Not sure wether to buy second home

[steveburns]

I am thinking of buying a property worth 165K in Liverpool where I currently work in. It is in an area where house prices have been going up every year and renting rooms is easy (near to University, main hospitals, city centre, shops). My primary reason for buying is to have a house to live in, in the place I am working. Unfortunately I am not sure wether the job is for me and may leave in august 2019. Therefore if I left, I would need to change it to a buy to let mortgage so I can rent it out, and I may need to wait a while after august 2019 to do this.
To complicate matters, I have a cheap house that was handed down to me through inheritance. It is in another city where house prices are going up and it always has tenants so I thought its best to keep it since its making a decent amount of money. This will mean I will have to pay around 6k in stamp duty on top of soliciter and surveyor fees.

If I do move, the new job is likely to be in London where I have no chance of affording a house. Therefore I thought it is best to buy a house, have somewhere where my money is invested in a reliable property that can be sustainable through renting, and if I don't decide to move I will have a house I like living in.

I put a previous post about having lodgers and managing the property from London if I did move as the Liverpool property would be my permanent address, but found out I can't do this and will not go down this route. I have enough savings to keep the property without tenants for a few years but hope it is possible to get a buy to let mortgage earlier if I left.

Would this be a poor idea with Brexit happening soon?

 

[diyhelp]

In my view there are far too many myths surrounding Brexit. The sky will not fall in, visitors will not stop coming to the UK and the UK market will learn to adapt no matter what happens. With regards to your property, it would not make sense to maintain a property with no tenants and I don’t think you would have too much difficulty switching to a buy to let mortgage if you are up-to-date with your payments?

I assume you have a fair amount of equity in the property which is the let out? You could always use this as collateral when applying for a buy to let mortgage for your Liverpool property?

The best thing to do would be to approach your bank and let them know what might happen. This way, if you do need to convert to a buy to let mortgage then they will already be aware and hopefully have agreed something in principle. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.

 

[realdeals]

I think there is an argument to wait until you are settled on both a personal and an employment front. In theory managing a property and tenants from a distance is not difficult but in practice it can be time-consuming - expensive if you need to hire a third party management company.. Perhaps time you could better spend on additional investments or enjoying life?

 

[steveburns]

Thanks for the replies. I think the issue I have is I may not be settled for a while, and I have been saving for 4 years. The money I have has just been depreciating in value and so I would rather invest it somewhere rather then wait. People say property is the safest place to invest, especially if you know you can rent the house out easily and it is in a good location. Obviously my main goal would be to live in it but due to the uncertainties I have described, I am not sure if I can do this.

 

[PostBrexitInvestor]

What about investing via property crowdfunding or property development opportunities?

That way you would not need to manage the properties yourself? There are schemes with relatively high assured rates.