To sell or rent ?

iimindlessii

Hello - I am requesting some advice on behalf of my brother who doesn't seem to know what to do. He bought a house some 15 years ago with a mortgage of £90,000 which has recently been revalued at £300,000. He bought the house in his own name, although he was living with his girlfriend at the time (they have recently split up and although she lived there rent free, he has paid her £30,000 out of his savings). Anyway because of the associations he no longer wants to live in the house but can't decide what to do now. He has had the house completely refurbished intending to rent it out and has moved to a different part of London and is also renting a flat there. He likes the new part of town and wants to stay but the rental prices are very high. Essentially, he can't earn enough in rent from his own house to cover the rent on his (rented) new flat. He is also worried about taxes in renting out his house. He doesn;t know whether to just sell the house and invest in a new flat in the new part of town or whether this is completely short sighted and he should swallow the loss in rental income for the next few years and make more money on his house. He is getting completely conflicting advice from everyone at the moment and I was hoping that someone on this forum could perhaps give me some good advice to pass onto him ! I hope the above makes sense and thanks to everyone who reads this/replies.

Mindless