This is a bit complex, but maybe an outside observer might have a better take on it.
I sold my home in Dublin in 2008 to finance a build on a fantastic sea-view site we own. It has FPP for the new build.
Before getting into the build my employer offerred me voluntary redundancy. I decided to take it.
We are now living abroad and its doubtful if we'll be coming back any time soon. I'm not working, and will be pensioned in 4 years. A DBS.
The site has a mortgage of 400K on it. No rental income from the derelict cottage on it.
I also own an apartment in France which I rent out. It has a mortgage of 250K outstanding.
We have the guts of 1M in cash from the redundancy and house sale.
I'm very undecided about what to do next.
We need a home to live in here in Asia - but there's every indication of the same bloody stupid bubble behaviour here as I just witnessed in Ireland. The euro has fallen 20% against local here, which doesn't help either!
Not interested in getting stung again, so probably gonna rent, at least for a while. It seems better to use my (weak!) euro to pay off euro debt, rather than exchange it against a strong local currency to take a gamble on property here.
So now I'm trying to decide whats the best way to sort out the mortgages in europe.
I'm tempted to start by paying off the french mortgage. Its a tracker, but not as good as the Irish one!!
This would release the rental income to go toward paying the mortgage on the site in Dublin.
I know you'll say sell the site - but its an insurance policy for the future. If anything goes bang here we might need to return to IRL. Its a fantastic site, with a fantastic view. We love it and can't easily let it go.
Another alternative is to pay off the mortgage on the site. The apartment in France could remain self-financing (pretty much).
But we'd be clearing a tracker! Hard to get!
And we'd be seriously depleting the 'build fund' in the event we decide to do the build. Build will cost around 350K - 400K.
Maybe we should just build and rent the dream home?
Another alternative is to ditch the big house and fix up the derelict cottage.
I'm loath to do this as it seems like wasted money to me. Why spend 100K to make a 1 bed cottage liveable, and then get - what - 850 a month(??) in rent? It'd be almost 10 years before we'd get the investment back, and if we later decided to go ahead with the build - we'd have to demolish the cottage!
I'm half thinking of demolishing it right now, while its cheap to do. And it'd avoid that bloody property tax (due for a hike soon I expect).
But knocking it removes one of my alternatives....
I'm quite confused about all this. The heart tends to rule the head at times.
Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance!
I sold my home in Dublin in 2008 to finance a build on a fantastic sea-view site we own. It has FPP for the new build.
Before getting into the build my employer offerred me voluntary redundancy. I decided to take it.
We are now living abroad and its doubtful if we'll be coming back any time soon. I'm not working, and will be pensioned in 4 years. A DBS.
The site has a mortgage of 400K on it. No rental income from the derelict cottage on it.
I also own an apartment in France which I rent out. It has a mortgage of 250K outstanding.
We have the guts of 1M in cash from the redundancy and house sale.
I'm very undecided about what to do next.
We need a home to live in here in Asia - but there's every indication of the same bloody stupid bubble behaviour here as I just witnessed in Ireland. The euro has fallen 20% against local here, which doesn't help either!
Not interested in getting stung again, so probably gonna rent, at least for a while. It seems better to use my (weak!) euro to pay off euro debt, rather than exchange it against a strong local currency to take a gamble on property here.
So now I'm trying to decide whats the best way to sort out the mortgages in europe.
I'm tempted to start by paying off the french mortgage. Its a tracker, but not as good as the Irish one!!
This would release the rental income to go toward paying the mortgage on the site in Dublin.
I know you'll say sell the site - but its an insurance policy for the future. If anything goes bang here we might need to return to IRL. Its a fantastic site, with a fantastic view. We love it and can't easily let it go.
Another alternative is to pay off the mortgage on the site. The apartment in France could remain self-financing (pretty much).
But we'd be clearing a tracker! Hard to get!
And we'd be seriously depleting the 'build fund' in the event we decide to do the build. Build will cost around 350K - 400K.
Maybe we should just build and rent the dream home?
Another alternative is to ditch the big house and fix up the derelict cottage.
I'm loath to do this as it seems like wasted money to me. Why spend 100K to make a 1 bed cottage liveable, and then get - what - 850 a month(??) in rent? It'd be almost 10 years before we'd get the investment back, and if we later decided to go ahead with the build - we'd have to demolish the cottage!
I'm half thinking of demolishing it right now, while its cheap to do. And it'd avoid that bloody property tax (due for a hike soon I expect).
But knocking it removes one of my alternatives....
I'm quite confused about all this. The heart tends to rule the head at times.
Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance!