Buy to Retire Landlords – UK Landlords Advice

Buy to Retire Landlords – UK Landlords Advice

For many people a property is more than a place to live. It is the start of a whole new lifestyle and better quality of life. What could be better than all of this being financed out of the rent paid by somebody else?

For most landlords a place to retire to is likely to be located on or near to the coast or in one of the ‘honey pot’ locations: the peaks, the lakes, the Cotswolds, the highlands, the Norfolk Broads.

I set out to find out how practical it might be for landlords to consider buying and renting out a property with the view that one day they would be able to retire and live in it.

Options

The good news for a landlord considering investing in a retirement property is that popular retirement locations are often places that are also popular with holiday-makers. This means that there are several options open to a landlord in renting out a residential property.

Renting their property

Landlords could choose to rent out their property as a traditional buy-to-let property. This means letting the residential investment property under an assured shorthold tenancy. The advantages for a landlord of doing this is that the property should be let year round and therefore a landlord will have a monthly income with which to pay off their buy-to-let mortgage.

The likelihood is that a landlord will need to employ a letting agent to manage their property. A landlord should budget on between 8-15% of the rent to cover these charges.

There are a number of potential problems with buying and letting out an investment property within these locations:

* Acquisition costs can be high, as the properties are often in popular