Patrick Harvie, Scottish Greens. I hit the wrong key
Buying a house to leave empty as an investment.
- Thread starter Stivino
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Are we talking £150-250k? Are you a resident in the canaries for tax purposes? You have better options.
Nice of BTL squeezing out all the poor first time buyers, young moms and dads and put housing prices out of the stratosphere.
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And that doesn't happen with those who have more than 3?
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Title suggests "buying a house to leave empty as an investment".
I always thought the principle of investment was to balance risk with return. On that basis, then buying a house to leave empty would be a poor investment against buying one & installing a rent paying, safe tenant.
I always thought the principle of investment was to balance risk with return. On that basis, then buying a house to leave empty would be a poor investment against buying one & installing a rent paying, safe tenant.
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Better maybe to buy a plot of land and fence it off.
How do you manage the moral injury of such an 'investment'?
There are many in major cities throughout the world(usually extremely wealthy), who buy up apartment blocks and up teh rent until no one can aford them. Then they sit on their investment and watch it increase in value.
They make more from leaving it empty than having tenants.
Everything wrong with the world.
Is the property in an area (and of a type) that it will appreciate in value over the years even if sitting empty? And by appreciate I mean to a degree that makes it worthwhile.
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You can always find a good one but right now it wouldn't be easy in the light of the squishy market. The problem with renting - even assuming they do behave - is that you can't get them out whenever you want, so how much is it worth to have a place "available now". AirBnB would be better in that regard.
There are always people on a list at the estate agents who have x00,000 to drop on a quick sale. I benefitted from one of those earlier this year, mentioned at the time. It was mostly ok but dated. Once tidied up so it looked solid all through, a dripping rust stained carport sorted out , drive gates put square, gave the garden a day's work, two sellotaped windows repaired and one new kitchen carpet and a new loo seat - it was ready to live in.
Renting was a possibility but meant the usual hassles. It was a bit unusual in that it was detached, and near good schools, & extendable so I hoped someone would particularly want it. It went on the market 25k higher than the agents suggested. They said people liked it but it was too expensive. Then one liked it enough, and wanted a house immediately; it sold in July. You only need one buyer. Glad I don't still have it - it could have been a drag.
The value of the place hardly changed - the seller wanted money quickly, the buyer wanted a house quickly. All I did was push house price higher. That's the sort of activity which makes it harder for people to afford a house, so it should be taxed a lot heavier - but it's not. CGT is going to be 28% - so the seller puts the price up. I gather that house now has scaffolding all over it, so I daresay the buyer would have gone a few grand more.
You have to add up stamp duty, fees, cgt, ongoing council tax, utilities, time spent talking to surveyors, gas men, leccy inspections etc, removals and inevitable repairs. It's only about a week's work but it feels like more!
That's not the first time something like that has happened. So sure if you have a lump of cash you can use it with a property. Join all us immoral b'stard landowners and landlords, making money out of people with less money - and paying taxes on it. But to buy and sit, all at market prices, without some sort of "opportunity", would only make sense in times of house price rises we won't see for a long time.
There are always people on a list at the estate agents who have x00,000 to drop on a quick sale. I benefitted from one of those earlier this year, mentioned at the time. It was mostly ok but dated. Once tidied up so it looked solid all through, a dripping rust stained carport sorted out , drive gates put square, gave the garden a day's work, two sellotaped windows repaired and one new kitchen carpet and a new loo seat - it was ready to live in.
Renting was a possibility but meant the usual hassles. It was a bit unusual in that it was detached, and near good schools, & extendable so I hoped someone would particularly want it. It went on the market 25k higher than the agents suggested. They said people liked it but it was too expensive. Then one liked it enough, and wanted a house immediately; it sold in July. You only need one buyer. Glad I don't still have it - it could have been a drag.
The value of the place hardly changed - the seller wanted money quickly, the buyer wanted a house quickly. All I did was push house price higher. That's the sort of activity which makes it harder for people to afford a house, so it should be taxed a lot heavier - but it's not. CGT is going to be 28% - so the seller puts the price up. I gather that house now has scaffolding all over it, so I daresay the buyer would have gone a few grand more.
You have to add up stamp duty, fees, cgt, ongoing council tax, utilities, time spent talking to surveyors, gas men, leccy inspections etc, removals and inevitable repairs. It's only about a week's work but it feels like more!
That's not the first time something like that has happened. So sure if you have a lump of cash you can use it with a property. Join all us immoral b'stard landowners and landlords, making money out of people with less money - and paying taxes on it. But to buy and sit, all at market prices, without some sort of "opportunity", would only make sense in times of house price rises we won't see for a long time.
Clearly not, in certain circumstances. Part of this is that by keeping it empty, they are creating a shortage of housing, meaning the value goes up more than it otherwise would.
This film used to be on youtube, but now is a pay to view:
https://www.pushthefilm.com/about/
Goes into it on a global level.
Investors buy up property like a commodity.
have a word with john palmers lot over in the rieffe still a few of them about
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