buy to let or holiday let?

Good luck finding anything for sale. Stuff that is for sale is insane money.
Then tenants will want a raft of work doing before they take the lease.
Rents have sky rocketed in the last year but so have the expectations of the tennants.

I have been watching a large 20k sq ft unit being prepped for a new client out my window all week. So far they must have spent £50k on it. I reckon another 50-75k to go.

Its been sat empty for the last 2 years after the last tenant was in there for 18 months. I suspect its 8-10k a month rent. So the owner is probably eating the first 3 years rent in getting it ready plus the voids.

Again there are always exceptions but in the whole I dont think its anywhere as good as it was.

Only if you have cash, almost impossible to mortgage that mix.

Very little, most of the capital growth was before we rented it out. Bought for 250k 11 years ago and a similar one sold for 325k recently, after CGT it still doesn't make it a good investment.

ETA: The agents have even said that because of covid it's less desirable (it's a small flat in a London suburb, whereas people are looking to move out of London into bigger properties). So I'm not sure how much more capital growth we can expect.

Stop telling everyone FFS. I'm trying to put the bggugers off.

Open this link:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/local-housing-al...

Scroll down to the "Glasgow" bit.

Take one of the ratings. eg 1 bed, £113.92. Multiply by 52. Divide by 12. Ok, it's not £500, it's £493.65p. That's what private tenants have to compete with here. Sets the private market rate if you like.

Oh and in the bonkers world of HB and LHA they pay the 1 x bed rate for a studio.

The "problem" is the massive demand over the last couple of years means you'd be lucky to get anything on the mainstream market (including auctions and faux auctions) for anything close to the best prices the local BMV players can get them for.

Other half works for a group of private board schools, looking after their facilities.

it's like the universe is trying to tell me something!!

it's not impossible for a fhl to turn into a full time job

That seems at odds with nationwide Rightmove Halifax in price increases.

Our buy to let, an ex council house in a nice part of Crosby L23, seems very popular with couples who have young kids.
So far in 7 years, we had,
Couple one, who had 2 kids, baby and reception age child. Only the baby is his, and they had lived together fire 2 years. After 18 months she kicks him out but despite working full time, the rent (actually cheap for the area is too much for her alone, and eventually after 9 months she moves to L22 to save £250 A month. He's a self enjoyed bobbing builder. She is a PA to a solicitor.
Couple 2.
Been living in a one bed flat together. He has a child who lives with an ex partner, and needs a room.for the weekend. After 2 years, she chucks him out and goes to live with her parents temporarily. She is a social worker, he works doing groundwork and pavements for the council.
Couple 3.
She's got a 3 year old child, and no longer wants to lived with parents, has a full time job in marketing. He has been single, and they've been going out together for a year, but never lived together. He's just joined the police. 2 years later she chucks him out. She intends to stay, telling me, that she was paying the rent and the bills anyway.

My take on it, is that the women, are making sure the rent is paid and the bills are paid, and the blokes are playing X box into the early hours of the morning.

When she actually leaves. (I give it 6 months), I'll freshen up the kitchen with new doors and worktop (it's a good layout for a small kitchen, but would require removal of a massive chimney breast to make bigger.) Replace some laminate flooring, and decorate.
Not sure how to tempt more stable married couples. Last time the viewings were almost all couples who had been together a short time. Maybe price needs to be higher.
Had no.problems getting 15 people wanting to view within a week of it going on rightmove and 1/3 of those apply. Our choice then, has been to look at our perception of job security. Social worker or Policeman being better than agency night shift worker at JLR

Agree with the BTL strategy. Just let a place this week to a lovely couple who have been with previous LL (selling up to retire) for over a decade and want to send their kids to a school near us that has a good reputation. Youngest is pre-school. Easy 15 year+ tenancy if they fulfil their side of the bargain. Mainly solid floors, boiler only a couple of years old, getting fully redecorated before they move in so unlikely to be much more to do.

Another looks like it will go to a couple who want to move their business to an adjacent site (that we also own). They’re not going to want to move either home or business in the future, so easy to see them being there 20 years.

Yet people look at you like you’re crazy when you say you don’t want highly mobile “young professionals” who are going to either up sticks and leave after a year because they are going to buy a place themselves or simply fancy a change. Was offered a small block of apartments a couple of weeks ago that would be perfect for such a market. Lot of appeal to owning a whole block, but not when you know that those units will suck up much more time and, even with the easier/more regular rent review that a change of tenant gives you, deliver lower yield than the rest because of the transient nature of the tenant they’ll attract.

However… we have the opportunity to take on some FHLs in a way that would give a higher income than the same £ invested in BTL to such an extent that we could hire people directly to help look after both the BTL and FHL portfolios and still be quids in. It is very tempting.