Hi All,
I've been procrastinating for far too long about buy-to-let, but I've finally decided I need to do something positive with my money rather than have it lingering around on deposit.
do you folks think buy-to-let still a good investment, or are we now at the stage of falling house prices and good stock market returns?
Andy
I think we are pretty near the top of the housing market. It is difficult to say exactly when it will crash, but it will.
It is difficult to say what exactly will happen with the stock market. The worst seems to be over for now, but there is no law that says it has to get back to April 2000 levels anytime soon. Future higher interest rates are not going to help for two reasons, firstly it will make the return on shares less attractive compared to a building society account, and secondly because it will reduce the profits of the companies the money is invested in.
All of my money is in the building society at the moment, but part of the reason for that is that I am not in a position to take a long term view at the moment.
I am and IMHO there isn't a reliable long term option available
tim
There are so many different buy-to-let opportunities that it is impossible to generalise. While it may be reasonable to say, for example, that one equity should be bought and another sold, every buy-to-let opportunity is unique. Those who are successful are either lucky or can separate the good buy from the bad buy.
It is a fine line between procrastinating and being discerning. If you invest in equities now, you can always get at your money within a couple of weeks should a good buy-to-let opportunity come along next month.
"Jonathan Bryce" wrote
Crystal ball prediction?? Short-term, medium-term ... or ultra-long-term?
"Jonathan Bryce" wrote
Another crystal ball prediction?? Short-term, medium-term ... or ultra-long-term?
"Jonathan Bryce" wrote
Just for London, or for UK as a whole?
thanks for the responses guys
I want to beleive there's a good option somewhere for someone willing to take a bit of risk in the short term, but I don't think it's stocks or property at the moment.
Well, that's kind of the point, the reason the stockmarket is likely to do better than cash deposits is precisely because it isn't reliable. I see a lot of comments about how the market has been volatile lately, as though it was ever any other way. All the people who talk about "the 90s boom" as though there was uninterrupted growth in share prices seem to have forgotten that we had a recession in 1990-92, a mini-crash in 1994, a pretty directionless market in 95 even though the economy was doing well, and major world-wide crises in 1997 and 98 - does anyone remember all the predictions about the meltdown of the global financial system in the Autumn of 98?
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