Sell or Rent

[Rocky]

Hi all, we are just after a bit of advice from any of you who were considering what to do with your uk home when moving to Aus. When we move down under we are aiming for this to be permanent so you would think sell up but with the uk economy the way it is we are considering initially renting our uk home out. Does anyone have any experience/knowledge of the pros and cons of this?

Many thanks

[spanners]

Sell. If you are here then your life is here. Unless you will loss loads ££ sell in the UK. MOving to here is expensive and there are loads of costs that get forgotten. Havig some capital behind you makes things easier and will also make getting a home over here easier.

[NicF]

Hi, don't have any experience of this as we always planned to sell our house so we would have a deposit for one in Adelaide and fortunately we have agreed a sale, but we did consider renting if we couldn't sell. Our financial advisors did say they would provide some information on the implications of this but as we've sold we haven't bothered with the information. If you do decide to rent your house out there are tax implications both in the UK and Aus so make sure you get some financial advice from some one who is familiar with this area.

 

Nicola

[Guest maxfactornackerlacker]

Managed to sell our house in feb this year. Still haven't decided what to do with the capital we have, as with a decent sum of money, you need to really consider the exchange rate and the possibilities of ups and downs. We need to decide if we should put the money into a UK investment, that we can withdraw from quite quickly if and when we need it for a deposit on an Aus house.

Only trouble there, is the interest gained at the moment is very poor, so you may have made more money leaving it tied into UK property, however I do understand that you then do not have control of when you can get your hands on the cash if the housing market is still slow.I feel for us, it is far better to not be tied to a property, and have the cash as a back up for whatever and however your plans change when in Aus.

All just seems a gamble to me, whatever you do, and you just hope you accidentally call it the best way you can ? I happened to make house purchases and moves in the UK at the right times to make some money, but it was never a calculated decision, just suited my circumstances at the time !

Hope my 'ramblings' help ?

Max

[Rocky]

Thanks max

your 'ramblings' do make lots of sense. We are in the same position. We are lucky enough to have the money to buy a property but we are worried about both the exchange rate and interest rates, both are really low at the moment so caught between the two really. We will def leave some money invested in the uk until the exchange rates get better.

Thanks again, it's good to get thoughts from people in the same situation

[Misplaced]

We are currently selling our house and have always intended to do so. The idea of renting was discussed but there is much to consider, some of which has already been said, but there is also the risk of the house being trashed and all the hassle that comes with that and meeting all the different regs these days.

 

As for the keeping some of your money in the UK it's a catch 22 you could move it when you sell and the exchange rate be OK, you could leave it a while and the exchange rate may increase or you could leave it and the exchange rate fall quite a bit. I know this is obvious but it is a game of cat and mouse and from my point of view it's a chance you take whatever you decide. When we first started considering moving to Oz the exchange rate was $1.63 it is now $1.60 and i do not think it will get much past the $1.63 so if we can get near that we will be happy but if we don't so what - we are starting a new life so yes it would be nice to have a fair bit of capital but that isn't everything.

 

Hope my waffling makes sense.

 

Mis

[Guest Helchops]

We're going to have to rent but there are advantages in having a home to come back to if we totally run out of money, having an investment (we wouldn't be able to buy in Oz straight away) which will hopefully increase in value over the next five years.

 

The downside is of course all the risks (although with a managed package you're protected against none-paying tenants under some schemes) gas safety, maintenance, void periods etc... However the rental market is good people keep telling us, so hopefully we'll get lucky!

[Guest stephensteve]

Hi, We moved to Oz 4 years ago. We rented the house out through an agent who did all the technical stuff for us.

 

Now we are going back for a few months we can live in the house and re group before we come back out to Oz.

 

We have benefitted from 700 pounds per month and an assurance that we haven't done the wrong thing by burning our bridges.

 

We can return to U.K. at any time as we have a property here(there)

 

Of course, things will change once we know where in Oz we are going to settle and to try to buy,

 

Then we will decide to sell and take our money out.

 

So far it has been hassle free renting as we went for the very best tenants, we have 2 other properties and have learnt the hard way with tenants.

 

Advice is go for the best and keep it to 6 month deals , Agents will sort it out for you while you are away,

 

cheers, Steve

[Guest shella_n]

We rented ours out at first cause exchange rate was low ( around 1.60). Renting for us was a nightmare and although plenty of peoe do it and don't have problems we had heaps and it was sooooo stressful that we decided to sell after a year.

 

Since we got here ( 2 years ago) exchange rate has been as low as 1.47. Our money is still sitting in uk not earning us anything. We said we would bring it over if it got to 1.62. It's at 1.61 today so big descision coming for us.

 

Good luck whatever you decide. All i know is 2 years has gone by and the exchange rate hadn't improved at all so I'm not gonna hold my breath that it will anytime soon anymore

[JimandBarbinAus]

I would go with the approach if you are looking to rent for the first couple years out there then I would rent uk property out in the meantime. For me its a no brainer, you would earn far more in come than interest on this balance than if it was stuck in a bank waiting for the excahnge rate to hit the right note. Yes its a bit of work to rent it out but if you are renting initially you dont need the money straight away anyway so whats the harm in it earning you some! I know its a bit of work to get it rented out but as they say no pain no gain! and once its rented then all you have to do is manage it from then on ) good luck

[Guest Crushfamily]

We did a spreadsheet showing us how much our capital was worth at varying exchange rates against interest generated again at different rates. Long and short of this was we changed all our capital 6 months ago at 1.60 (managed to time it perfectly) and put it in a term deposit at 6%. As Jimand BarbinAus says its a non brainer! Even now you can still get 5.25% or more after 3 rate cuts! (ANZ progress Saver or term deposit)