Hey all,
I’m wondering if any of you have bought a property in the UK while living in Taiwan.
What process did you have to go through?
Was it a pain in the arse?
We’re currently looking at a favourable exchange rate coupled with attainable property prices (and the chance of getting a loan over here) and I don’t want to miss this window of opportunity.
Any other comments? Please feel free to add.
Thanks,
Stu
When it’s in your price range, Stu, it’s not called property; it’s called a hutch.
Prices have fallen a bit, Stu, but it’s still £400 000 for a house on my street. The housing market isn’t really crashing the way they said it would.
Good luck, anyway.
Thanks Buttercup. So do you think the prices will fall further, or do you just think they haven’t fallen very much and aren’t likely to any time soon?
We’ve seen some really decent price drops in Edinburgh, where it seems to be more a case of a small number of desperate people selling cheap rather than the whole market collapsing.
Layman’s general impressions, not financial advice! My sister’s the expert (400 000’s as unattainable as 430 000 on my salary: I don’t really give a toss because I have absolutely no money), so these are impressions I’ve picked up from her. Things aren’t really moving much because it’s near impossible to get a mortgage here unless you have a huge deposit already. I guess the south east and particularly somewhere like Oxford where demand exceeds supply is fairly inflated.
Massive job losses are being announced every day so people are much more conservative about getting into a buying chain with all the risk that involves. Everything’s fairly uncertain here: although things aren’t ‘that bad’, there’s very much a prevailing attitude of ‘sit it out and wait’ and that it makes no sense to sell right now. The huge crashes that were predicted don’t seem to be materialising, although ‘15% drop’ seems to be a number that is flying around.
The huge discounts you see in Manchester are on newly built apartments and trendy inner city mill conversions, and so on. These were shoddily/quickly built to ride the ‘urban regeneration’ wave and now supply far exceeds demand because the kind of people that buy these things can’t get finance. Family homes are different and hanging onto their value.
I’ll ask my sis what she says about your situation (She is really astute about stuff like this). You should ask Edgar Allen, I bet he knows this stuff. Don’t want to be discouraging, and I’m sure there are bargains to be had but there certainly aren’t low low prices across the board.
Quite a few of my colleagues in the UAE are thinking of buying property in the UK as well. I have heard that prices are indeed going down (though probably not everywhere, as Buttercup has indicated that they haven’t fallen much in her area). That coupled with the lower value of the pound makes it more attractive to buy. I would wait a good number of months though to see if prices drop further…they are expected to…and to see if the pound loses more of its value.
The pound is down to about NT49:£1; it was about NT63:£1. That’s a drop of about 22%. If you buy now, it’s only a bargain if you can put down a hefty enough deposit, to take advantage of the low exchange rate.
But if and when the UK gets back on track, the house prices will go back up (you make the 15% that prices have currently dropped) but you’ll be paying back a mortgage that is now 22% higher - if the £ gets back to full strength. Unless you’re getting a mortgage in Taiwan, this might be a dangerous investment.
Unless I’m missing something. :eh:
[edit: Yeah, I was missing something: you’re getting a loan from here. So go for it!)
If you are paying for the property outright, or get a loan elsewhere, then it is a bargain. But yes, you risk it if you mortgage in the UK.
Stu,
I’m a landlord in the UK. One of the most important things you need to consider when buying to invest is how you will manage the property.
I assume that you will want a buy-to-let mortgage and rent it out. Probably the most important thing to do ( and therefore the hardest) is to find a reputable letting agent that will advertise your property, find good quality tenants and deal with problems as they arise.
Thankfully I found a decent mob to run my place and we are on very good terms. My first agent was a scheming twat that refused to answer my calls when the shit hit the fan.
Expect to pay 15% of the rent in fees and if you use a decent agent expect to be taxed (if you are in a high enough bracket).
Honestly, with the current interest rates I’m laughing. I can cover the mortgage, pay the fees and still have a contingency (no less than £1,000 in easily available cash) for minor repairs etc.
I would advise against getting family or friends involved in managing for obvious reasons.
Take a look at housepricecrash.co.uk and motleyfool.co.uk they both have good info.
As for actually buying from Taiwan I have no answers, maybe the forums on the sites above maybe of use.
All the best,
L. 
Thanks Limey. I’ll check out those links. Cheers.
Yes l know its old but maybe its a good place for it
Nice 1 for starting the topic Stu.
I’m in the same boat. Going back & getting a house.
I’m hoping to get a discount by paying cash.
Does this seem doable or should I keep dreaming on ?
Sellers generally do like “cash” (I assume you don’t mean literal banknotes in a suitcase - the solicitor will get upset if he sees that). I bought land outright a few years back and it definitely got me some serious leverage.
Just bear in mind that the government has now sneakily implemented digital ID for access to legal services, under the guise of KYC. Most lawyers seem to be using a company (Legl) that appeared out of nowhere in late 2019 that provides software for ID verification, which basically requires you to submit online scans of this and that, a video of yourself, a stool sample, and various other stuff to ensure that the gubmint knows exactly who you are and what you’re made of. Hopefully you’re not bothered by this because there seems to be no way around it.
We moved back in 2017 and have bought a few properties. Having funds, not being part of a chain, makes a big difference when negotiating prices. But that will also depend a lot on where you want to buy, so you’ll need to do some research.
As Finley says, there’s more paperwork to deal with, someone is getting a cut somewhere. It’s a pain in the arse, but manageable.
Everything just seems a pain in the hole when it comes to the UK…… thx for the advice.
TBH the only issues we’ve had are solicitors dragging their feet. You got to be on them day and night or nothing gets done.
Unlikely to help. Have a friend who tried to buy a house outright in “cash” - they were fairly hostile, offered way over the asking price and offered to rent the current occupiers somewhere else. They didn’t succeed in buying the place in the end.
yeah, this. with that particular purchase I was lucky and found a great guy who just got stuff done. But prior experience is that a lot of them are absolutely bloody useless. Don’t take any crap from them; if they drag their feet for more than a few weeks, pull the job and go elsewhere. Jollying them along doesn’t seem to work.
Ours have been ok, it’s been the sellers ones. In one case the seller was from Singapore and had somehow been convinced to use solicitors ‘recommended’ by the estate agents. We’d negotiated a hefty discount and the seller was in need of cash, so was desperate to complete. Estate agents were playing funny buggers trying to hold out for higher bids. This is London though…