Last year was the end of an era. I sold the Modern Flat, after owning it for over 20 years.
A bit of history
I ended up with my Modern Flat in that common way that many ‘accidental’ landlords have. It was my first rung on the property ownership ladder. Until it was time to get onto the second rung. I thought I’d live there for several years – though in practice I lived there less time than I had originally expected.
The flat itself is a new build flat in central London, to a reasonable spec. It is slightly bigger than average, but has no outdoor space whatsoever. I loved living there, albeit that was a long time ago. It had a great reception space but rather cramped bedrooms with insufficient storage. This suited me fine – bedrooms are for sleeping in, and living rooms are where you live. The building had a residents’ association, a management company, and a porter. I bought the flat on a long 200+ year lease, and had to sign up to both a ground rent (doubling every 25 years) and a service charge (set by the management company).
I managed to climb onto the second rung without selling the Modern Flat. Instead, I kept it, ever since, I rented it out. This isn’t, strictly, a ‘buy to let’ property in that I didn’t buy it to let it.
I haven’t strictly treated my Modern Flat as an investment. As an illiquid asset, I don’t track it as part of my invested portfolio. Nonetheless, my decision to sell it was mostly financially driven.
Buy to let financials – the theory
The case for being a landlord, as I see it, has three key financial arguments in its favour:
Continue reading “Buy to let: RIP”
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