To sell, or not to sell....

[Gruffalo]

Have a second house I have had for a few years since the 'credit crunch'.

It has good tennants, been happily in place since I started renting.

Equity is around £70K which will take a nice chunk off my main residence.

What is the collectives views on property prices - do you think now is a good time to sell, or worth holding on for another couple of years?

Typically the combi boiler has just gone bang, which will cost a grand - typical....

[d000hg]

Only a grand?

Without knowing the location quite specifically it's hard to say, but if you are making a decent return I'd be tempted to hold on to it. Unless it has a mortgage which would leave you screwed if/when interest rates rise... you'd ideally want to get out before the rush of desperate sellers.

[northernladuk]

I would be looking at the ROI you are getting before making a decision. If you have a good ROI going I would be tempted to keep it. If the rent just isn't making it worth it then I would put a bit of thought in to dumping it.

Stick the numbers in a site something like the one below and see if that helps sway you...

Investment Property Analyzer

[CloudWalker]

Sell.... Too many house to rent, not enough to buy!
I'd say 70% of the house's in my area are for Rent only and when a house finally dose come on the market, its snapped up by a investor who dose feck all to improve it and just rents it out again for £1200 per month!

[scooterscot]

What is the collectives views on property prices - do you think now is a good time to sell, or worth holding on for another couple of years?

Make a target and sell when you reach it. Anything else is gambling.

Saying that, we've got a place in Glasgow which is near impossible to sell when it continues to yield around 7%. The mortgage is paid twice over by the tenant, and the equity in the bank could never perform as well.

[ChimpMaster]

Some good answers here, especially about checking the ROI. Seeing as you bought the house during the last slump, you should be making a very good ROI, unless perhaps you haven't increased the rent recently.

We noticed that we had become a little oblivious (lazy...) to increasing rental demand and the associated rising rents over the past 2 or 3 years. I would say that rents have gone up anywhere up to 20%, and given a static mortgage payment, this extra rental income is pretty much pure profit.

There are many views on what you should do but it largely depends on your longer term investment plan. Some would say to never sell property; so long as it is rented out and covering costs, then in the longer term the value will always rise. Only sell if you are looking to re-invest the money elsewhere - otherwise, what return would you receive from having the money sat in the bank (or in your case, how much would you be saving from your personal mortgage payment... I would guess that your rental profit is greater than this saving).

Now fair enough, if you had 10 BTL houses and over the years they had gone up in value, then perhaps it would be a good idea to sell a couple to realize the gain and reduce the overall debt burden.

You might even want to consider taking the 70k equity out and buying another BTL property, which if planned out correctly would generate further income for you.

But as I say, it depends on your personal investment objectives.

[CloudWalker]

The market is slowing down so better to sell now before the interest rates go up.

Asking prices for UK homes slump in August, led by London - Rightmove | Reuters

[DimPrawn]

The market is slowing down so better to sell now before the interest rates go up.

Asking prices for UK homes slump in August, led by London - Rightmove | Reuters

Property prices increase by 10.2% - MSN Money UK

Boomed!

Don't sell, buy another 500!

[Gruffalo]

Some good answers - My main house has a hefty mortgage, hence very tempted to literally half it. The house I am renting has a very low interest rate, hence a good yield - but, too much hassle and longer term interest rate worry to make it really worth the short term benefits.

The agent sounds pretty sexy on the phone, so at worst I get a nice coffee with a sultry temptress.....

[vetran]

Some good answers - My main house has a hefty mortgage, hence very tempted to literally half it. The house I am renting has a very low interest rate, hence a good yield - but, too much hassle and longer term interest rate worry to make it really worth the short term benefits.

The agent sounds pretty sexy on the phone, so at worst I get a nice coffee with a sultry temptress.....

£140K hefty mortgage?

will you get £70K after CGT?