Advice

mion52

I have purchased as buy to let 6 new build properties in the past 12 months - hoping to supplement my pension. They are all apartments and I negotiated between 15 and 20% off each of them. They are all let and I am just about breaking even with the mortgages etc. Shall I hold on to them in this current climate - mu wife is getting twitchy!

abaxas

Awooga!
Awooga!

wymondham

Odd for someone so heavily into the game to be asking here??

trudiha

I'd buy at least 6 more but that's because I imagine that a twitchy wife would be very *interesting* in the right circumstances.

asandwhen

TROLL anyone?

RHemmings

asandwhen wrote: »

TROLL anyone?

Let's not start this "troll alert" nonsense we see on some other websites. If you don't feel inclined to answer the question ignore it. Same for this "awooga awooga" crap.

jimc_2

RHemmings wrote: »

If you don't feel inclined to answer the question ignore it.

Ah, but if everyone did that then how would the HousePriceCrashers find another thread to take over and on which to vent their spleen? They're not content to stay put in their HPC enclosure and want to roam free to pour out their vitriol.

mion52

RHemmings wrote: »

Let's not start this "troll alert" nonsense we see on some other websites. If you don't feel inclined to answer the question ignore it. Same for this "awooga awooga" crap.

Thanks for that - it was a serious question and I am not a 'big player'.

Incidentally I am not looking for a quick turnaround I went into this with a 3-5 year plan

RHemmings

jimc wrote: »

Ah, but if everyone did that then how would the HousePriceCrashers find another thread to take over and on which to vent their spleen? They're not content to stay put in their HPC enclosure and want to roam free to pour out their vitriol.

I think we need to reintroduce some large predators.

kazwookie

abaxas wrote: »

Awooga!
Awooga!

:rotfl:

Is that an illness?

If so you can get cream for it!!

RHemmings

mion52 wrote: »

Thanks for that - it was a serious question and I am not a 'big player'.

Incidentally I am not looking for a quick turnaround I went into this with a 3-5 year plan

The market is clearly in a period of "uncertainty", as the long term HPI of the past ten years appears to have halted. I personally believe that the UK property market is way overvalued, and will likely correct in some way shape or form. But exactly how and when is impossible to predict.

My opinion, for what it's worth, is that you have taken on an absolutely massive risk, with very little chance of much reward. If you look at the value of houses relative to income, they are at an all-time high. I don't believe that this high real value of houses will continue into the future.

But, the housing market does not act rationally. So predicting exactly how things will happen is extremely difficult.

Since you are letting your flats, I suggest that you do this. Calculate the value of your flats by taking the gross (before costs/deductions) rent you get, and assuming that a fair value on the flats is a 7.5% gross return. For example, if you can get £600 a month for a flat, then it's value by this estimate is

( 600 x 12 ) / 0.075 = £96,000.

This is the typical "rule of thumb" used by rental investors in the past, and it is plausible (not definite) that we will return to these values. By this measure, how much are your properties worth, compared to their current market value?

This is not the be-all and end-all of predicting. But it's one thing that I think you can do to help evaluate your current situation.