To sell or to hold - need advice

[tk79]

@Graemsay - You bring up some good points. Also i only want to put down around £25k - £30k in an investment. The current rates dont look so good unless you have deposit >20%.

Can I get a CF+ property, even factoring in void periods (say one or two months empty a year), management fees, maintenance and rising interest rates? (At 0.5% base rates, there really is only one direction.)

Probably not if the interest rates increase too much. However some people say that interest rates wont go up for at least 5 years. Hmmm who to believe?

What is the supply of rental properties like? (A lot of home owners were unable to sell at their desired asking price, and ended up renting out their home "until the market recovers".)

Clapham always has a high demand of renters

Will you need the deposit money anytime soon?
Yes definetely as i will want to buy a house in sydney next year and also look to start a family

Investing in London definitely doesnt look as easy and rewarding as i first anticipated

 

[Graemsay]

If it was easy then we'd all be millionaires.

I don't know much about the London market, but there are a few UK centric property boards. The Motley Fool website has a property investing forum, which would be a good place to start.

I've heard similar comments about rates (low until 2015 versus rising later this year). And also about needing a 20% deposit for a decent mortgage rate.

How much longer are you staying in London for? I'd be inclined to hold off until after the election, or even the autumn. There are two reasons.

The first is that whichever party makes up the next government is going to have to make some pretty serious cuts in spending to bring the deficit under control. There seems to be a naive view that somehow the money can be saved through better efficiency, so there's going to be a shock there.

The second is that the UK market is still above the level that the US was in 2007 (i.e. before it crashed), and also above where it was in 1989 (when the UK last had a downturn). It's possible that it's going to double dip, and there were signs of that earlier this year. Waiting a couple of months to get a better idea of direction wouldn't hurt. Besides, prices are cheaper in the autumn generally.

 

[Graemsay]

Another article suggesting that Ireland's looking interesting.

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/the-smart-ballsy-guys-are-buying-up-property-right-now-1047118.html

I haven't been following the market there, but I'm wondering if they've hit bottom, and starting to recover. Sentiment appears to be turning...