London life – Page 3 – FIRE v London

Buy to let: RIP

2025-02-242025-02-28 FIRE v London17 Comments

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:

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Sep ’24: Ominous politics, juicy economics

2024-10-13 FIRE v London1 Comment

September was fairly action-packed.

I enjoyed getting out on a friend’s boat around Poole and the Solent.

I made it to the Labour party conference in Liverpool, which was fascinating albeit wet. I am apparently firmly in the tax-raising sights of the Government, but I wasn’t the only potential target at the conference.

I enjoyed some work drinks with an elevated view of the Thames.

I was also invited to a formal dinner at an Oxford college, Harry Potter style.

And I took an out of town visitor around some of the sights in London town.

Markets in September 2024

I didn’t pay enormous attention to the markets in September. The pound continued to rise. Equities generally were quite strong, though the wider mood in the UK is gloomy – with the new Labour government taking a ‘freebies’ hammering in the media, and business fearing the worst from the new government’s budget due on 30 October. Inflation news was mostly for the better, which helped bonds.

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August ’24: From triumph to tragedy

2024-09-07 FIRE v London1 Comment

Looking back on the month, it was more eventful than Augusts are reputed to be.

In the UK we are getting used to our new government. And, in some cases, violently testing its boundaries with some summer rioting. We’ve seen some dreadful street behaviour, frequently of a racist / anti-Muslim nature. Thankfully it hasn’t really impacted London, where racism is mercifully rare. The street protests closest to me were jubilant Bangladeshi crowds celebrating the overthrow of Prime Minister Hasina.

Across the channel, the Olympics provided some sporting entertainment. I didn’t make it over there, though, and only watched a couple of events. It was good to see Team GB do creditably well, though beaten on several measures by the Australians and even the Netherland for Pete’s sake. On any sort measure, Europe (inc Team GB, naturellement) thrashed everybody else, though that isn’t how even the FT reported it, and India did typically dreadfully.

Towards the end of the month came the truly horrific tragedy of the sinking of British entrepreneur Mike Lynch’s yacht Bayesian. I don’t think there are any wider lessons for me in this tragedy but somehow it felt very relatable. And to pile mindblowing co-incidence on horrific tragedy, his former business partner (and co defendant in US Federal Court) died earlier that week when hit by a car. If there was a conspiracy at work, it was a particularly devious one, but it is a terrible end to an extraordinary story.

Markets in August 2024

The markets have been nervy and volatile in August. VWRL, Vanguard’s global equity index tracker, was at £102/share on 30 July. During August it dipped to £98, and rose to £104, before finishing on £103. So the signal of the monthly numbers strips out a lot of noise.

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