Adding girlfriend to property title - can I do it myself?

AdrianC

theoldmiser said:

AdrianC said:

theoldmiser said:

I don't really see it as investing a quarter of a million pounds
...
it's much more to do with having some money in bricks and mortar, rather than all in savings or financial investments. 

It's not really investing - it's having a business asset.
A very expensive and illiquid single business asset that forms a very large proportion of your net wealth, yet best case will only give a return slightly higher than inflation (in return for work on your part), and has a high potential of giving a negative return.

Where is this "high potential of giving a negative return" that you speak of? Where is the evidence for this?

If somebody has a highly leveraged BtL, then it's odds-on they're not making any money at all, and are subsidising their tenants. They may not realise it, but that's only because they haven't considered the full financial picture, including extra mortgage costs because they haven't used the equity in the BtL to reduce their debt.

And that's before considering cases where the BtL means they have to pay +3% SDLT on a home purchase.

Over time, they may (or may not) make a worthwhile post-CGT capital gain, but if they've had long-term low profitability on the actual lettings business, how does it all square?

Yes, diversifying your investments makes sense. Providing they all give a sensible return. Diversifying into loss-making or borderline-profitable investments is pointless. But that's one for the investment forum, not for here. Nobody has a guaranteed-accurate crystal ball, anyway.

Anyway, ten months after I posted that...?!?

getmore4less

Hope the girlfriend paid her  SDLT(Including the 3% extra) if she did buy in and pay off the mortgage.