We’re currently in the process of moving house, but an opportunity has come up to go to Switzerland for at least a year to work. Obviously 1st world problems and ones we’re lucky to have, but we’ve got to make a decision on what to do RE the house move:

1. Proceed with the move and then rent the new one out while we’re away. I suspect this house would be easier to rent as it doesn’t need any work – we’ve checked with the lender and there wouldn’t be any fees involved in this. Down side is it would be a bigger, longer mortgage to cover if there are any issues with tenants, and we’ll have to basically move twice (and incur the fees associated with moving).

2. Cancel the move and then rent our existing house. Realistically, it would need a new kitchen (or at least some tarting up), but it’s a relatively small mortgage with ~13 years left on it.

3. Cancel the purchase but proceed with the sale then invest the funds. Probably the ‘safest’ bet, but my guess is the return would be much lower and we lose the security of having a foot on the property ladder.

The job move is probably at least 3-6 months away as there are a lot of logistics to figure out (plus COVID), and we suspect that returning to the area we currently live in won’t be our 1st choice if/when we return. Buying isn’t an option as far as I can see in Switzerland, certainly not for the initial time scale of the move. WWSTWD?

I’d keep a house but reconsider renting it out.

We were in your situation a few years ago, had only just moved house and opted to rent it out. Renting turned out to be a nightmare and overall, the income wasn’t worth the aggro.

I suppose I’m saying, keep your current house as an inflation proof investment then sell it when (if) you get back and buy somewhere where you want to live. This makes sense if you’re not planning on returning to the same area.

You’ll probably have one eye on the ‘missed’ income. Yes it’s seductive but for us, not enough to outweigh the aggro.

If you’re not moving back to same area sell and invest in low risk. If moving back to area and love the new house / it’s a hard to find property in hard to find area buy and let new house, but be clear with Tennants the situation that it’s a medium term let as you will be back in a year or two. If you’re not in love with the new house and it’s a “average” house that would be easy to pick up sell and buy again when prices have dropped..

keep your current house as an inflation proof investment

That’s an interesting option that we hadn’t considered, we could probably carry the mortgage on the current house by using savings but it does leave us a bit exposed if we burn through those – it’s hard to get a good feel for how much of my salary will be left over when living abroad as my wife will probably be unable to work in the short term.

Generally rental yields decrease the higher value property, obviously variations due to local demand. I took a year off travelling and rented out my house, returned and moved. But the upgrade costs were manageable then.

If I had my time again I would have bought the best house I could afford each time. Each time I buy anything in the UK I can’t believe what I am paying, only to say a year later what a bargain that was.

As your rent will be taxed as marginal income it may not be worth the hassle, unless you have a non earning wife who can take a slug of the income. Watch agent fees too, eye watering now for landlords as all thenold tenant fees are charged to landlords.

If it’s only for a year (initially) then go with option 1. You may hate Switzerland or the job and come straight back. Or the job might fall through.

At least then if you move back you won’t dread moving back to an old house, thinking “if only we’d bought that new house”.

Not entirely similar, but I moved house 6 months before moving to USA. It was a nice house and when USA turned out not to be to our liking it gave us an easy place to come back to. We rented it out for the 12 months we were away.

Ok, we’re expats who left behind a UK property.

We rent it out. We have taken the lazy expat route of just paying a letting agency for their gold star service (bloody expensive) and suck it up. Luckily, the income comes under the individual threshold and so the income is tax free for us. Not sure that will be the same for Switzerland.

As to practicalities, we put everything in the loft (nothing too precious really), put a padlock on it, and being out of bounds is in the tenancy agreement. No bother really. We’ve let it furnished with our sofa, etc. That’s reflected in the price.

Only issue we’ve had is one tenant let the garden go to pot, the lawn was 2 feet high! Luckily, this hasn’t been repeated. We’ve offered to go halves on a gardener for future tenants but they turned as that down and have mowed it themselves (mower supplied).

With the big agency fees for the full remote service it’s not a great “investment” necessarily. We have done it out of laziness (it was already owned) and it’s a nice passive income even if it’s only returning 3.5% a year (before capital appreciation).

This lazy expat approach is the main one you’ll see done. Others are lucky enough to find someone they know to rent by offering slightly under market rate big still giving the same returns after agency fees, if that makes sense.

As to mortgages….ahem. The agency (a very reputable one) seemed to have a bit of amnesia chasing up the change to a buy to let mortgage… It was however insured properly and they also seemed to forget to ask… It’s since been rectified, but for 12 months or so it was winged. This is not good advice, of course! But, hey.

Thanks everyone, at the moment I probably lean towards option 1 as there’s a small possibility that the logistics (plus the difference in what they’d have to pay me) for the company won’t work out, and we’re then at least in what could be a ‘forever’ home (apart from the area). Plus we have somewhere nice to come back to if it all goes tits up. I’d definitely go with the laziest possible rental option and just hope to not lose too much money on it!

I manage mine myself, just use an agent for tenant find and I tell him what sort of tenant I want. I have workmen on WhatsApp so can get things fixed, secret is get people where you have some collateral, I use the same people the agent uses so if they mess up they know I will tell the agent, who gives them loads of work.

Full management is expensive and they like spending money. In 15 years now I think I have had only the odd week void between lets, over 2 properties.

As an alternative view sell up and fully invest yourselves in the Swiss experience. My father-in-law sold a property for Madame in our absence which had been mainly empty since she bought it. We could have brought back into the market cheaper any time in the following 6 years (sale in 89). The cash proved very useful.

Hi – live in CH for two blocks of 4 years – and then Germany for 1.5 years.
Unless you are sure you want to never come back – then keep the house / one house. From my experience of letting out – tenets have an ability to wreck most things, they don’t care. Theydetsroyed our wood floors, our kitchen sink and removed anything that wasn’t looked down. They managed to total 2 dryers and two fridge doors – and then block the sewerage by flushing j- cloths ( we wouldn’t pay for that, even though the letting agent said he thought we should)
Some learnings
If you keep the current place, you don’t need to redo the kitchen. Do it if/ when you move back.
You need a decent letting agent. In my experience, they make lone sharks look honest.
Depending on rentable value , you will have to declare to the tax man, but you can write of maintenance/ repairs etc.
In theory, you also have to declare income elsewhere to the Swiss authorities.
If you buy a new place – and haven’t lived in it for a period of time, I am not sure if you need buy to let mortgage / insurances etc?
Also, if you haven’t lived in it for a period of time- it may affect Capital Gain Tax. So speak to a tax accountant.

Re CH – will you be going native – or ex-pat?
Remember that everything in CH is mega expensive ( other than fags, fuel and vets!) – what would seem like a stinking salary in Britain doesn’t go that far when a small beer ( “stange”) cost 8 CHF, a pizza 25 CHF upwards and a bottle of wine 50 chf upwards.
If you are ex pat then medical costs / insurance will be covered – but also eye watering per month. Tax is low – whether canton tax or federal tax. Which is good thing – but if you are ex-pat you may end up on tax equalisation etc.

Rent is impressive – your re looking at 2,300 CHF for a two bed in the Zurich area. If you go to the traditional low tax cantons like Schwiez and Zug, you can double that … and it’s full of “hedgies”.

It is great place to live – fantastic outdoor life – if you cycle. motorcycle or like winter sports it is Nirvana.
Oddly, I got paid in GBP when I was there ( bur with a COL adjustment) – but it still meant a day ticket at Flims Laax cost 65 GBP ….

Rented mine, no hassles, got it back in great condition with couple of jars of jam in fridge as tenants had made plumb jam off the tree. For every crap renter there’s also crap landlords. Luck of the draw.

Totally agree with that, we’ve rented a house to a Polish couple for the last few years and it looks exactly as it did when I’d finished renovating it except with their belongings in it. I realise we’ve been lucky but there are loads of good people out there.

Also been in the same position. The tenancy is such a gamble, yes lots of good people out there, but also a small number of inconsiderate people who could make a significant impact in your savings. For me it’s just not worth it.
I’m now in the opposite position where I have an overseas property, we rented it out for the first year but it was a mess, made a small amount of money but was such a hassle. I’d rather live stress free than take the gamble.

Yeah, luck of the draw. I got a crap Agent and crap tenants… Lucky me 🙄

Brilliant advice, I have 2 rented properties, both owned 10+ years. Same town, opposite sides of road in fact. Anyway, 1 has had the same tenant 10 years, loves it, does all routine maintenance himself, never says a thing just pays the rent. Brilliant tenant, gets a bit off and considers it a priveledge to be there.

Property 2, nightmare, agent just puts anyone in, he doesn’t get paid if it’s empty, 1 year renters don’t give a stuff about neighbours, maintenance, ultra pinickity moving in, don’t lift a finger for a year, complain like hell about deposit deductions.

So 1 is a keeper, 2 just stresses me out. I reckon I net double out of 1 than 2. Bad tenants just break everything and expect hotel like standards of service.

Renting out for just a year sounds like madness. How much will you get in rent, against possible costs, and possible increase or decrease in value.
If you have a buyer for your house, I’d definitely continue with sale.
If you love the house you’re planning to buy, and are pretty sure you’ll end up living there, then go ahead.
Personally I’d rather have cash in the bank to be flexible. Living in Switzerland may well open your eyes to lots of others options over the next 12 months.
We had a similar choice 2 years ago, and don’t regret selling and doing nothing with the cash either.

Thanks all, it looks like it’s basically a coin toss! We’re supposed to be moving ‘any day now’, but then we’ve been in that situation for about 3 months now… I think if we can move before end of July it is probably worthwhile given that (after a chat with the boss today) the Swiss move isn’t on the cards til 2021 and there’s still a chance in my mind that it’ll all fall apart.

RE living in Switzerland and costs, I’ve been there quite a lot for work and I’ve basically assumed a 100% increase in living costs and rent of CHF 5-6k per month when estimating the salary I’ll need – hopefully it will be enough! Personally I wouldn’t plan on coming back as I’ve lived abroad before and I know I’ll love it (hobbies are MTB, snowboarding and walking, so it’ll probably be nirvana!), but my wife has never done it and might not be able to find work easily so there is potential for her to find it difficult. Plus parents on both sides are getting older and we may need to come back to the UK at some point to deal with the issues that come with that.