Buying in the UK

[bricman]

Hi

Have been looking at real estate website for ages now and find it so difficult to find positive cashflow deals in Sydney, NSW or Australia (excluding mining towns) for that matter.

Having originally come from the UK i thought i would check out the market , http://www.zoopla.co.uk/ is a good site to start on. I am finding houses in Manchester, Telford-just outside Birmingham and Stoke, finding 7,8,9 % returns without having to try too hard at all

Aware that tenants pay all the rates and bills too.

There has to be a catch somewhere, has anyone had experience of buying there from Australia or gone there in person.

Prices plummeted post GFC but remain at 2007 levels for many areas,
with all thats happened in the Eurozone the pound is still a very strong currency and the country is stable.

Any thoughts?

 

[Rolf Latham]

if you have cash to buy them then go for it

if u need finance...........that might make it a little harder

ta
rolf

 

[Property Meister]

Management fees in the uk are a lot higher up to 12-15%

And be aware th tenancy laws can be very different to aus

Also, the market works a bit differently in that having a slightly better house may not increase the rent at all, as many areas have a set price for a certain number of bedroos etcetc

 

[joeExpat]

with all thats happened in the Eurozone the pound is still a very strong currency and the country is stable.

Strong ? the UK Pound is one of the weakest in the world .. despite recent strength it's dropped 20% more than the Euro against most currencies.

As Rolf said, mortgages are not available for non residents.

I've bought & sold there in the past, did well out of it but not so sure about the future of the UK, a second leg down in real estate is predicted. Conveyancing is also a nightmare.

 

[bricman]

Interesting

Some good points made here guys, I disagree that the pound is one of the weakest currencies in the world, the Us dollar and the Japanese Yen are doing it tough and they are the so called big guns of the financial world and Eurozone is scratching its head figuring out what to do.
GBP did well to stay out of Europe!!

Hi JoeExpat you said did well from property there, did you renovate, buy and sell quickly, what kind of strategy did you use? You reckon there is a double dip on the way! seems to be a common notion for the UK and US markets. Feels like the world is on stand bye mode.

I did think about property investing in the US but that to me seems like a very dangerous mine field to walk over unless you are 100% confident and sure of yourself it is a big miss for many people. Do not like their banking/legal realesate call it what you like system where a house can have several mortgages secured against it, and the purchaser could walk away leaving a trail of debt.

Will investigate some more.
Thanks

 

[joeExpat]

GBP did well to stay out of Europe!!

GBP is down 20% against the EUR & USD, & 40% down against AUD & JPY. Perhaps they should have joined the Euro when they had the chance, or Peg it to the Euro like to Swiss have. Instead they've lost 20% of their wealth.

I had a property there for 8 years, lived in it for 5 so was capital gains free when I sold. Rented it out for a few years, agent commission was 13%. Some property is leasehold, not freehold, & is cheaper. Most of my pounds there now are in the stock market (FTSE), I'm not tempted by to go back into UK property & the pound is too wrecked to take much money out of the country.

 

[jclegg]

I know a couple of ex-brits who live in Oz now. They have 3 properties between them but only the London one is doing any good. The other two are regional and have cost them dearly due to agents not being what they are here i.e rent collecters, not property managers. They have also had issues with getting finance to buy here as the properties in UK are considered a personal debt just like credit cards or personal loans because the banks can't access the equity.