What are recommended levels of borrowing?

[mell61]

I'm interested in getting into property investing, over the next few years. At the current time I don't see much value in Ireland, and i'm not really interested in investing overseas (but as with all things in life this could change).
So in the meantime I'm loading up my savings, with a view of 3-4 years time buying into proprty, with a long term view of generating an income stream that will support the mortgage payments and additional costs, plus hopefully generate income for re-investing in future property. I'm not interested in speculating on what a property 'might' be worth a year or 2 later (I don't mean to sound too harsh but I'm tired of people selling future worth as a reason for maxing out mortgages).
My question is what level of borrowing do successful investors have? I've seen ads for 'buy to let' offering 90% mortgages, which in the current environment I can't see paying off a mortgage, let alone supplementing empty periods.
Any suggestions on what is a more 'realistic' figure, I recall in the past people talking about 75% mortgages on investment properties, does anyone have an idea what sort of figures add up (i'll take non-Irish figures, as I don't think we're currently a good case study)?

 

[Howitzer]

Don't have exact figures for you but it's refreshing to hear someone with a bit sense.

From my 'outside looking in' knowledge, yeah generally 75% on the first property and gradually moving to 100% as you build up an equity base and relationships with lending institutions.

You can start at 100% through remortgaging existing property but, as you alude, this is more along the lines of speculation than a legitimate business model.

 

[Dan The Man]

AFAIK it comes down to your ability to repay. If you have a large mortgage, then you will need large repayments and you need your rental yield to be high.

There is usually a trade off between high rental yield and capital appreciation, hence you may get the yield but the property will not increase at a considerable rate over time.

Regards borrowing, consider getting your own place first, or if you have your own place, consider an equity release of up to 40% of the property value, you can get the lowest rate possible at these levels if you own 60% of the property.

That's just one of the million options you will have.

Regards to the type of properties, it has been said many times that if you buy quality, then you will be ok over time.

DYOR