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Hi, Me and my partner have been researching quite a lot about getting into property investment however one thing I can't seem to find a concrete answer on is this. We have purchased our first home (a couple of years ago) through the government's Help to Buy scheme and used an Equity Loan as part of the deposit. I know that we can't purchase a 2nd residential home without having to pay back the equity loan however, I cannot find anything regarding not being able to purchase a BTL property and keep the equity loan? Has anyone been through this process themselves? I will ask the Help to Buy agent and our solicitor but I feel this might be a very niche circumstance so their answers might not be straight forward. If anyone can help me that would be greatly appreciated. Kind Regards, Jake

Hi, I hope you clever folk on here can point me in the right direction. I’m looking to get started on the properly property ladder. I have around 100k to invest in and don’t currently own a home. My initial idea is to buy a new build on the help to buy scheme in North London with my partner, only put down 5% (say 25k all in), and then a couple of months down the line use the rest of capital on a 2 BTLs in Nottingham or Sheffield, where start up costs should be around 30k each. The hope is, to generate income via the BTL to cover my mortgage payments (or some part of!), and also benefit from capital appreciation by buying in the right area. Does anyone see and issue in doing this, or would advise approaching this from another angle? Ultimately looking for a critique for HTB and any issues that may arise in this strategy. Thanks in advance!

Hi, I'm selling my 2 bed house in Manchester and all was set up and ready for completion, when buyer was furloughed in beginning of March. Her bank didn't approve the mortgage until she goes back to work. Will bank release the mortgage money as soon as she will go back to work? Or does she have to bring few payslips after she starts to work to prove that she can afford the mortgage? While waiting for buyer to go back to work, I am thinking about plan B. Plan B: I potentially don't want to sell the house but to rent it out. It is 2 bed house bought for £115k as a new build 5 years ago. Currently appraised at value £135k. I bought it with Help to Buy (HTB) as my first and only property and so government org owns 20% of selling price. HTB properties can't be rented, so I assume, I have to buy the 20% share for HTB. I could do that easily, if I would remortgage the house. As an employed person I pay higher 40% tax and therefore I would like optimise profit and to set up company and sell the house to my company. I think you call this BTL. Because I live now in Edinburgh I would like to hire an agency which would find tenants into house and look after house. Can you tell me if this all makes sense? What would be the steps to make this happen and what would all this cost me to set up? Thank you for any help.

I am looking to work out a strategy of buying a house that can let out and be lived in by ourselves. I am not sure if we meet the criteria though! The house will be bought using our Lifetime ISA I am looking therefore at a residential mortgage and declaring it as our primary place of residence. However as part of my wifes employment we are given free accomodation on the school campus. We will live here during term time. Non term time (weekends and holidays amounts to approximately 197 days a year. Any advice on how to achieve this and what restrictions I face from both HMRC and mortgage lenders would be appreciated. Thanks, Jamie

Hi all. Due to an expanding family, we decided to move house with the help of a help to buy loan. This made things easier as my wife isn’t working at the moment with having twins at home. We chose 10% on the help to buy and plan to add this to the mortgage within five years. We have done well on property over the years but would like to reinvest in a buy to let. The problem is that by having a help to buy loan you cannot buy another property until the loan is repaid. What I was thinking of, is setting up a limited company but I am unsure if this is allowed? Searched for info but can’t seem to find much for this scenario Any advice would be gratefully received. Andy

Hi everyone, I am looking to get into property investment, but my wife and I purchased our house with the aid of Help to Buy so I need to wait to invest until this is paid for. In the 3 years since buying, we have managed to save up quite a nice deposit for a house to let out, but in Dec 2020 we will be due to pay back our Help To Buy (amount dependant on house prices at the time - but could be c. £70K). Does anyone have any guidance on effective ways to deal with Help To Buy and plan for when it needs to be paid? Thanks, Wilfitzy

Hello all, I'm looking to get some advice (aren't we all!) my partner and I bought our first flat together 4 years ago in Edinburgh. We used a help to buy scheme as we were only 21 and just out of uni with not a lot of savings. We had a 3k deposit, property was 105k. 42k of that is to the help to buy shared equity scheme and 60k was from the bank. A few years on now and in a much better financial position I don't know what to do! we have 50k left on the mortgage and the deal is we pay back the help to buy scheme whenever we sell or surpass the term agreement which I think is around 19 years. Our property has gone up in value and I believe is we were to sell today we could achieve between 125-130k from what we have seen our neighbours properties go for. So my questions is what do I do? Ideally I would love to change this property to a buy to let mortgage and buy a new place for us to live in and rent out our current flat. to do that though I believe I'd need to pay back the shared equity before doing so. Do I sell the property, pay back shared equity scheme and walk away with 20k (if we got 125k and after fees etc) then use our savings to buy ourselves a new property to live in and an investment property to rent out. we could buy a 100k property with a 25% deposit with a buy to let mortgage to rent out and we could afford a deposit of 20k as a deposit for our own place. Anything I could do to keep my current property would be best as it's ideal to rent out due to location, size, neighbours, structure. Would be great to hear what you guys think and any advice would be amazing.

Hey guys, we are looking to begin the buying process this winter and are in need of a good broker/solicitor combo in Leeds. The price range will be 100-170k. We will be buying through the 20% equity loan Help to Buy government scheme. Also anyone with experience of using this scheme feel free to share it and any problems you encountered. Many thanks

Hi guys, I have a Help to buy ISA that is slowly building up. I'm looking to purchase a buy to let property as my first purchase; and was wondering if the ISA can be applied to it? If not, can I hold it until I buy a live-in property (my second planned purchase)? I.e. can still benefit from the scheme is a live-in property is not my first purchase? Thanks!

Good morning all, I have just written this on the way into work on the train, I am hoping to really get started in property and it would be a dream to eventually do up and sell on properties full time. I have never purchased a place before and I wanted to use this forum as a starting place to meet people and gain knowledge. Can anyone recommends some reading firstly on how I can get started? There is so many questions like how much do I need, do I buy post Brexit? Do I hope for another crash and then buy? Is help to buy good etc? If anyone can point me in the right direction as a starting off point would be much appreciated! My final question is does anyone know of any property meet up groups in and around Essex? I'm from Dagenham/Romford if that help! Thanks in advance Solomon