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Hi, I own 2 properties 50:50 with my wife. She runs them as holiday lets and reports all the profits on her tax return. They generate revenue combined of £80K. If I buy a property in another city on my own and I run it is either as a) a Holiday let or b) unfurnished let and get revenue of £40K and report it on my own tax return obviously will we have breached the VAT threshold? thanks Geee

Hi all. It’s a pleasure to have found you all here. I’m an Edinburgh-based property investment newbie. I’ve enjoyed, and still do, a career in the public service and am lucky enough to earn a decent salary. But at 47 I’ve have recently had the epiphany that unless I find a way to significantly supplement it, I won’t have the options, lifestyle and security I need for my family in the years ahead. I have a long standing interest in property. I’ve renovated a number of my own properties and run a successful interiors blog. But I’ve never before had the capital, knowledge and confidence to take the leap into investment. Thanks to @robert dix I’m ready to start. I have a high level strategy - to take £70k equity from my family home. Using mortgages I want to buy an Edinburgh city centre property for short term holiday lets which will be fully managed. I also plan to buy a couple of buy and holds in Aberdeen (I’m originally from there and know the city) where yields look solid but capital growth could be strong. To scale up I’ll save the rental incomes and remortgage to reinvest asap. So, how to start.... Focusing on the Edinburgh property first, my initial action plan looks like this (a) speak to letting agent for advice about demand/rates/occupancy etc. (b) with that intel appraise the viability of the project in principle and start identifying possible properties (c) get along to the Edinburgh property hub meet up (6 Sep) (d) source an accountant - need advice about whether to buy through company wrapper before I can start offering on properties (e) find broker to get finance in place Writing that down makes it seem like I have a clear plan but I confess to feeling a little overwhelmed at this stage. Does that sound right for making a start? Does anyone have any suggestions about how to source the right accountant/broker or recommendations? Is local knowledge or investment specialism more important? Any other comments or advice about getting started also welcome. Thanks folks.

Hello Hubbers! We have finally got an offer accepted on a one bed flat facing the sea! We aim to short-term rent it on booking.com and Airbnb. After speaking to two mortgage brokers, there is only one lender who will offer a mortgage to us as a holiday let through a limited company. They are offering an average 3.3% for a two year fixed rate but has £2800 of fees attached to it (property is only £160k). Plus really horrible rates for solicitors which I might be charged twice for (dual representation??) My accountant doesn't really understand about property specifically and isn't super savvy in this area. Does anyone have an idea of what to do for a new business that will be renting through sites like Booking.com or Airbnb? Can anyone give any advise on how to set the company up and any alternative mortgages? I don't want the property to fall through my fingers! Thanks in advance! I truly appreciate any help.

Hi, this is my first time posting on here, and would love to get some opinions! I've got a couple of BTLs, own my own home, and am expecting by the summer to have a reasonable pot of cash (£300-400K) to accelerate my property journey. The thing is, I have separate non-property business so I don't have a great deal of time (evenings & weekends). I'm trying to work out the best strategy both for cashflow now & compounding/reinvestment longer term, but don't want to directly project manage refurbs, or HMOs. I'm also comfortable that I'd be able to assemble a good team (my other business is recruitment). Option 1 - work with a company like Fossey Taylor to build my portfolio, they will manage refurbs on standard BTLs plus the odd HMO in the midlands, add value, but their fees will eat in heavily to the cash recycling. I love that it's totally hands-off, but am not yet totally convinced on the returns. Option 2 - buy high-end city center apartments for AirBnB, kit them out with nice kitchens etc.. Initial cashflow would be best, but there's less chance of quickly recycling deposits, and who knows what legislation will change surrounding short-term lets as the sector keeps growing / putting pressure on standard rental supply. I already have an agent I trust who could get kitchens sorted & manage them for me. Option 3 - buy a plot of land & build to rent. I can get a good project manager for this, it allows for profits built in / cash recycling, it's possible for me to get financing to do it, but there's a significant delay on cashflow (which I could live with but might be stressful in the interim). I've run the numbers, and given the access to financing the development route clearly has the most potential (but also requires the most education & involvement from me). It is also the most attractive from a tax perspective. No doubt there are factors I've not considered through lack of knowledge. What would other people do in this situation? Any thoughts or opinions would be gratefully received... Thanks, Tom

Afternoon folks, I'm currently doing some research into venturing into holiday lets around the Yorkshire Dales area. At the minute i'm doing all the numbers and the considerations to do it all via a LTD structure or not. Does anyone out there have any experience of this? One thing that springs to mind is what would be my exit strategy. So if & when i might decide to sell up in the future how easy would it be to sell a holiday cottage type property, is it a limited market. I cant help drawing comparisons with student pods and rooms in hotels, which is not the type of investment for me personally. I'd be interested in the experiences and opinions of other who have also gone down this route. Many thanks.

Hi there, I'm fairly property obsessed. I work for a mortgage broker, I own a house in Camber which I am renovating with a view to it becoming a holiday let, and I live in rented accommodation. I'm interested in learning more about property from all angles. I thought I'd start by sharing a blog written by a colleague on what mortgage lenders think of sites like AirBnB and how you could be breaching the terms of your mortgage contract... It can be read here: http://www.mortgagesforbusiness.co.uk/news-insight/2016/december-2016/mortgages-and-airbnb-1/

Hello and Happy New Year. My name is Tyler and I live in York with my wife. We absolutely love York and we are interested in buying a holiday letting property here. In addition, we have recently set up a holiday let management company with the main goal of managing people's properties on Airbnb and similar. It's early days but my goal is to grow steadily over 2017 and to buy our first (but hopefully not last!) holiday let property. I'd be interested in speaking to people who already own holiday properties in York about their experiences with holiday let mortgages, occupancy figures, rates etc. to help me plan. Of course, anyone looking for holiday letting property management service please contact me as well. I'm happy to buy you a coffee for your time! Thanks for your time. Tyler

Hi everyone I'm considering the possibility of buying a furnished holiday let somewhere on the Norfolk coast - I've chosen that area because it's within relatively easy reach of home (2-3 hours drive) and would be a good place to take the family for holidays. My plan would be to outsource all the bookings and management as far as possible and so, as a first step, I would like to have some initial conversations with local specialist FHL agents. Does anyone have any recommendations as to good agents to contact? Many thanks Jeremy

We're 11wks into buying a leasehold property and issues with the management company are holding things up. The company has stated, amongst other things, that the property is not to be used as a holiday let. However, there is no mention of this in the lease and it appears to be solely company policy. Holiday lets are something we had considered to use the property for and so have hit a bit of a brick wall. What is the legal standpoint here? Can the company really enforce things that have no mention in the lease? For a further example, they also have a no pets rule! What would be the consequences of going against something like this? I’m not even sure we would holiday let it, but I’d like to be aware of what my rights are. Thanks for any advice or tales of personal experience.