Buying somewhere to retire to...

[Shirt587]

I could do with a bit of independent thought.

We recently cleared the mortgage which means we should shortly that amount of cash available every month to invest (~£1500). Both of us have work pensions that we're contributing to in order to get the maximum match, there's some ISAs kicking around, and a small handful of shares. The gap in a 'diversified portfolio' appears to be property.

We like the idea of retiring in about 15-20 years time to somewhere South-Westish, with a sea view. Is it completely nuts to look at buying something that fits that bill as a buy-to-let with a view to essentially swapping houses in a decade or so's time? We'd be able to throw whatever the rent is after tax at the mortgage as well as the existing £1500pm, so looking at effectively swapping one mortgage-free house for another in about 2038 (assuming 5%ish interest rates), and then able to rent out current house as a form of income. Call it ten years of that, sell current house, go nuts with the proceeds?

Anyone got an opinion on this? I've got no real interest in building a heavily mortgaged collection of flats/cheap property given the current tax environment and general noise around buy to let...

[Shirt587]

Tit For Tat said:

Bear in mind that you will get caned on Stamp Duty buying a second property, plus a potential hefty CGT bill on selling . Currently your pensions would give you a much more tax efficient investment, although going forward the HRT relief may be lost. If you are able to choose your funds within the company schemes, you many also be able to invest in commercial property this way.

Yes we'd be down for Stamp Duty; not too fussed by that.
CGT - no. We'd sell existing house where we live and move into this one, so there's no CGT unless Principal Private Residence relief has been removed without telling anyone?

Thanks all for the thoughts, might start looking at some sort of index tracker to drop spare cash in instead...