Moving to Australia - Sell or let our house?

Comms69

Lover_of_Lycra said:

Savings_Schmavings said:

We are looking at moving to Australia as soon as they lift the international travel restrictions so hopefully early 2021.

We have a house in Edinburgh worth around £500k which we own outright. Potential rental income is around £1700/month before fees. Management fees seem to be around 10% and I guess we would probably need to budget around £100/month for maintenance/repairs on top of this.

We're debating whether to sell or let the house out.

When we arrive in Australia we plan to purchase a home with a budget around $1M which we will mortgage. If we keep the house in Edinburgh we would have to mortgage 80% of the Australian property and use some of the income from the Edinburgh house to help us to pay off the Australian mortgage. We expect to work for another 5-10 years in Australia before we take early retirement and hope to have paid off the mortgage in that time frame. Alternatively, if we sell the house in Edinburgh it means a much smaller Australian mortgage and allows us to invest in other areas or simply not work so hard. 

We are conflicted, not just because of the financial/taxation implications but also the stress/hassle associated with renting our house out while we are overseas.

Would be interested to hear from others with similar experiences.

I moved to Australia in January and let my former home which is in Scotland.  I'm not sure that I want to stay in Australia permanently so that's driving my decision to keep my former home as I might want to move back at the end of 2021.  My situation is a bit different in that I have a mortgage and with the rent I receive I break even, no more no less.  The first two months rent went on paying letting agency fees and getting the property reading for letting: landlord registration, PAT, EHIC certificate, gas safety certificate, legionella risk assessment, extra smoke detectors and a heat detector in the kitchen.  I went with a tenant who is a key worker and provided good references so, touch wood, the tenant shouldn't be furloughed or face some other drop in income.  I spent time meeting with letting agents before I went to Australia so I could choose the best, or since we're talking about letting agents the least bad, and so far so good but I still need to stay on top of things.   I involved myself in the tenant selection process and I've told them I want to see all inspection reports.

If you're certain you want the move to Australia to be permanent then sell the Edinburgh property.  If I knew I was going to see out the rest of my days down under I would sell too.

Just as an aside. Only you or a solicitor can evict a tenant, so there's an extra cost in that sense too

[Deleted User]

Comms69 said:

Lover_of_Lycra said:

Savings_Schmavings said:

We are looking at moving to Australia as soon as they lift the international travel restrictions so hopefully early 2021.

We have a house in Edinburgh worth around £500k which we own outright. Potential rental income is around £1700/month before fees. Management fees seem to be around 10% and I guess we would probably need to budget around £100/month for maintenance/repairs on top of this.

We're debating whether to sell or let the house out.

When we arrive in Australia we plan to purchase a home with a budget around $1M which we will mortgage. If we keep the house in Edinburgh we would have to mortgage 80% of the Australian property and use some of the income from the Edinburgh house to help us to pay off the Australian mortgage. We expect to work for another 5-10 years in Australia before we take early retirement and hope to have paid off the mortgage in that time frame. Alternatively, if we sell the house in Edinburgh it means a much smaller Australian mortgage and allows us to invest in other areas or simply not work so hard. 

We are conflicted, not just because of the financial/taxation implications but also the stress/hassle associated with renting our house out while we are overseas.

Would be interested to hear from others with similar experiences.

I moved to Australia in January and let my former home which is in Scotland.  I'm not sure that I want to stay in Australia permanently so that's driving my decision to keep my former home as I might want to move back at the end of 2021.  My situation is a bit different in that I have a mortgage and with the rent I receive I break even, no more no less.  The first two months rent went on paying letting agency fees and getting the property reading for letting: landlord registration, PAT, EHIC certificate, gas safety certificate, legionella risk assessment, extra smoke detectors and a heat detector in the kitchen.  I went with a tenant who is a key worker and provided good references so, touch wood, the tenant shouldn't be furloughed or face some other drop in income.  I spent time meeting with letting agents before I went to Australia so I could choose the best, or since we're talking about letting agents the least bad, and so far so good but I still need to stay on top of things.   I involved myself in the tenant selection process and I've told them I want to see all inspection reports.

If you're certain you want the move to Australia to be permanent then sell the Edinburgh property.  If I knew I was going to see out the rest of my days down under I would sell too.

Just as an aside. Only you or a solicitor can evict a tenant, so there's an extra cost in that sense too

I (the applicant) can apply to the FTT for an eviction order and I can be represented by a lay person eg the letting agent, it doesn't have to be a solicitor.   

Thrugelmir

Savings_Schmavings said:

We are looking at moving to Australia as soon as they lift the international travel restrictions so hopefully early 2021.

Understand that there's still thousands wishing to return home. The restriction being the bottle neck of an enforced 14 day hotel stay. Early 2021 seems very optimistic at the current time. 

Comms69

Lover_of_Lycra said:

Comms69 said:

Lover_of_Lycra said:

Savings_Schmavings said:

We are looking at moving to Australia as soon as they lift the international travel restrictions so hopefully early 2021.

We have a house in Edinburgh worth around £500k which we own outright. Potential rental income is around £1700/month before fees. Management fees seem to be around 10% and I guess we would probably need to budget around £100/month for maintenance/repairs on top of this.

We're debating whether to sell or let the house out.

When we arrive in Australia we plan to purchase a home with a budget around $1M which we will mortgage. If we keep the house in Edinburgh we would have to mortgage 80% of the Australian property and use some of the income from the Edinburgh house to help us to pay off the Australian mortgage. We expect to work for another 5-10 years in Australia before we take early retirement and hope to have paid off the mortgage in that time frame. Alternatively, if we sell the house in Edinburgh it means a much smaller Australian mortgage and allows us to invest in other areas or simply not work so hard. 

We are conflicted, not just because of the financial/taxation implications but also the stress/hassle associated with renting our house out while we are overseas.

Would be interested to hear from others with similar experiences.

I moved to Australia in January and let my former home which is in Scotland.  I'm not sure that I want to stay in Australia permanently so that's driving my decision to keep my former home as I might want to move back at the end of 2021.  My situation is a bit different in that I have a mortgage and with the rent I receive I break even, no more no less.  The first two months rent went on paying letting agency fees and getting the property reading for letting: landlord registration, PAT, EHIC certificate, gas safety certificate, legionella risk assessment, extra smoke detectors and a heat detector in the kitchen.  I went with a tenant who is a key worker and provided good references so, touch wood, the tenant shouldn't be furloughed or face some other drop in income.  I spent time meeting with letting agents before I went to Australia so I could choose the best, or since we're talking about letting agents the least bad, and so far so good but I still need to stay on top of things.   I involved myself in the tenant selection process and I've told them I want to see all inspection reports.

If you're certain you want the move to Australia to be permanent then sell the Edinburgh property.  If I knew I was going to see out the rest of my days down under I would sell too.

Just as an aside. Only you or a solicitor can evict a tenant, so there's an extra cost in that sense too

I (the applicant) can apply to the FTT for an eviction order and I can be represented by a lay person eg the letting agent, it doesn't have to be a solicitor.   

I thought that only applied (in England it's this way) if you are present yourself?

Savings_Schmavings

Thrugelmir said:

Understand that there's still thousands wishing to return home. The restriction being the bottle neck of an enforced 14 day hotel stay. Early 2021 seems very optimistic at the current time. 

Yes, agreed, it's looking increasingly unlikely but we are reasonably flexible fortunately.

Thrugelmir

I'd plan to sell. Managing a property from the other side of the world. Even with the aid of an agent. Isn't going to be an easy task. 

pinkteapot

I assume the reason to keep the house is in case you decide to move back, rather than for the income stream? However, even if you do move back, it's only a problem if prices here rocket in the intervening years compared to Australia. If that happens the money you come back with won't go as far, and you won't have as nice a house here as you have now. How much of a problem is that? Could you happily downsize here? (not looking for answers - these are the things I'd be thinking through)

Not as extreme as emigrating but... We relocated from Essex to Cumbria two years ago. We did briefly consider renting out our house down there as we knew there was a chance we wouldn't settle up here, and historically prices have risen far faster down south so if we move back we probably won't be able to afford what we had before (happened to my parents in the 70s-80s when they moved up to Derbyshire for about ten years, then moved back to London). We chose to risk it and sell up because we really didn't want the hassle of renting it out, and we had a bigger house down there than we needed. Time will tell if that was the right decision but so far I'm glad we don't have to worry about a house 300 miles away. 

[Deleted User]

Comms69 said:

Lover_of_Lycra said:

Comms69 said:

Lover_of_Lycra said:

Savings_Schmavings said:

We are looking at moving to Australia as soon as they lift the international travel restrictions so hopefully early 2021.

We have a house in Edinburgh worth around £500k which we own outright. Potential rental income is around £1700/month before fees. Management fees seem to be around 10% and I guess we would probably need to budget around £100/month for maintenance/repairs on top of this.

We're debating whether to sell or let the house out.

When we arrive in Australia we plan to purchase a home with a budget around $1M which we will mortgage. If we keep the house in Edinburgh we would have to mortgage 80% of the Australian property and use some of the income from the Edinburgh house to help us to pay off the Australian mortgage. We expect to work for another 5-10 years in Australia before we take early retirement and hope to have paid off the mortgage in that time frame. Alternatively, if we sell the house in Edinburgh it means a much smaller Australian mortgage and allows us to invest in other areas or simply not work so hard. 

We are conflicted, not just because of the financial/taxation implications but also the stress/hassle associated with renting our house out while we are overseas.

Would be interested to hear from others with similar experiences.

I moved to Australia in January and let my former home which is in Scotland.  I'm not sure that I want to stay in Australia permanently so that's driving my decision to keep my former home as I might want to move back at the end of 2021.  My situation is a bit different in that I have a mortgage and with the rent I receive I break even, no more no less.  The first two months rent went on paying letting agency fees and getting the property reading for letting: landlord registration, PAT, EHIC certificate, gas safety certificate, legionella risk assessment, extra smoke detectors and a heat detector in the kitchen.  I went with a tenant who is a key worker and provided good references so, touch wood, the tenant shouldn't be furloughed or face some other drop in income.  I spent time meeting with letting agents before I went to Australia so I could choose the best, or since we're talking about letting agents the least bad, and so far so good but I still need to stay on top of things.   I involved myself in the tenant selection process and I've told them I want to see all inspection reports.

If you're certain you want the move to Australia to be permanent then sell the Edinburgh property.  If I knew I was going to see out the rest of my days down under I would sell too.

Just as an aside. Only you or a solicitor can evict a tenant, so there's an extra cost in that sense too

I (the applicant) can apply to the FTT for an eviction order and I can be represented by a lay person eg the letting agent, it doesn't have to be a solicitor.   

I thought that only applied (in England it's this way) if you are present yourself?

Are you maybe confusing have a supporter with having a representative? 

OldMusicGuy

Sell. We did two years in the US and sold to avoid the hassle of having our place rented. We didn't know if we wanted to live in the same area anyway when we returned (which we ended up not doing).

A colleague of mine rented his house while he worked abroad. Had a nightmare getting the tenant out when he returned, had to go legal and spent some time in rental while he tried to get the tenant evicted. 

Angela_D_3

Keep the house,  you’d be genuinely shocked at the numbers who don’t like it out there and come back.