AussieBeth10 Posted January 22, 2018 Share Posted January 22, 2018 Hello, i was on here under another username but it's locked because it's been so long since I used it and I lost the password. Anyway hello! I am an Australian citizen and so are my two daughters(they are citizens by descent).I've been living in the UK my entire adult life since I was 18 - I am 34 now. My husband (their father), is a British national and we're looking to get his permanent residency visa sorted so we can all move there. Ideally we'd like to remortgage our house here in the UK and take £50k out and rent it out while we start a new life in Australia. I guess what I want to know is if it's possible to do it in this time frame!? We have plans to see a financial advisor but I'd like to know if anyone has any advice or input? Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gbye grey sky Posted January 22, 2018 Share Posted January 22, 2018 You have enough time if you get the visa application in over the next few months. Personally, I wouldn’t take out additional borrowing as it just adds to the stress. I would just sell and take the equity with me. But then I don’t get that emotionally attached to houses as I know many do. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AussieBeth10 Posted January 22, 2018 Author Share Posted January 22, 2018 2 minutes ago, Gbye grey sky said: You have enough time if you get the visa application in over the next few months. Personally, I wouldn’t take out additional borrowing as it just adds to the stress. I would just sell and take the equity with me. But then I don’t get that emotionally attached to houses as I know many do. Thanks for the reply Grey Sky. If it were up to me I would complete all ties also and just take the equity. We've had the house valued and we got it for £175k and now it's worth around the £240k mark so not too bad. The husband isn't so keen to part with it though and thinks the rental would be a good money maker eventually. I've heard the taxes are insane for landlords living abroad so it's put me right off. It's also worth noting that our area is about to start a seriously huge property build basically over the road so i figure the sooner we sell our house the better - before it dwindles in price! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gbye grey sky Posted January 22, 2018 Share Posted January 22, 2018 18 minutes ago, AussieBeth10 said: Thanks for the reply Grey Sky. If it were up to me I would complete all ties also and just take the equity. We've had the house valued and we got it for £175k and now it's worth around the £240k mark so not too bad. The husband isn't so keen to part with it though and thinks the rental would be a good money maker eventually. I've heard the taxes are insane for landlords living abroad so it's put me right off. It's also worth noting that our area is about to start a seriously huge property build basically over the road so i figure the sooner we sell our house the better - before it dwindles in price! That would mean borrowing over 90% of the equity! Highly unlikely that the rent would cover the mortgage payments let alone all other expenses such as maintenance, agent fees etc. and if interest rates rose (very likely) you could end up covering a very substantial shortfall while in Australia. Even if he is hedging his bets for returning after giving Australia a try this plan is only really viable if he is expecting to return within a year or two. This debt, and having a house to return to, would also make a quick return much more likely. If your plan is to live in Australia for a good few years before a possible return or stay permanently in Australia in my view this plan is not sensible for many reasons. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 22, 2018 Share Posted January 22, 2018 Have moved this to money and finance as it isn’t a visa issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evets Posted January 22, 2018 Share Posted January 22, 2018 2 hours ago, AussieBeth10 said: Thanks for the reply Grey Sky. If it were up to me I would complete all ties also and just take the equity. We've had the house valued and we got it for £175k and now it's worth around the £240k mark so not too bad. The husband isn't so keen to part with it though and thinks the rental would be a good money maker eventually. I've heard the taxes are insane for landlords living abroad so it's put me right off. It's also worth noting that our area is about to start a seriously huge property build basically over the road so i figure the sooner we sell our house the better - before it dwindles in price! Well people at the moment, appear to be living in the bubble of house prices can only go up. I would personally say rent it out for a few years while you find you feet. Downside you end up paying CGT unless one of you can return to the UK for at 3 months and (pretend to) live in the property to avoid that.... I was made tax exempt, so it could happen to you. I am not making a great deal of profit, then again not spending that much either. So have no reason to sell at the moment. Kinda missed the boat on the property market for Australia by at least 10 years. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ali Posted January 22, 2018 Share Posted January 22, 2018 My friend rented out as they couldn't sell - it was very difficult to manage from Aus - particularly when the tenant stopped paying rent. Turned out very expensive for them in the end. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gbye grey sky Posted January 22, 2018 Share Posted January 22, 2018 I feel that people who choose to keep their UK property as an ‘investment’ should ask themselves if they would actively look to buy a property on the other side of the world and tenant it, with all the potential pitfalls. I think most would say “no chance”. Keep it for sentimental reasons or to return to if the move does not work out perhaps but as an investment.....nah. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evets Posted January 22, 2018 Share Posted January 22, 2018 4 minutes ago, Gbye grey sky said: I feel that people who choose to keep their UK property as an ‘investment’ should ask themselves if they would actively look to buy a property on the other side of the world and tenant it, with all the potential pitfalls. I think most would say “no chance”. Keep it for sentimental reasons or to return to if the move does not work out perhaps but as an investment.....nah. Interesting comment. I did not choose to keep mine as a investment. Something called GFC happened, and my home was worth less than I paid for. Fortunately I was not in negative equity. I could not see the point of selling, so choose to hang on to it A new term emerged in the UK around that time, reluctant landlords, which I fell into. The costs involved selling outweighed the costs of not selling. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ramot Posted January 23, 2018 Share Posted January 23, 2018 We have been renting UK properties from overseas for over 20 years. We have never had a problem, but we chose good rental areas, as it was to generate income in our retirement. Our last tenant moved out on the 9th Jan. and new tenant is just moving in.so you need to asses your rental potential where you live. Also if you are going to rent out your family home, will it need a lot of maintenance. We learnt the hard way when we initially rented out out our old and fairly high maintenance home. It pays to have good letting agents, it is the best way to go, as it's logistically very difficult to organise anything that needs doing long distance, friends soon get fed up with helping, you need to be business like about it, and properties rent better if they are kept in really good condition. Good luck with your decision 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AussieBeth10 Posted January 24, 2018 Author Share Posted January 24, 2018 Thank you to all of you for this exceptional advise. Looks like it's a bit split so I think the best way forward is to go to the financial advisor and get her thoughts. I know it may seem a bit of a rush, but I want to go home so bad! If it's possible i'd like to explore the options. Has anyone abroad had any trouble buying/renting a house in Australia? We're looking at the North Brisbane area. Thankfully my parents rent out property so we may go with one of their properties initially, with the idea of buying a house in the first year. My husband is looking to apply to the police force over there (he's a DC here in the UK). I hope to work in the justice system or local government. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gbye grey sky Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 8 hours ago, AussieBeth10 said: Thank you to all of you for this exceptional advise. Looks like it's a bit split so I think the best way forward is to go to the financial advisor and get her thoughts. I know it may seem a bit of a rush, but I want to go home so bad! If it's possible i'd like to explore the options. Has anyone abroad had any trouble buying/renting a house in Australia? We're looking at the North Brisbane area. Thankfully my parents rent out property so we may go with one of their properties initially, with the idea of buying a house in the first year. My husband is looking to apply to the police force over there (he's a DC here in the UK). I hope to work in the justice system or local government. Make sure that the Financial Advisor is independent and that you pay for the advice. Otherwise the ‘advice’ that you get is very likely to be slewed towards organising you a remortgage on your property coincidentally earning that advisor commission. Free advice is rarely free. Good luck with whatever you decide. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AussieBeth10 Posted January 31, 2018 Author Share Posted January 31, 2018 On 24/01/2018 at 21:28, Gbye grey sky said: Make sure that the Financial Advisor is independent and that you pay for the advice. Otherwise the ‘advice’ that you get is very likely to be slewed towards organising you a remortgage on your property coincidentally earning that advisor commission. Free advice is rarely free. Good luck with whatever you decide. Thank you ahh yes, we always pay our financial advisor, we've used the same one twice now for different things and she's always been very helpful and we've come out on top. In other news...we've decided to wait until Jan 2020 to go back to Oz now...reason being because there's still so much for us to do/see here in the UK. Plus we'd have saved more money by then. I want to thank you all so much for your advice. No doubt i'll be making other posts in the future about best place to relocate etc/houses etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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