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Decent cheap areas to buy property as fail safe before living on a boat


thomask130

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Hi guys

For a good while I wanted to move on a narrowboat and live on one. I have reading the forums trying to gain knowledge and better prepared myself.

While I have the money and could get on a boat straight away, I’m also trying to look more towards the future as well that keeping some form of property is still a good idea knowing that I always have a place to go back to. I have just turned 31.

So I'm looking at buying a house for a decently cheap price I have been looking around and have found places that look nice and the reason they are cheap is because there isn’t much opportunity for jobs in that location, however I'm working towards being able to work for myself that doesn't required me to be fixed anywhere and is something I'm trying to establish before even thinking about moving on a boat as I want to be continuous cruiser without worrying about needing to be a in fixed location.

However I was just wondering if anyone had any advice on a decent area to buy that don't cost the earth but don't necessary want to be living in a chavy place where there is a high crime rate etc.






 

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7 minutes ago, Fender151 said:

Do you have an area of the country you are prepared to invest/ live in? 

I don't mind at the moment I very open to ideas.

3 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

"Decent cheap areas"

I think you know in your heart this is an oxymoron. Anywhere cheap is by definition, not 'decent'.


Maybe using the word cheap was incorrect what I mean is that I'm not concern about work being near by or schools where prices usually have inflated more because of demand.

Edited by thomask130
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51 minutes ago, kawaton said:

Auction guide price, so indicative of nothing.

I just picked Whitehaven, between £70,000 and £100,000. I've spent time there on a yacht in the harbour, walked the town at night, and always felt fine. I dont know the areas, but it cant be all bad. The flat on the harbour front will be a fine location, and probably always in demand.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/map.html?locationIdentifier=REGION^1444&maxPrice=100000&minPrice=70000&numberOfPropertiesPerPage=499&includeSSTC=true&viewType=MAP&viewport=-3.6195%2C-3.56457%2C54.5412%2C54.5546

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Plenty of 2 or 3 bedroom terraced in Lincoln at around £100k

Ideal for rental as a growing University town.

When we sold our business I asked my accountant for suggestions for investments, and whilst he pointed out he was not a financial advisor, he personally had had the best returns from 

1) Student rental property in Lincoln.

2) Premium bonds.

 

The benefit of as rental property is that it gives you an income, still keeps you on the 'ladder' and is always there if you need to get your feet back on dry land and, gives you breathing space / capital to find something better if you need to.

Edited by Alan de Enfield
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11 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Plenty of 2 or 3 bedroom terraced in Lincoln at around £100k

Ideal for rental as a growing University town.

When we sold our business I asked my accountant for suggestions for investments, and whilst he pointed out he was not a financial advisor, he personally had had the best returns from 

1) Student rental property in Lincoln.

2) Premium bonds.

 

The benefit of as rental property is that it gives you an income, still keeps you on the 'ladder' and is always there if you need to get your feet back on dry land and, gives you breathing space / capital to find something better if you need to.

Thank your reply I look into it, appreciate your time.

As I said at the beginning as much I want to get on the canals I'm trying to think long term, in the back on my mind I kept thinking about in 10/20 years time I could be priced out if I wanted to get out of living on the canals.

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23 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Plenty of 2 or 3 bedroom terraced in Lincoln at around £100k

Ideal for rental as a growing University town.

When we sold our business I asked my accountant for suggestions for investments, and whilst he pointed out he was not a financial advisor, he personally had had the best returns from 

1) Student rental property in Lincoln.

2) Premium bonds.

 

The benefit of as rental property is that it gives you an income, still keeps you on the 'ladder' and is always there if you need to get your feet back on dry land and, gives you breathing space / capital to find something better if you need to.

 Be careful buying in Lincoln right now if you’re aiming at students. There are a large number of brand new student developments opened recently or soon to open. It’s harder than previous to fill a traditional terrace with students. If you buy a 3 bed it needs to have planning permission if it’s not previously been an HMO. 

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13 minutes ago, Richard10002 said:

Beware of student rentals, particularly if you arent nearby... you could end up refurbishing on a regular basis. Returns may be good, but expenditure could be relatively high.

 

7 minutes ago, MHS said:

 Be careful buying in Lincoln right now if you’re aiming at students. There are a large number of brand new student developments opened recently or soon to open. It’s harder than previous to fill a traditional terrace with students. If you buy a 3 bed it needs to have planning permission if it’s not previously been an HMO. 

To be honest I'm not really thinking about renting any place I would have.

I know some people might argue it's good way to make money on the side but I would always knowing it was there to use it when I need to

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8 minutes ago, thomask130 said:

To be honest I'm not really thinking about renting any place I would have.

If your house is not occupied for 30 / 45 / 60 days (depending on insurance company) you will find that your insurance is invalidated.

If you are a liveaboard boater you may have problems complying.

Presumably you would require insurance and would not plan on leaving the house unoccupied for the next 10-20 years

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2 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

If your house is not occupied for 30 / 45 / 60 days (depending on insurance company) you will find that your insurance is invalidated.

If you are a liveaboard boater you may have problems complying.

Presumably you would require insurance and would not plan on leaving the house unoccupied for the next 10-20 years

oh right if i'm being honest didn't know that

Maybe the better option would be to leave a decent amount in a bank, then if I ever need to buy I can, just making sure over time I keeping adding the savings to account for inflation house prices.

I always move back in my parents etc for a short term if I ever needed to.

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You pay council tax on empty properties and they are open to being snatched by the local council if empty for long periods. Then there are squatters to consider though now it is illegal it is easier to get shut of them.

Empty properties deteriorate.

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Leaving a house empty or renting it out would both worry the life out of me. 

The money in Premium Bonds with automatic reinvestment of winnings will safely protect and grow your money and on an amount that large, you will get regular £25 wins and sometimes more.

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40 minutes ago, canalboat said:

Leaving a house empty or renting it out would both worry the life out of me. 

The money in Premium Bonds with automatic reinvestment of winnings will safely protect and grow your money and on an amount that large, you will get regular £25 wins and sometimes more.

Hmmm.

Unless you get really really lucky, and hit the jackpot, premium bonds are pretty much guaranteed to not even keep pace with general inflation (CPI) let alone house price inflation. Then again, so is everything else unless you are prepared to take risks.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/premium-bonds

 

 

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9 hours ago, canalboat said:

The money in Premium Bonds with automatic reinvestment of winnings will safely protect and grow your money and on an amount that large, you will get regular £25 wins and sometimes more.

Woohoo! That much eh! 

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9 hours ago, canalboat said:

Leaving a house empty or renting it out would both worry the life out of me. 

The money in Premium Bonds with automatic reinvestment of winnings will safely protect and grow your money and on an amount that large, you will get regular £25 wins and sometimes more.

 

This assumes something the OP has not mentioned, that he already has the cash in the bank to buy a house. 

Chances are, and I'm guessing here, he is thinking of buying a house using a mortgage. This way he gets (say) £100k of exposure to the property market for his (say) £10k cash deposit, a concept known as gearing.

If he buys premium bonds he only gets to spend his £10k cash on them, as you can't easily borrow large sums of money to buy premium bonds like you can a house.

The premium bond income from his £10k won't achieve the goal in his OP, keeping pace with the property market.

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12 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

"Decent cheap areas"

I think you know in your heart this is an oxymoron. Anywhere cheap is by definition, not 'decent'.

Eh? That makes about as much sense as saying "anywhere expensive is by definition, 'decent'". London and the South East aren't more expensive areas to live than Liverpool and the North West (say) because they're more 'decent' places to live. Every area, including the 'cheap' ones, has its pleasant and its not-so-pleasant neighbourhoods.

We've taken a similar attitude to the OP in that we didn't want to start a life afloat without also owning a bricks-and-mortar property. £66,000 bought us a perfectly decent two-bed, ex-council flat in a perfectly decent area of our perfectly decent home town of Shipley in West Yorkshire last year. For £100,000 we could have bought something positively 'posh' a mile or two away in Saltaire or Baildon. There are loads of similarly decent areas with similar prices in the North, Wales, along the coast etc.

Edited by magictime
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2 hours ago, rusty69 said:

Woohoo! That much eh! 

That's unduly dismissive. Given the choice between having £25 and not having £25, which would you go for?

That said, I have a few thousand invested in Ernie Bonds and over the last five years they have yielded only about 2% on average. But, that's better than most savings accounts currently offered by banks and BS.

Edited by Athy
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1 hour ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

This assumes something the OP has not mentioned, that he already has the cash in the bank to buy a house. 

Chances are, and I'm guessing here, he is thinking of buying a house using a mortgage. This way he gets (say) £100k of exposure to the property market for his (say) £10k cash deposit, a concept known as gearing.

If he buys premium bonds he only gets to spend his £10k cash on them, as you can't easily borrow large sums of money to buy premium bonds like you can a house.

The premium bond income from his £10k won't achieve the goal in his OP, keeping pace with the property market.

Hi

I'm aiming to keep about 30,000 to 40,000 aside away from the boat so that I feel I make at least a good deposit and can kept my options open.

 

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