Property Portfolio Leverage – what is the right amount?

Property Portfolio Leverage – what is the right amount?

21:56 PM, 8th October 2014, About 10 years ago 17

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Leverage is a topic that I spend a great deal of time thinking about. In my humble opinion a lot of writers/’gurus’ that are incredibly well respected pay little attention to how much leverage one should take on. Of course the real answer to this question is very specific depending on ones individual circumstances but do any of the forum members use any basic heuristics? Property portfolio leverage - what is the right amount

A lot of literature talks about the power of leverage (we have all read the instead of buying a £100k house outright we buy x4 with a 25% deposit etc) primarily because a number of the gurus have done incredibly well from being turbo-leveraged at one point in time. Clearly this is down to personal preference and although I have what I would call a healthy risk appetite I like to be able to sleep at night performing a variety of ‘stress tests’ surrounding my property portfolio (voids, interest rates, boilers, losing my day job etc. etc). I have read Mark Alexander’s strategy a number of times where he talks about holding quite chunky amounts of cash in the bank which I think is very prudent and I run a similar strategy by utilizing my full ISA balance each year. I would hazard a guess that other landlords are not as prudent as Mark though.

In my head, I tend to consider my primary residence and my property portfolio and other assets consolidated under one balance sheet and I am very focused on total assets / equity (my personal leverage ratio) and my cashflow coverage ratio based on interest rates stress tested at 5-7%.

The hardest thing for me is considering adding properties to my portfolio, particularly at lower implied yields than the average of my portfolio given that my leverage ratio will naturally increase and my average gross yield on the portfolio will fall.

What are your thoughts?

Regards

Jerry Maguire


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Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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13:51 PM, 9th October 2014, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "James London" at "09/10/2014 - 13:21":

Just remember James, when you own more properties economies of scale should kick in for things like insurance etc. Also, you can ride the storm better if you do have occasional voids subject to your other properties cashflowing. On the flipside though, the more properties you own, the bigger your maintenance budget will eventually be. Mine is £70 pcm per property. On top of that you need to factor in insurance, ground rent, service charges, gas checks, voids, letting costs, accountancy fees etc.

Good luck!
.

Onslow Clough

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20:52 PM, 10th October 2014, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Mick Roberts" at "09/10/2014 - 07:35":

Hi Mick, I'm with you. Back in 1998 I bought my first property, I was lucky, prices started to shoot up and I invested in a few more over the next few years.

However, with hindsight I wish I'd invested more heavily at the time, I was younger, greener and didn't see or understand the potential.

Now it's different. I believe we are in the same position now as we were in the late 90's. House prices rock bottom and only heading in one direction. As an incurable risk taker i am cashing everything in to raise money to buy buy buy. That includes selling the house and moving into rented to get as big a pot as i can.

With a bit of luck i'll raise £250k which will be invested in as much property as possible. I will however always keep a minimum of £40k in the kitty for living expenses so there is a safety net.

Mick Roberts

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9:02 AM, 11th October 2014, About 10 years ago

Yes Onslow, seems a few of us have these things in common, starting in 1998ish, wish we’d have bought more.

I refused that many at 19.5k, No I’m only paying 19k, take it or leave it.

I knew the potential in 2002 when they was 38k & I was snapping ‘em up, my missus was telling me off. I said these are gonna’ be 60k in 2 years-And they was!
But I didn’t know or couldn’t see it when I was paying 19k (when they were worth 30k), 4 years earlier.

Ha ha, I wun’t go that far, selling me own house. But if it works for some people & they don’t mind....

Adrian Bond

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13:32 PM, 11th October 2014, About 10 years ago

This post is very intresting! As a newbie to this industry its great to hear some experienced heavyweights talking about strategy and the dream time to buy property. I guess the time to buy is always now when the numbers make sense talking from a buy and hold strategy.

I'm currently stuck after renting out my former home (a 1 bed flat in Norwich) and remortgaging into a btl at 75% ltv with very little release of extra funds (I bought in 2007!) The property makes good money - Gross yeild 6.8%, ROI 9%, Monthly profit £200; but now I'm stuck saving very hard until I can buy the next one!

Any useful tips on how to accelerate the next buy would be useful as you lot seem to know the lot! Very frustrating as I keep educating myself in endless theory which is all valid but lack sufficient funds due to the lending constraints (25% deposit) to put further knowledge into practice. I'm managing to save £1000 a month but I guess im impatient to get going!

Love this website. Thanks again mark!

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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11:01 AM, 13th October 2014, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Adrian Bond" at "11/10/2014 - 13:32":

Hi Adrian

Please take a look at this >>> http://www.property118.com/new-btl-mortgage-finance-product/66267/
.

Michael Barnes

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10:22 AM, 14th October 2014, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "09/10/2014 - 12:28":

As a pedantic b****** I would like to say that "dice" is plural; the singular is a "die".

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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10:33 AM, 14th October 2014, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Michael Barnes" at "14/10/2014 - 10:22":

HAHAHA - I wouldn't know having never "metaphorically" rolled one (or more) 😀
.

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