[Red Devil]

Afternoon all

We're still trying to sell our French property, however we have 2 options available when we get the go-ahead for moving to NZ:

Option 1 - rent our 3 apartment farmhouse to 3 separate tenants :roll

Option 2 - put a lump sum of money in our French bank account to cover mortgage payments and hope the place sells ASAP when in NZ.

We've still got time for a sale, as realistically it's looking like late Summer/early Autumn before we make the move... however our agent in France is hinting that they too have had a slow down with house sales due to the general economic climate :roll

We would prefer to go down the route of renting out our property for a year, however in France tenants prefer to take out a 3 year lease agreement and quite simply the tenant is 'KING'. Under French law, you can't ask your tenant to leave before their lease is up even if you have a buyer for your property, as you're then into paying the tenants remaining lease in compensation... however they can simply give you 1 month notice and walk away.
So we think we may have to go down the route of option 2 :roll

Fortunately, we're not compelled to selling our French property as most of our equity is tucked up in our UK bank account, however the sale of our French property will certainly help in being mortgage free when we move to NZ... fingers crossed.

Not wishing to be negative, but I guess going down the route of renting out our French property will at least mean we have a place to move back to should things not work out in NZ... as I say, not wishing to be negative but just playing the percentages :)

To get back to the post title... just wondered how many members are thinking of going down the route of renting out their property whilst living in NZ?

Thanks

[marshanite]

We are heading off to NZ later this month; leaving the house on the market for 3 months and if it doesn't sell after that we will have to let it out to cover the mortgage. Neither of us are very good at sitting around waiting!

Good luck, Fi.

[ldlim]

My husband and I talked about this just last week. When we relocate to NZ we plan on renting the house out long term. The extra income will be nice and give us something to fall back on if NZ doesn't work out. Now we are just trying to decide if we should use a broker or rely on a family member (my father) to handle the rental details.

[Belmont Babes]

We are selling our 3 bed and buying a 2 bed to rent out. This was not our 1st choice but we are in effect swapping houses with our buyer. This way we have no chain, we release equity to go with and the rent will pay the mortgage with some left over. This will work whilst we are renting in NZ but we will probably need to sell up in UK to afford to buy outright in NZ. Don't think wages will cover a mortgage in NZ at the present interest rate.

[TheLanes]

Good luck with selling your french property. We have had our french "holiday home" in the Vendee region for sale for well over a year now!! (we have even reduced the price twice!). We have our property with 3 different agents and all have said, as you have, that the market is slow. We do not want to put tenants in so have just locked the property up. Luckily, our friend who lives near by just keeps an eye on it. But we still have the usual bills to pay (habitation taxes, etc.) so you should bear this in mind. Luckily for us, we didn't have a mortgage on it.

We sold our UK property before coming out and like you, thought our french property would be a good fall back if we didn't get our residency. But we now have full residency and will not be returning to the UK or France.

I know many people rent their UK properties out for a year or so, but as you say, in France it is slightly different. This is a tricky one and I wish you luck with whatever you choose to do.

[Brian]

I still have to check into the details, but I'll most likely rent out my house instead of selling. I may not quite make enough to cover the mortgage at first, but I figure the long term investment is better than the maybe $25k cash I'd get from selling it. Rent should go up over time, as should the value of the house. I'll own it outright well before I retire, so it will be nice for some extra income, or to sell if the market is in good shape. It will also give me a place to store things I don't have room to bring over in the first shot, so I can pick up a couple more boxes each time I come back to visit family.

[Red Devil]

We do not want to put tenants in so have just locked the property up. Luckily, our friend who lives near by just keeps an eye on it. But we still have the usual bills to pay (habitation taxes, etc.) so you should bear this in mind. Luckily for us, we didn't have a mortgage on it.


We too are lucky that we have our good neighbour nearby to keep an eye on things... we've obviously got the usual insurances in place, but it's still an added expense along with taxe d'Habitation and tax Foncière.

It's quite interesting to know how many people still have property in another country other than NZ. In an ideal world we'd rather have the sale done before we move to NZ and have the extra cash available... we'll see what happens :)

Anyone else in a similar position?

[RamblingPaddies]

Neither of us are very good at sitting around waiting!

i hear ya !!

we've let out our house this week - this morning was a sad occassion - we moved out for good, knowing probably we'll never be back to that house, our first home together (that we owned) ... if we really like NZ (and why wouldn't we ?), we'll sell up in Ireland

anyway ... onwards and kiwi-wards ... :exit

[JandM]

Awww... the very best of luck.

I can imagine the feeling. We will LOVE going to NZ, we know that. But we love this house, too, only the second one we've owned, and we've lived here since 1980.

[Red Devil]

i hear ya !!

we've let out our house this week - this morning was a sad occassion - we moved out for good, knowing probably we'll never be back to that house, our first home together (that we owned) ... if we really like NZ (and why wouldn't we ?), we'll sell up in Ireland

anyway ... onwards and kiwi-wards ... :exit

... we felt exactly the same when we moved out of our UK property in August '05. Our little one was 2 1/2 at the time and like all children, had done so much growing up in a short period of time. Naturally you end up having an emotional attachment to a property that you felt very comfortable in... but a country we didn't, hence the move to France.

Deep down I guess we'd rather rent our place out for a period of time and try things in NZ, but does this deter how much effort and commitment you give to your new surroundings and country should matters get difficult, such as missing family, etc... tough call, but I'm a great believer in not putting all of your chips on red... or is it eggs in one basket ;)

I reckon we're going to see what fate comes our way, if it's sold prior to going then all well and good, but if not then rent out for 2 years and see how NZ goes :)

Anyone else in a similar position?

[arya]

we are planning to rent out as well. have decided to use agents for the peace of mind and to manage the property, comes up quite costly with all the different fees, etc but thats the plan for now.

[forstalls]

I am looking at renting my flat out while in NZ just as a fall back and also because I don't intend buying out there straight away.
As my family aren't that nearby I am planning on using an agent.
Has anyone on here used or is currently using one and would be willing to give me a rough estimate of fees you have to pay?

Also, if you are in NZ and have sold your property over there, how hard was this to do? I wouldn't particularly want to have to make a trip back here to do it, can a home be sold while you are so far away?

Thanks
Kerry

[Jo Jo]

I rent out my flat in central London, and use a managing agent for this. I have gone for the full service - letting and management - and pay 12% of the rent in fees. I negotiated this down from 16%!

[JandM]

In Poole, Dorset, the complete management package is quoted at between 10% and 12 1/2 % (depending on the agent), plus VAT. (Mind you, what you get as 'complete' varies.)

[YouMeAndThree]

I am looking at renting my flat out while in NZ just as a fall back and also because I don't intend buying out there straight away.
As my family aren't that nearby I am planning on using an agent.
Has anyone on here used or is currently using one and would be willing to give me a rough estimate of fees you have to pay?

Also, if you are in NZ and have sold your property over there, how hard was this to do? I wouldn't particularly want to have to make a trip back here to do it, can a home be sold while you are so far away?

Thanks
Kerry

Kerry - we have decided to rent our house out for approx 2 yrs. I've only contacted one agent so far and they charge 14% for full management.

As for selling whilst we are in NZ - like you we don't want to have to come back for that, so are looking into getting my parents set up as Power of Attorney. This should then give them full reign over our assets and finances (I trust my parents implicitly!) and they will be able to sell our property and do all the signing as necessary (or that's how I believe it will work). The one cost for setting up a PoA that I've seen is in the £250-300 mark.

Lx

[forstalls]

Thanks for that :nice1:at least it gives me a ballpark figure to help calculate whether rent would cover fees (I only have a one bed flat!).
Also POA is good suggestion, I have done that previously when I sold my last place and had no problems (seems I'm always out of the country when I'm selling!).

Although if it's just a case of signing documents, surely they could post/fax this info to me? I know it the process might take a little longer but guess it would work?:confused:,

[IanW99]

...
Although if it's just a case of signing documents, surely they could post/fax this info to me? I know it the process might take a little longer but guess it would work?:confused:,

We were told that they could send the documents out to us to be signed but as you say it would definitely increase the time taken.

Ian

[Joolzr]

We're paying 8% plus vat for full management but that can be counted against your tax on the income. Cambridge is a competitive market and first prices were between 9 and 10% before bargaining. It's worth checking on other costs too though as we had to pay £25 for the tenant deposit scheme and provide a £200 float for repairs. The wanted to get a company to do the inventory at £100 but I did mine myself. Not sure if it wouldn't have been worth it though as doing that in the midst of cleaning was pretty stressful.

JoolzR

[benhila]

We are paying 13% + VAT for letting and management in central London and plan to rent-out long-term, treating the flat as our 'pension scheme'. Whether or not it will work out this way is for the future (and our crystal ball) to tell.

[irishliz]

We sold our family home and bought a doer upper which is now tenented to a lovely family. The rent helps alot here and we have the security of knowing we have something to go back to. We used agents to put the tenents in and we now manage it ourselves. Obviously different to France, but we have the full British Gas contract which covers all heating, water and drains and we know a great handy man who can do other bits for us. We wanted to be in control of any charges and to have control of the quality of work.

But if we were back again we would not have bought in the UK. It is a hassle and is hindering our settling in here. But it has also meant we haven't rushed into buying here which has definitely been in our favour, we are raising a mortgage in the Uk to buy a home here and the rent will pretty much cover that so all in all we are ok. But - we have had it easy so far and I would hate to think how we would cope with lots of problems with tenents, maintenance, etc. We have heard some horror stories. But for now we will ride out the market in the UK and see what happens.

A bit of a ramble but hope it helps!

[Kate D]

I've had my house on the market for more than three months and am now planning to rent it out as I can't afford to reduce it much at all without making a loss compard to when I bought it. Not what I wanted as, like others, it makes the whole future house purchase situation here in NZ much more difficult without the capital. I also know from the last house I sold in the UK while I was living outside the country how hard it all is, but in the current climate, needs must. I'm having to think in terms of renting it for say 4-5 years, (or however long the market takes to recover...) decorate it from top to toe after that, and try selling then, empty again no doubt. In the meantime, the mortgage will reduce that bit further.

I suspect there are many of us in this situation. I didn't want to keep the house "just in case" but looks like I am having to! I guess that's the one positive thsoe in similar positions can see:-)

Kate

[Red Devil]

Thanks all for your recent comments... we've decided to give it 3 more months to sell before going down the route of renting out to 3 separate tenants :roll

Like most places, France is also experiencing a downturn in property values (but nowhere near like the UK) and only last week our agent advised us to reduce the sell price to entice offers... not that it's overpriced mind, just that the exchange rate is going against us for possibly getting a UK buyer... as our agent says, "the one's with some brass", his words not ours :D

Top and bottom of it is, with us wishing to give NZ a 2/3 year trial then maybe renting out is the way to go... but we'd much rather have a few more pounds tucked up in the bank :)