Pension or property

thesilentone

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Cumbria
The other thing to remember is that, economically things will probably get much worse before they get better. There’s a squeeze on rental housing availability and this will deepen as the EPC issue means that some housing exits the sector (some to holiday let’s, maybe some to first time buyers).
This means that for landlords with decent (high EPC) properties, there may be good money to be made as rents continue to increase… BUT… that economic squeeze is likely to hit folks on lower incomes worst. Landlords were portrayed as money-grabbing b@stards during covid, and their normal rights were suspended. I can also see this energy/food/housing crisis being ‘bad’ for landlords as the Govt can be seen to be being ‘good for working people’ (etc etc) at little cost to itself by accelerating the coming reforms and adding in eg. rent controls to ensure landlords don’t ‘profiteer’ (ie. don’t take advantage of usual supply/demand market controls). Also by making it harder to pick and choose your tenants (ie rejecting those who live on benefits).
I can see it being a bumpy ride for landlords in the coming years!
Why, the market is controlled by supply and demand.

As long as we keep cramming people in, there will always be a demand.

We have companies wanting to take over the letting of our properties, and are willing to guarantee us two years rent up front.

However, we have to agree to opt out of the Governments requirement that full UK residence status has been granted. Sounds dodgy, so, we didn't bother.

If you let via a credible agent, a 'fit to rent assessment' is made for your property. If a potential new tenant fails that test (x% of income paid in rent) then the onus is on the agent to find them a more suitable property.
 

slackjawedyokel

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Northumberland
Why, the market is controlled by supply and demand.

As long as we keep cramming people in, there will always be a demand.

We have companies wanting to take over the letting of our properties, and are willing to guarantee us two years rent up front.

However, we have to agree to opt out of the Governments requirement that full UK residence status has been granted. Sounds dodgy, so, we didn't bother.

If you let via a credible agent, a 'fit to rent assessment' is made for your property. If a potential new tenant fails that test (x% of income paid in rent) then the onus is on the agent to find them a more suitable property.
Ha ha -yes; people wanting to pay a lot of money up-front is a big red flag. In many cases it’s the only money the landlord will ever see!
 

thesilentone

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Cumbria
To be fair to slackjawedyokel, their are mandatory things that have caught us out. Every property needs an electrical safety certificate.

One of mine failed as the distribution board did not comply with the latest regulations. Nothing wrong with it, no risks, but the new regulations say this, that and the other (something to do with earthing).

Another £250.00 down the toilet :banghead:
 

jms37

Member
Everyone’s situation is different.
We recently sold a rental property - have a pension too - balance is key l think.

Personally l always feel being in farming I’ve enough money invested in property!
Granted we’re fortunate to own land.

I’ve purchased out lying land that l intend to use as a”pension” in the future.

Had a chat with a financial advisor about my pension the other day. She was grumbling about the price of petrol. I was thinking to myself, you’ve no idea really, petrol is only the tip of the iceberg.
Made me reconsider any of her advice, so l guess the motto is, row your own boat!
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
not read the posts, but l drew my private pension out, over 3 yrs, to avoid higher rate tax, and it took us 3 years to build a very nice bungalow, worth an awful lot more than the pension pot, would have been. One big snag, son lives in it, so no rent !
Just have my state pension, £179 a week, quite nice really.
 

thesilentone

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Cumbria
not read the posts, but l drew my private pension out, over 3 yrs, to avoid higher rate tax, and it took us 3 years to build a very nice bungalow, worth an awful lot more than the pension pot, would have been. One big snag, son lives in it, so no rent !
Just have my state pension, £179 a week, quite nice really.

:ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: We have a similar snag, a family member living in one of our properties, we do charge rent, but far below the going rate.

Strangely, I also get them most complaints from that one also :scratchhead:
 

Rowland

Member
If you decide that you want to go down the property route don’t just buy a box standard house and rent it out the return isn’t great . Go for a student rental or hmo @£500 a month per room depending on area. Small cottage/flat holiday rental in popular tourist areas. There both more work but bring more money in . I do both best student rental is over £600 per month per bedroom.
 

bobk

Member
Location
stafford
If you decide that you want to go down the property route don’t just buy a box standard house and rent it out the return isn’t great . Go for a student rental or hmo @£500 a month per room depending on area. Small cottage/flat holiday rental in popular tourist areas. There both more work but bring more money in . I do both best student rental is over £600 per month per bedroom.
You have to rebuild it every year though ....
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
:ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: We have a similar snag, a family member living in one of our properties, we do charge rent, but far below the going rate.

Strangely, I also get them most complaints from that one also :scratchhead:
l don't get the complaints ! If l did, short answer. In fairness, l do get a 'rent', as we both live off the farm, but rent would be £8/900 a month, + s/pension, wouldn't be to bad ............
 

slackjawedyokel

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Northumberland
Why, the market is controlled by supply and demand.

As long as we keep cramming people in, there will always be a demand.

We have companies wanting to take over the letting of our properties, and are willing to guarantee us two years rent up front.

However, we have to agree to opt out of the Governments requirement that full UK residence status has been granted. Sounds dodgy, so, we didn't bother.

If you let via a credible agent, a 'fit to rent assessment' is made for your property. If a potential new tenant fails that test (x% of income paid in rent) then the onus is on the agent to find them a more suitable property.
Not necessarily…
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
Getting to the age where pension time is not too distant. Have many of you actually got one or like me always had "more important" things to spend money on?

pension to keep your tax bill as low as pos - but a SIP so you can invest in more imaginative things than just the stock market
 

thesilentone

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Cumbria

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
Unless you are paying 40 % tax or are running your own company and can run a ssap I think they are waste of time, while you save tax on the way in you pay charges every year and tax o the way out, I have one that I have paid into since 85, my tessa and then isa has on average done better and no tax on drawing it out.
My industrial units have made me far more after tax and I can pass them on

should have bought the industrial buildings via your pension maybe ?
 

slackjawedyokel

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Northumberland
@thesilentone So what’s the EPC rating of your improved cottage?

That sounds like a very good price to do your improvements, but then you had the time to manage the project yourself.

Every situation is different. In our case the cottages are 100yr old 2up 2downs with a mean 1up/1down extension added to each in the 50s. The extension has a cavity wall, is freezing (4outside walls upstairs) but I’d be loath to pump in cavity insulation as I’ve already had issues with water leaking through in places it simply should not be able to! I doing fancy doing external insulation; apart from our cottages ending up looking like a dogs breakfast (they have architectural flourishes which would be tricky to insulate externally), I’d worry whether post-grenfell the method would be queried in the future. I’d have to go for internal insulation ‘box within a box’ style. Unfortunately this would make the houses less liveable as the already mean spaces inside (kitchen and living room ) would be further squeezed.

Id probably have to tear down and rebuild the extensions more generously, as the build quality is suspect and they have the usual flat-roof ball-aches.

You get to the stage where it’s pointless starting anything unless you are prepared to do EVERYTHING. Roof slates might as well come off to felt underneath, solid floors dug up to add insulation and so on, move bathroom upstairs to make the place nicer to live in. My guesstimate to do all that is 100-150K, but I’m optimistic so it may well be more, especially if there are nasty surprises along the way.

If I get it up to a C, I could charge more rent obviously but I doubt I’d make back the outlay in my lifetime. Also I’ve heard rumours of EPC being ratcheted up further in future.

If you can comply with the ever changing regulations in the rental market then crack on. In my case I don’t think it’s worth it- too many known known, known unknowns and unknown unknowns! Eg if politics returned to the hard left, I’d fear tenants being given the right to buy their house at a reduced market price- I’d never want the houses on the farm to be owned by someone other than the landowner!

Id recommend anyone thinking of getting into BTLs to lurk in a landlord forum; Landlordzone was VERY helpful to me while I was evicting my very awkward tenants.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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