve this so your savings will be losing money in real terms when measured against the increase in house prices

What I don't understand is if you are going to buy a house using this money why don't you do it now rather than waiting 2 to 5 years?

We live in the south east... compared to what our house is worth compared to house prices for what we would like, we are looking at a large mortgage, a mortgage we might not be able to get at the moment. Are house prices not predicted to fall because of the current climate? By doing it this way, we’ll potentially get more for our money later down the line. If we don’t sell now, we might as well stay where we are, if that makes sense?

vitamin_joe

Yes it makes sense. You want to sell, hold the money in an investment and wait for a housing crash, then buy. 

House prices are predicted to fall, and I personally believe they will in the short term. There are a lot of other factors in the economy currently. A lot of 'unknown unknowns.' My sense is that your strategy to gamble on house prices becoming more favourable to you is a risky one. Personally I wouldn't risk the value of my house to hopefully acquire a better house, at least not at this particular time with all the covid uncertainty. A housing crash could easily be accompanied by a crash in the value of your investments, for instance. But it may be a gamble worth taking if you suss out the risks and rewards accurately. You'd need to get expert advice on whether the housing market in the South East is likely to follow a nationwide downtrend.

Essentially, it's a gamble. So you need to get an estimate of the odds of you succeeding, and then decide if that's a risk you are comfortable taking.