Trade up or Sell the house

[vidhguh]

Hi all,

I am a owner/occupier in north dublin for the last 4 years now. I recently changed jobs to a company located on the southside. Hence our predicament whether to trade up or sell the house. My house will be worth
€350K and I will have to pay minimum €550k for a house on the southside.
With every newspaper article predicting the poperty market to stabilise or crash, I am afraid to put all our savings into the new house. We are also looking to emigrate in 2 years time,so:

1. Is it worth buying a house now? Would the capital gains on the second house be worth trading up for?

2. What do I do with my house, do I sell it now and invest elsewhere?

3. or rent the hosue for next 2 years, in which case will I have stamp duty clawback? I am a first time buyer.

Apologise if I have posted in the wrong section. I would really appreciate your feed back and comments. I feel my situation is unique and have too many options. I want to choose the best financial option (aren't we all!) available to me.

Thanks in advance.

vc

 

[26cb]

Why not sell your house, invest the proceeds for the next two years and rent on the SOuthside until you emigrate. Would depend of course on how much your current mortgage repayments are versus the cost of renting and how much equity you have in your current abode.

 

[phoenix_n]

Why not sell your house, invest the proceeds for the next two years and rent on the SOuthside until you emigrate. Would depend of course on how much your current mortgage repayments are versus the cost of renting and how much equity you have in your current abode.

Ditto. If ur gonna emigrate it best to lock in your savings in a more secure asset.

 

[liteweight]

I definitely wouldn't go for letting the house.....the stamp duty clawback is punitive and you've already put 4 years in. If you sell you've no tax liability. I agree with the other posters. In addition, if you've never lived on the southside, you might not be the best judge of where to buy. Better to rent at least until you're definite about emigrating.

 

[JohnBoy]

are you emigrating for good? if so then the transaction costs involved in buying a property do not realy make a 2-year holding period worthwhile if you buy on the southside.

what would the rent be on the type of property that you could afford to buy? if there is a significant difference between the rent and mortgage payments then you ought to factor this into your calculations.