Buy Sell Hold or Get Out Altogether?

Hi Mike,

It depends on your circumstances as to what your perspective is.

If you are a pure cash buyer or unencumbered then your competition is weaker.

If you can incorporate or juggle tax allowances you can stay in the game and nearly everyone that is purchasing is doing so now in the name of a limited company.

It might be worth you checking out our tax planning page >> https://www.property118.com/tax/

I've sold a few but I'm holding the rest.

I've sorted my tax position and I'm anticipating increased tenant demand for the very reasons you've cited, i.e. a lot of landlords selling up.

This will drive up rents.

I'm not so sure what will happen to capital values but as I'm not selling I don't need to worry about that.
.

Yes i appreciate that and fully understand we all have different tax and financial positions.

I see lots of portfolios coming to market and i also see lots of empty properties on the market...Not old peoples. I have been to NLA meetings and there is mixed opinion, but Landlords are definitely leaving from what i can see.

I was interested how the feeling in the community was, as i guess we are spread all over the country, obviously there will be those who will suffer under S24 and some work full time and not.
I am on Hold...the impact could be massive, and i don't want further headache with new properties, plus i have do some analysis of the market and believe that we may see a 5-10% fall over the next few years, so also not inspired to buy further as a double wammy....
I do think Residential is over as a B2L Risks are greater than rewards and cost to great. London is a different animal, but my perception is that its well over cooked and price and rent falls are happening.
So i was interested in other views too really as i have no appetite for the sector right now, and others i know feel the same.
Any views from around the UK welcome

Jury is out as far as we are concerned. Before last weeks debacle we were reasonably content with our expensive (vanilla ) incorporation and holding tight waiting for some buying opportunities with the funds we had raised. We saw the buy to let dinner party brigade (one or two as a pension) leaving the market and other larger landlords having had enough. This is why we didn't go down the BICT route as at the time it was quite new, lots of lenders and others with negative feedback and there were complications going forward for purchases. Then last week and the truly shocking prospect of a labour govt worst case and best case a socialist tory mix up with rubbish brexit. We have moved from almost certainly looking for buying opportunities over 2-3 years to considering sticking with what we have got and even repaying debt, whilst caning the hell out of rents obviously ! If we had seen this coming we would have used BICT and just stuck with the properties we have got.

I'm out. Risks are too great, rewards too low, stress levels too high. To be fair I am not a full-timer, I am one of those pension investors, but having bought in 2007, although I worked out quickly it was not for me, I have been waiting it out. Two already on the market (not a good time, they are in Aberdeenshire and the bottom is out of oil and gas, they have been on the market a while but I can't drop much below the reduced valuations, still better than the stress of dealing with bad tenants and not knowing what the government will throw at me next). Four will then remain - I expect to sell one of those to the tenant, one will be eviction and sell, one I will hold for a couple of years until the tenant is in a position to buy, the last one I am looking to be in a position for my Ltd to buy from me, it's now worth peanuts. I should have stuck to buy, renovate, sell, which is what I enjoy. Expensive lesson. Live and learn.

Mike

Personally I'm still in and intend to stay in. For me and my wife it's a business and, like any other business, you have to take the rough with the smooth (tax, cash flow, debt, compliance, etc.). We've had houses for over 25 years and have therefore seen a few changes but have never been put off. The market needs rented houses and we provide decent houses to decent tenants; it works.

As for the tax issue, we are still looking at this but will probably shift houses owned privately to one of our companies (luckily we already operate in a variety of structures). We are taking the opportunity (yes really) to rejig our business model, re-finance and tidy up what we do for the future. This may include selling one house. In our area both rents and capital values are strong and seem set to rise (or at least remain steady). We have a sound business model and with good advice and support we will continue.

We last purchased a house (through a company) in March and it was let straight away after refurb, as usually happens in our area. We always buy what we know and don't go chasing other peoples ideas of making money.

We may diversify into more commercial property, due to better yields and cash flow, but the underlying message is business as usual.

Graham

I'm not going to buy or sell but I'm remortgaging two to release some equity which will probably be used for buy-refurb-sell via a company model. Another will stay on a repayment mortgage and will be paid off by the time I reach retirement age. However I may well 'retire' before then to pursue other interests.

I've thought about HMO as a next property but in a Ltd company, but with Councils moving to Tax by room in some area's and the greater work, i'm still not convinced that it will be right at this moment to be honest.
The next step is commercial, maybe with shop and flat above, preferably a large flat that a room by room might work.
These have different risks of course but in the climate i don't see anything else really working as an investment. Otherwise, i'm sat on the fence to await significant changes i think.

Reply to the comment left by "Mike D" at "19/06/2017 - 16:45":

Mike, in going for commercial with resi above you may find yourself inadvertently an HMO landlord however you decide to let the flat. It is my understanding that at some time in the near future (who knows when given the political fiasco) that flats above commercial will all be deemed HMOs with the increased regulation and management that comes with that badge. I don't think that initially it is intended that that stretches to mandatory licensing at this point although given the left leaning political scene and cynical local authorities it can surely only be a matter of time that all PRS is licensed, council tax levied per room and so on...