Investment Property - need help!

G

grahamc

Guest
Hi all.

I own a house in Dublin, and am looking to add an oversea's investment to it. I will only have a budget of €100 - €150k. This is the main reason I'm looking outside of Ireland.

I have been looking into various buy to let, lease backs and straight purchases (taking rent into account). I've looked at Northern Ireland, the UK, Spain, France, Poland, Cape Verde etc.

At the moment I'm leaing towards a 1 bed apartment in Belfast for about €150k.

I know it's a very open question, but I really just am looking for advice for anyone who has experience or an opinion on this. So the floor is open :)
 
Firstly I have no real idea on the current belfast market, however I did spend my college life there.
What sort of rental yield do you expect on this?
Where in belfast is it?
I would'nt expect a huge amount of capital appreciation in a hurry, as based on other prices in NI this seems quite expensive, remember that average wages in the north are lower than in the south (£17,366 - Euro 25,000 as opposed to Euro 32,000).
I also have been talking to several large property developers in the north recently, they say that apartments are the one area where they don't have a huge amount of confidence. They were referring to apartment developments in some of the larger provincial towns, so Belfast may well be a different kettle of fish.
(As for Belfast being outside Ireland:) , I'd watch who I made that comment too!!)
 
Is the house you own in Dublin your PPR or an investment property? If the latter do you also own your own PPR? In either case, but especially if you already own your PPR and an investment property in Ireland, how have you determined that yet another property investment is the most appropriate investment for your circumstances right now?
 
I've looked into Belfast also and I think there are better opportunities in the owl reliable (3 bed semi !). There is an over supply of apartments in Belfast with lots more going up (e.g. hundreds in titanic quarter - http://www.titanic-quarter.com/
 
Have a look at Romania. Your 150k will buy you 2-3 apartments having 2 bedrooms each. Typically you can buy a 2 bed for 40 - 45k and do it up for about 4- 5k. This means a complete re-fit with uPVC windows etc. Thereafter you can expect 300-350 Euros a month from the locals and up to 450 Euros from an expat tenant. Your capital gain will be between 15 - 30% per annum.

I know! I'm doing this already. I have 3 apartments and some shops at the moment.

Best of luck in you quest!

Scott
 
You're right of course RainyDay. I stand suitably chastised! I guess I'm getting carried away with my own small successes. That said property prices in Romania have increased strongly over the last few years. I will try and research some information as to how strongly and post it here.
 
The boom in Romania has gone largely unnoticed...

This, I think, is one of the first more public acknowledgements of its happening

[broken link removed]
 
Please stop pumping Romania for property investment. Persisting in this activity is likely to lead to a ban.
 
I watched that A Place in the Sun programme with interest and could not figure out how they came up with the projected growth over the next 10 uears. It seems to me that they just averaged recent years' growth and projected that forward! Seems shaky to me.

Notwithstanding that, I have felt recently that Romania might be a possible good target for investment. I used to think that Romania was just full of crappy orphanages and gypsies but I have met some Romanian people recently and they are not like that at all. I fancy learning a lot more about Romania with a view to possibly investing out there. However, my investment tip for the future is Albania!

Slim
 
grahamc said:
Hi all.

I own a house in Dublin, and am looking to add an oversea's investment to it. I will only have a budget of €100 - €150k. This is the main reason I'm looking outside of Ireland.

I have been looking into various buy to let, lease backs and straight purchases (taking rent into account). I've looked at Northern Ireland, the UK, Spain, France, Poland, Cape Verde etc.

At the moment I'm leaing towards a 1 bed apartment in Belfast for about €150k.

I know it's a very open question, but I really just am looking for advice for anyone who has experience or an opinion on this. So the floor is open :)
Click to expand...

Just to give you some benefit of my experience...........i believe the UK market is an attractive proposition. There is a shortage of supply and no shortage of tenants countrywide. For my part, I have concentrated in the NE and I have achived 25% cap apprec in 6 months in one case (this is money in the bank, and not a guess), and 25 % in 12 months in 2 other cases (again, money in the bank through re-financing). On top of that, I am achieving 13-15% cash yield before tax on all my properties bar one, which is not rented out yet, but will be in 1 week.

Before I spent a penny, I used my holidays to go over and examine the market. i chose NE because I felt it was significantly undervalued. Newcastle is a vibrant financial centre and there is substantial industry in the area with good consequences for employment.

I have fixed my interest rates at 4.85% for 3 years and I am still prepared to buy more. I am also looking at London which I believe is always a strong market and there are pockets of opportunity there. lonon is certainly a capital play, whereas I use the Northern properties as an income play. While I felt there would be strong capital gains, it wasn't the deciding factor for my investment.

Finally, the UK legal and tax system is similar to Ireland's and very easy to learn. I do my own tax returns every year to Inland Revenue and Irish Revenue.

Hope this helps and good luck with whatever you do.
 
Don't forget to register your investments with Irish Revenue. Even if your liability is Nil you still have to advise them.

You have to pay tax on worldwide income.

Make sure there is a double taxation agreement in place in relation to Income tax and CGT. Otherwise you will have to pay tax on the double.

You make a return in Ireland and foreign country, pay the tax due in the foreign country and offset the foreign liability against the Irish liability.
 
ClubMan said:
Are you sure about that?
Click to expand...

You mean sure about:
1. similar to Ireland's or
2. easy to learn or
3. both?

If its 1, then yes.
2, well, the important bits like knowing your allowable expenses, double taxation credits, filling in a tax return are easy - just a bit of research on the net and asking the revenue themselves
3. see 1 and 2
 
I meant 1. There are significant differences between the UK and Irish legal and tax systems as far as I know. Most people would need independent, professional tax and legal advice/assistance to make sure that they do things properly.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top