Am I mad to consider Buy to let

[andye30m3]

I'm after a bit of advise with regards to possibly buying a flat to let out as a long term (30-40 year investment) in order to provide an income once I retire, which is a while away as I'm 30.

I currently own my property out right and have approximately 25% of the value of a flat I'm looking at on Friday.

If I remortgaged my property for the remaining 75% of the flat (in order to get better interest rates) I should be able to rent it out for enough per month to cover the ground rent, maintenance and a 15 year mortgage. Obviously there will be tax to pay on the profit but I was looking at coving this on top in leu of paying into a pension scheme. I think a friend said he was paying in £300 a month with an estimated payout of £17k a year when retired.

Once this is paid of I would look for another with the intension of paying of quickly but with two rental incomes. Over all aim would be to own 3-4 flats the time I come to retire and live off the rent.

I'm not sure I like what I hear about the way pension schemes are performing.

Am I being completely insane in looking at this as an option?

[andye30m3]

touching cloth said:

If you can buy at the right price and it's long term anyway, then why not. However don't whatever you do remortgage you own house instead of the BTL as you won't be able to offset the interest element against the rent - interest element on the mortgage of the let flat will reduce massively your income tax on that rent.

Are you 100% sure about that?

I read somewhere (I think on here) that you could, might be worth me speaking to the tax man first.