Rules for non UK citizens buying houses in the UK?

[Phil Pascoe]

:shock: Your property has gone up ten times in fifteen years? Where on earth do you live?

 

[RogerS]

:shock: Your property has gone up ten times in fifteen years? Where on earth do you live?

Phil..haven't you realised it yet? Jacob lives in La-La Land :lol: :lol:

 

[Jacob]

7 times for sure, 10 a bit optimistic. OK I do deserve the credit - getting planning permission and complicated change of use on a chapel was probably the single most profitable step, say 3 times the value immediately.
There are very few properties which haven't increased in value by 100 to 200% in the last 15 years. Better than ISAs!
Not good for the first time buyer and the homeless. Not that good for builders either - most of the inflationary profit goes to the land owners. Not good for me - it seems most of my life has been a bit of a struggle to get somewhere good to live and work in.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Ah! so you're a property developer?

 

[Jacob]

Ah! so you're a property developer?

Well yes by default. Without intention - I'd rather not have been. Just part of the process of getting somewhere to live and work during a prolonged property boom.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Of course.

 

[Mark-numbers]

Jacob spoken like a true Capitalist - (well apart from the death tax bit)

When are you going to sell up and give the profits to those worse off than you? You know to adhere to your beliefs as a socialist?

 

[rafezetter]

If it was that easy, to make 20, 30 % annual return on your investment, don't you think pretty much every house for sale would be snapped up by eager buy to let landlords?

Sure not every single house is being bought up by landlords, but definitely a disproportionate amount compared to the "normal" ebb and flow of single ownership. After the crash 5 years ago there were many reports on how this had affected the buy to let market and how so many landlords had to file for bankruptcy and banks forclose on mortgages because they over extended themselves - by buying as many properties as their net worth would allow.

Every single time I see my landlords in person they mention they are buying another property nearby, I would guesstimate in the last year alone they have bought at least 5, and that is probably them being prudent and ensuring they do not over extend themselves as many others did before the crash.

The plain fact is, if their numbers add up - they buy another property.

I would say with reasonable certainty that the buy to let market - and the buying of houses at reduced values just after the crash, played a large part in the recovery of said market far ahead of every other industry.

As for "average" return on buy to let - that could well be true on a national average - but rents are not national - they are highly localised as they always have been - sometimes down to a street by street price, and I'm certain no-one and I mean NO-ONE has done such a poll, and by the way, my landlords live in Portsmouth, and my previous one with again a handful of houses here, lived on Isle of Wight - so there is something about Bristol that gives them a hardon - I wonder what it could be???? :roll:

Face it, if the rental market had such a p~ss poor return rate 5-11% - why the hell would you take on such a massive debt to get it? Borrow £1,000,000 for a return of just 100k, that isn't guarenteed and that should even a few houses not get rented and you start haemorraging all your profits in just a few months on repayments?

You're kidding yourself, if you think 5-10% return is the reality. Only an absolute moron or someone with a cast iron clad backup to ensure stability through fluctuations would risk utter financial ruin for so little.

My final word on this subject is this: When this house was sold last may it was the most expensive house on the books of all major estate agents for 4 square miles, (because it's the only essentially 6 bed house for 4 square miles - good sized study and front room both now bedrooms as well as the 4 proper upstairs - and they have talked about adding a 7th bedroom in what is currently the communal tv area next to the kitchen) - I know because I looked into buying it with help from my father who has access to such information as part of an investment portfolio company. It was the most expensive by some margin, 10's of thousands - yet it was STILL bought by buy to let landlords when there were others available nearby, and these are ex computer engineers, so I would assume... not stupid or frivalous.

Take all that into consideration and tell me again about 5-10% margin. No, rate of room rental return is significantly higher.

 

[Jacob]

Jacob spoken like a true Capitalist - (well apart from the death tax bit)

When are you going to sell up and give the profits to those worse off than you? You know to adhere to your beliefs as a socialist?

I can't sell up unless I take to the road, pay rents or drop dead. In other words the value means little to me.
We are all locked in this vicious spiral. A "capitalist" would see this as a good thing and just free markets in operation. I think it's ludicrous that we are all so dominated by this inflationary bubble and the many problems it causes.
It's like the monopoly board game nearing the end when everything slows down as the wealth imbalance becomes unsustainable.

 

[RogerS]

Rafezeteer...ain't life a *****?

 

[heimlaga]

Looking at the UK from abroad your housing market seems to be a bubble. Just like it is in the southern parts of Finland with the exception that you are 10 times as many as we are in a country of roughly the same size so you have even fewer opportunities than we have to find some abandoned farm buildings out in the woods for a fair prize.
Investors speculate in rising prizes. Banks have lent out unlimited amounts of money to anyone. People take bigger loans than they will ever be able to pay back. The shaky economy makes the rich invest in land instead of industry.The hysterical urbanisation that sweeps over Europe empties the countryside and squeeze more and more people into smaller and smaller areas with resulting prize increases.

The other side of the European urban housing bubble can be seen in the northern parts of Sweden and Finland. There it is the other way around. One can get a pretty decent farm up there for 60000 euros or a house on a hectare of land for 10000 euros or a closed down professional saw mill with buildings and all ready to start production for a few thousands. It's a bloody shame.
I have heard it said that there is the same phenomena happening to some degree in some out of the way parts of Scotland.

One day the tide may turn. When enough of the big employers have gone out of business or moved abroad in search or free slave labour people will have start small businesses of their own. Running a small business producing for the local market requires space and not too strict planning regulations. Then there will surely be a lot of people regretting the loans they still have on the useless flat in a city center with no business opportunities.......... while a small farm out in the woods or a house with an attached shop in a small town somewhere may become a true goldmine.......
Who knows.....

 

[rafezetter]

This article sums it up:

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/jun/03/shoebox-studio-flat-london-renters-hours