I always thought I’m the best tenant possible and there’s no premium for that haha! Yeah, a post with some actual numbers would be great. I know most people are obsessed with BTL in this country but it’s not always the dream they make it out to be…

We ended up snagging a 5 year fixed BTL mortgage before we left the country and were burdened with expat only mortgages, so we’re kind of stuck with it for 4 more years :)

It’s currently going OK-ish. We’ve got a little surplus that’s started to build up for if anything big goes wrong. The tenants have been a bit unruly though; refusing to cut the grass, noise complaints from the neighbours, the radiator ended up off the wall, an electrician needed to be sent in to fix the shower. I don’t remember being this bad of a tenant! But it’s not cost much in the grand scheme of things, we’re still in the green.

It’s coming to a year soon, I’ll have to make a post to gather my thoughts on it. If we can sell it for more than we bought it for in 4 years time, and we’re still in the green maintenance wise, I’ll be happy.

Hey SN, yeah, 25% in 5 years is not good in this environment! Overall, there’s no question PP portfolio has underperformed.

To be fair though, you need to compare their performance with the rest of the UK property market, not global shares or say bonds. Otherwise, it’s not a like for like comparison. For instance, the easiest data point I can find, the UK property ETF has returned 30% over the past 5y. Then, ~2% each year for yield and that’s 40% total. So PP has definitely underperformed there.

Another data point is the Land Registry house prices, which from Aug 2016 to Aug 2021 have risen to 255k from 215k. That’s 18.6% just in capital appreciation which can be boosted with a BTL mortgage. If we add rent, again I’m sure this beats the 25% return from Property Partner.

I like to have some property exposure for diversification and UK property has done very well so far. I’m avoiding direct buy-to-let (perhaps at a cost of leaving money on the table!). How has your BTL performed? I remember you were an owner or did you sell it in the end?

Re commissions, ouch, that’s not professional of them!

Property Partner have been really bugging me too, I earned a little commission from when I advertised them and I’ve invoiced this amount 3 times and emailed on 5 separate occasions over the course of 2 years asking for it to be paid. Each time they’ve either not responded or said they’ll “Chase the finance department.”

I’ve resigned myself to the fact that they simply don’t want to pay as I stopped advertising. It’s only a small amount so I can drop it, but they’ve left a bitter taste in my mouth.