Remortgaging Existing Portfolio

[Graeme Stewart]

Hello everyone, this is my first post on the Property Forum so I hope its leads to a good discussion.
My situation is that I own around 20 properties, most of which are in the central belt of Scotland and I have a few in the South East of England where I now live (originally from Dunblane). I have bought my properties over the last 15 years or so and they give me a very good income but apart from the ones in the South East, the capital growth has been negligible due to the credit crunch. Looking ahead, the first of my mortgages needs to be redeemed in a few years and my concern is that my LTV on some of these properties is 85% and now max LTV's seem to be 75% and I can only this trend continuing so I will be a in position where if I want to keep the properties (I do, I'm only 43) then I will have to find quite a chunk of capital. I develop properties (mainly refurbs) so planned to use this to build up the lump sums I will need but now with the new stamp duty rules, this is becoming very difficult to make good cash in. Does anyone else face the same issue and if so it would be great to hear your thoughts and how you intend to address is?

 

[nmb]

I presume you have considered selling any relatively low rental income/capital appreciation properties and using funds raised to retain other properties in your portfolio?

 

[Graeme Stewart]

I presume you have considered selling any relatively low rental income/capital appreciation properties and using funds raised to retain other properties in your portfolio?

Yes I have considered that and I may have to do it but would prefer to try and keep as many as possible because they provide good income but sometimes needs must I guess.

 

[nmb]

If I was in your situation I would not want to put myself under financial pressure by keeping all properties if I could not really afford them or it stretched my finances to the limit. I would prefer to have a core holding of quality property assets and then maybe look to expand my portfolio again when I have built up more capital.