Buy to let

This is certainly not the easy money spinner that it was, but if house prices continue to rise in can be a successful  investment. 

The golden rule -  as in  most aspects of property – is location.  A vacant  property or lengthy voids between  tenants  makes a nonsense of any business plan.

See  the guides to ‘buy to let’ issued by CML ( the Council of Mortgage Lenders)  http://www.cml.org.uk/cml/consumers/guides/buytolet 

See also the National Landlords Association website  www.landlords.org.uk  and  the website for the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA)  www.arla.co.uk 

Buy to Let  in France

In order to encourage investment in holiday rental properties the French have a scheme to rebate VAT on buying new property provided that the property is leased back to a management company for at least a 9 year period.    At the end of 9 years you are free to sell the property without incurring a reclaim on the VAT rebate.     See  http://news.assetz.co.uk/articles/3329.html

For examples of French properties available for leaseback see    http://www.vivantlereve.com/