What do you think – sell or rent?

What do you think – sell or rent?

14:55 PM, 4th October 2022, About A year ago 13

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Hello, We have a leasehold property in London which is unexpectedly vacant.

The letting agent can find a good credit tenant at an increase in rent.

Or another estate agent wants to sell it and quote a good price. This will expose us to a good chunk of CGT.

If we sell, we can buy multiple properties in our other favourite area – hopefully with a higher yield but freehold.

The question is, with the change in the mortgage market am I going to get my sale stuck in a chain and have perhaps six months void?

What do you think?

Please get your crystal ball out!

Thank you,

David


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Comments

Helen

17:47 PM, 5th October 2022, About A year ago

In theory this is an excellent idea. However, firstly it would still inconvenience viewings as an Agent can't just pop in with a prospective purchaser at any time.
Also, whatever discount you give the tenant and whatever they agree on signing the agreement they may still get awkward. They may also refuse to leave at the end of the term. This would scupper as sale for a year until they can get evicted.
You also have no guarantee as to what state the tenant will keep the property in and you have maintenance costs during that time, which are always higher when a tenant is living there.
A prospective buyer (and also a solicitor) would be wary of moving forward with a tenant in situ.
Sorry to sound cynical but I have had a lot of experience of awkward tenants.

Dennis Forrest

18:09 PM, 5th October 2022, About A year ago

Reply to the comment left by Helen at 05/10/2022 - 17:47
Having recently sold a house we were living in we did not find that agents were wanting to pop in at any time with viewers but that prospective purchasers were flexible regarding viewing times. If you made the rental discount high enough then you could stipulate that, excluding special circumstances that viewing could normally take place at 24 hours notice.

SimonP

21:28 PM, 5th October 2022, About A year ago

Don't forget to factor in the CGT when doing the calculations.

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