Owning your own home

I am at a point of indecission regarding my mortgage.
My mortgage broker is trying to get me to to only use half the cash from my flat sale as deposit on my new house, and use the other half as a deposit on a buy to let property.

I quite liked the idea of having a small sub £100k mortgage on my new place, but also know that it will not go up in value anywhere near as quickly as a 2 bed flat in the city centre. So it would seem to make financial sense in the long run to split my equity over two properties.

Who currently has a buy-to-let? Are they worth the hassle?

If I did do a BTL, I probably wouldnt buy it til next year, as it seems a silly time to buy as an investment at the moment.

I'm confused, and need to make a decision by monday as I need to get my mortgage application rolling for the place I've just had an offer accepted on.

I have a BTL. I've had it for eons and should finish the mortgage payments if not this year then next. Mine has been fine and reasonable hassle free, other than when the agent ripped me off for half a years money. I took care of matters with a pick axe through the agents' new SL55. I gather he owed a lot of people money.

I think we have now entered the realm of home ownership. in london, no less.

in a way I am still ambivalent about owning vs renting. we have been very happy renting here - it's affordable and someone else has to deal with unexpected things like a major roof repair. we have been very lucky with our landlord, he could easily make another £300pcm. we have not worried about if/when he will give us the boot in order to sell (he is selling now, and as soon as possible, but simply waited for us to leave).
on the other hand paying rent doesn't invest (not to make money as such, but for future need) - if we were smart about it we could've saved that extra £300pcm (that we will be paying in mortgage repayments compared with rent) and be investing that elsewhere, but we aren't that savvy and property is a good place to put it, anyway.
and, on the other hand, however relaxed our landlord has been, now we get to actually do whatever the hell we like to the place. pictures everywhere! put shelves up! crazy paint colours! an actual real-life garden! I can hardly remember what it's like to be in control of that kind of thing.
I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. might need breakfastlunch before i go pick up the keys.

As a landlord who made a long-term investment, I never went with the prices that the agents suggested. My aim was to keep rent low enough to cover the mortgage plus a little more for unexpected occurrences. Keeping the rent low, but covering the mortgage meant that it was below the threshold where I'd have to pay any tax on what I was "earning". I was already paying a metric fuck tonne to the various clowns who've occupied No. 11 and I didn't need to supplement my income. Annually I've managed to pay £1 less than the yearly maximum, reducing the mortgage term by just under a decade.

Bobby - do you have a decent pension?
Probably not. So you should probably prepare for death by investing somewhere right?

You can still be a decent landlord.

Let's be clear on this - retirement is not death. I've made various "adverse investments" over the years which should see me have a decent retirement. I'll always invest because I like doing it - even when I retire.

Your BTL should have enough slack in it to cover you for at last one months no occupancy a year. It can also be tricky to manage a BTL from such a distance. You could buy a 2nd Bristol home and bump the mortgage payments up to the same level as the net income making it very tax efficient. This would reduce your mortgage period and maximise capital growth. When you need to sell it you can deal with capital gains tax and possibly move in to it to avoid it altogether.

This.

I'd buy two properties if I were you.

Only if it makes financial sense. Don't do it because you think you're the next Donald Trump. This mentality put so many people in a hole.