Buy to Let property in the UK

[IbrahimAbi]

Following the recent threads on Watch the Lira now, It is relevant to many foreign residents in Turkey who have one or more buy to let properties in the UK for investment purposes.
The recent changes to taxation and claiming mortgage interest against tax only really hit if the properties are not bought for cash (apart from the 3% stamp duty.)

 

[enoch]

I for one am against buy to let . All it do's is put house prices up. It makes it harder for the younger one's getting a house .

 

[oldfogy]

I for one am against buy to let . All it does is put house prices up. It makes it harder for the younger one's getting a house.

Not forgetting that as has been shown on the likes of the TV series a good majority or at least a good portion of BTL landlords are just in it for the money with no thought of what happens to people that then get into financial difficulties and can't pay the rent. They are then (rightly or wrongly just evicted and sent to the local council to be housed who probably refused them to begin with).

 

[Michael Hanley]

Not forgetting that as has been shown on the likes of the TV series a good majority or at least a good portion of BTL landlords are just in it for the money with no thought of what happens to people that then get into financial difficulties and can't pay the rent. They are then (rightly or wrongly just evicted and sent to the local council to be housed who probably refused them to begin with).

When it gets to the stage where the banks say to the property owners that they don't need to pay their mortgages because the tenants can't pay their rents then the Landlords will be able to be more understanding.

 

[Akasya]

This government controls earnings , why not rents ?

Is it just me , or does this seem VERY one sided , but then it is the Tories and their mates .

Steve

 

[IbrahimAbi]

I for one am against buy to let . All it do's is put house prices up. It makes it harder for the younger one's getting a house .

That, of course is your prerogative. Some of us do not qualify for a pension at all, having spent well over 30 years working overseas. BTL is an investment, and like other investments will come with risks and challenges. I am sure that some landlords are out to make as much money as they can. we have had the same tenants in one of our properties since 2004, and the rent has not been increased in the 14 years.

 

[stuart]

I think landlords who are not I it for the money are called charities// what else are they doing it for ffs

 

[429nufc]

This government controls earnings , why not rents ?

Is it just me , or does this seem VERY one sided , but then it is the Tories and their mates .

Steve

Build more social housing at affordable rents and that will pull the the private rents down

Anyone around here lucky or diligent enough to have amassed some capital can buy an ex social housing property for around £50,000 and get £5,400 annual rent

 

[oldfogy]

I think landlords who are not I it for the money are called charities// what else are they doing it for ffs

When I sat on our Social housing committee (Housing association) as I pointed out to them, they may be 'a registered charity' but in the end they are in the business to provide housing by making money to which they agreed,

So what is charity?
A organisation where they Pay themselves a good salary from the rents they collect mainly from people on housing benefit from properties built with usually 100% government or EU funding,

 

[429nufc]

I never thought I’d agree with old fogey but you are correct.Many executives are grossly overpaid.

A bit like Persimmon where someone got a 1,000,000 £ bonus for being in the job at the right times

 

[oldfogy]

yes but my point is they are not a charity at least not in the true meaning of charity, they are businesses out to make money from tenants.

 

[Chasey]

I for one am against buy to let . All it do's is put house prices up. It makes it harder for the younger one's getting a house .

Riiiiighhht so its not stupidly low interest rates. Interest only mortgages, mortgages until your 75, 5X multiples of joint income or mortgages you can hand over to your kids and definitely not the massively high cost of commuting that putting up inner city prices??


Apparently its not the Mortgage companies themselves refusing to offer mortgages on properties valued below 75K?? Plenty of 40 -50 K properties out there but you try getting a mortgage on one.

r

No its BTLets??

So how does that work then?

Tel me EXACTLY how the BTL market affects the price of properties because I for one have never been able to figure it out.

Property prices are killing the BTL market with it now being extremely difficult to gain 5% + on your investment. Estate agents are using 5% gross as a percentage return on investment for buying BTL properties but that's a joke as most have fixed overheads like management charges which bring it way down below 5%



But what do I know I only do this for a living.

 

[Chasey]

Not forgetting that as has been shown on the likes of the TV series a good majority or at least a good portion of BTL landlords are just in it for the money with no thought of what happens to people that then get into financial difficulties and can't pay the rent. They are then (rightly or wrongly just evicted and sent to the local council to be housed who probably refused them to begin with).

Seriously WTF are you talking about

If I don't pay my car loan my car gets repossessed If I dot pay my gas its cut off if I don't pay my mortgage my house gets repossessed

WTF should landlords support tenants who cant pay? That's the welfare states job

And do you think its easy to evict a non paying tenant? It takes several months, a court case and about £1250.00 in costs and that's ignoring the money you lost due to 8 months of non payment and the fact you probably still had to pay the mortgage during that period.

The you invariably have to refurbish the property they trashed and then pay out for remarketing and new tenancy agreements


WTF do you feel people renting should receive special treatment?

It makes me so angry when landlords are made out to be villains when in fact they are just providing a service which you can decide to use or not.

 

[Chasey]

This government controls earnings , why not rents ?

Is it just me , or does this seem VERY one sided , but then it is the Tories and their mates .

Steve

Sorry how exactly does the government control earnings? As an employer I would be fascinated to know?

Minimum wage yes? So are you suggesting the government decide a minimum rent? I am all for that

Rents are decided by market forces just like wages and house prices. Price too high and you wont rent your property


Seriously are you lot on drugs? Should we cap the price of Ferraris as they are a rip off? Should we make Champaign £5.00 a bottle so poor people can afford it?

No? So why apply this insane logic to BTL


I buy a property, I rent it for X money. Take it or leave it, but if you take it you have to pay what's asked.

Just like everything else in life.


Over 2,000,000 landlords in the UK own 1 X BTL property as an investment for their retirement. They provide a valuable service

More people on social services rent from private landlords than from councils


If the BTL market collapsed councils would be unable to house DSS tenants.

Councils like my local counsel Swale are begging private landlords to take more DSS and DWP tenants due to demand. The present government is making BTL to DSS so unpalatable that local councils are having to offer incentives to attract private landlords.

 

[Chasey]

When it gets to the stage where the banks say to the property owners that they don't need to pay their mortgages because the tenants can't pay their rents then the Landlords will be able to be more understanding.

Why the mortgage companies are not understanding, why should the Landlord be?

So in your dream world I ring up the Woolwich and say I am realy sorry I have fallen on hard times as my tenant wont pay and its going to take me 6 months to evict and its going to cost me 1000s

And according to you, the Woolwich say OH that's fine mr Chase no need to worry just pay us when you can?????

Again I ask who's taking what drugs here and can I have some

 

[Chasey]

Personally, I have been self employed since the age of 29. I took out a private pension with the Co Op aged 23 which was supposed to pay me a 50K lump sum and 15K a year.

They screwed me

My pension is hardly worth the paper its written on and Ill be lucky to get 3K a year.

Screw miss sold PPI lets get into miss sold pensions


Aged 35 I realised id be poverty stricken when I retired so I decided to do something about it. SO I remortguaged my house and got 120K to invest in property and purchased a flat and a house to rent.

Then I re Mortguaged them to buy two more flats.


Any time I managed to save some money I didn't buy a flash car I bought another flat

20 years later I now have 10


Most property owners could have done this. I bought flats for as little as 30K in a shocking state and worked w/ends and evenings to refurbish them for rental.


Don't you dare tell me you can afford deer stalking but couldn't stretch to 30K. I bet a lot of you spent more than that on cars.


10 flats is a business. I set up a Ltd company to manage them and it takes 10-15 hour a week work. I am constantly dealing with repairs, complaints, refurbishments, non payers and keeping up to date with the latest red tape. I re qualified and am now an accredited land lord.

I risked my own money, I worked hard and now I am benefiting.


Why does this upset so many people?

I don't understand the hatred BTL invokes. Its a business its an investment and its a valuable service we offer to the public

I have been called out of bed at 2am to deal with floods I have had to drive out to fix a claimed broken boiler on Boxing day driving over a 120miles round trip when it turned out the boyfriend just switched it off by mistake. I have had tenants call in electrictions for a broken light bulb and bill me I have had one tenant smash down his back door because he lost his keys and demand I repair it. I have had non payers who have smashed up a recently refurbished property doing 15Ks worth of damage and just walked away with nothing I can do about it.

Its not an easy business. I do not recommend it for the faint hearted

BUT do it right and you can make a living from it.

Tell me whats wrong with that?

 

[enoch]

Why the mortgage companies are not understanding, why should the Landlord be?

So in your dream world I ring up the Woolwich and say I am realy sorry I have fallen on hard times as my tenant wont pay and its going to take me 6 months to evict and its going to cost me 1000s

And according to you, the Woolwich say OH that's fine mr Chase no need to worry just pay us when you can?????

Again I ask who's taking what drugs here and can I have some

This is what happens when you run a business good and bad times .In the north west England young people have been forced out of the housing market because of buy to let.

 

[Chasey]

This is what happens when you run a business good and bad times .In the north west England young people have been forced out of the housing market because of buy to let.

Explain how they are "forced out of the market"?

There is no logic to that statement

1000000s of property's to buy out there and Landlords don't get a discount or special preferences, we are competing for the same properties as you are. We pay higher mortgage rates, we are taxed on mortgage interest we have to pay tax and capital gains tax

Tell me where is our big advantage

 

[Akasya]

Sorry how exactly does the government control earnings? As an employer I would be fascinated to know?

.

Government employees , doctors , nurses , teachers police officers , local government employees , fire offices , armed forces etc.

All have had their pay capped by the government .

This government has propagated zero hours contracts , and capped support for low earners .

This government removed rent controls , removed housing standards .

So earnings controlled , rents increased , millions homeless or in short term accomodation , new builds are at the lowest level ever , therefore rents increase , landlords profit .

Supply and demand , demand increased , supply reduced .

A 2 bed house here is £320,000 rent £1400 a month , deposits are so high and earnings so low that reduced supply is the only reason for insane prices / rents , compared to historic earnings levels .

Steve

 

[enoch]

Because in the area's i am talking about ' they are not local people that are buying them .
If all the buy to let house had not been bought, there would not have been as big a shortage of house for sale for the young one's .