Any reasons not to cave into the fear?

Reply to the comment left by DSR at 18/10/2022 - 18:39
Landlords with large portfolios can absorb the bumps in the road, which is where BTL is being pushed.

I kept a £1.2m house in London empty for 18 months due to S24, until I could sell.

Reply to the comment left by david porter at 18/10/2022 - 08:34Thank you David, really wise advice. I agree with you to survive these difficult times, meet the challenges and ride the storm, not giving up! My motivation is to offer homes that people want to make their long term family home.

Reply to the comment left by DSR at 18/10/2022 - 10:44
Thanks DSR I needed to hear the true "reality" of all this. I plan on using a letting management agency to find good/great tenants with guarantor. My hard earned savings are funding these investments. The legislation feels wobbly at best. I hope the pound recovers soon.

Reply to the comment left by Simon Lever - Chartered Accountant helping clients get the best returns from their properties at 18/10/2022 - 12:57
Thank you Simon, I'm going to set up the limited company first with a specialist property tax accountant company. Quotes setting up company circa £1,000. Ongoing fees I've received so far are really expensive - between £2-3,000 pa.

Thank you Simon. Plan to set up the limited company first via a specialist property tax accountant. Quotes setting up company circa £1,000. Ongoing fees received so far are really expensive - between £2-3,000 pa. Or is that reasonable?

Reply to the comment left by NewYorkie at 18/10/2022 - 13:32
Hi NewYorkie, I'm sorry to hear of your ordeal. If you don't mind me asking why did the eviction cost you £21K? I heed your warning about fear/property investment now. Trying to be as careful as possible. Thank you for posting your message.

Reply to the comment left by Yvonne Francis at 18/10/2022 - 16:09
Thank you Yvonne. I've been educating myself as much as possible, reading articles, websites like this one Property 118, attending webinars, watching YouTube videos by property investors and learning the terminology. It's very helpful to hear real life experiences such as yours, the reality and actualisation of property investment. As a new starter, I think maybe starting with a property investment company to set up my initial portfolio until I gain more knowledge and experience to become more independent later on. I am cautiously optimistic by nature. Thanks again.

I’ve been a landlord for 17 years and only this year made the move into limited company to buy an HMO. After 6 years of analysis paralysis watching others get on even during Section 24 changes.

I do have to get this latest property from a D to a C on the EPC by 2025, and have a plan to do this during an extension to add one possibly two bedroom and moderate cost efficient remodelling - so I will see a decent ROI overall.

I bought in cash by a directors loan to the LTD company. My options were - invest £450k into the stockmarket (June 2022), keep hold of cash and wait for a downturn (inflation causing cash value to drop in real terms 10% in 1 year), pay off all existing debt and be left with £100k in cash.

I don’t mind so much if there a downturn of 20% in the next year or 3. My rental income on this single property (and across the portfolio of 5) will make up for it. Yields will improve for newcomers to the buy to let market.

Btw. house prices are crashing in real terms anyway because they are not going up faster than inflation. In other words even if house prices stay the same, they are crashing in real terms by the rate of inflation. I’ve seen this before in 2001/02 when prices just stayed the same and didn’t drop, but they soon ramped up from 2003 -2007 to catch up to inflation. Could the same happen between now and the next house price crash ? Who knows ..

My guidance is try to distinguish between the cash generation business versus the capital gain or loss account of your property. What’s the balance between the two, can the cash business compensate for the short term anticipated down turn. ?

If you’re savvy and have financial business sense, and above all, are driven by a desire to help people and serve, over a long term, then I believe being a landlord can be a very rewarding profession especially if you’re looking for a semi passive income stream or transition from corporate into more lifestyle oriented occupations that help real people.

Yes the government rhetoric and tone is anti landlord disproportionately, but fundamentally the vast majority of us are good people with good intentions and we play a very important role in the U.K. housing sector. Market forces WILL ultimately hold the u.k.gov accountable to any further meddling and legislation. Section 21 is due to create some challenges but ultimately I believe common sense will prevail. If it doesn’t then we may go down the route of Berlin where rent freezes had a disastrous impact on the availability of healthy well maintained property and unintended market forces causes rent prices to sky rocket in certain property segments that were outside the legislation.

In any case one of my properties in London already has a voluntary rental increase limitation clause in it after the fixed term ends.

Don’t give in to the fear.

Reply to the comment left by SARBJIT SEHMBI at 19/10/2022 - 02:07
with that comes more cost. You need to factor agent costs in too, and sorry to sound like a real doom merchant.....agents aren't all they are cracked up to be either!
Bearing in mind that any licencing requirements or legal requirements that need to be met, will ALWAYS find themselves thrown back to the ultimate property owner/Landlord.

Get some landlord training maybe as a first port of call just to see what is involved before you take the jump. At least then you know what your agent is also supposed to be doing or not doing before you put your trust fully in them.
Good Luck!

Do not pay 2 to 3k a year for someone to run the company.
I've got 8 rentals and spend no more than a few hours a month dealing with repairs/admin
Find good agents and pay between 7 to 10% management