We get asked this question quite a lot and we offer our investors two options.

Before we outline these options, it must be said that after 7 years of being involved in this sector, we would generally say that you would not require management.

We are certainly not helping ourselves here by potentially losing revenue, but in general terms and for what we’ve seen, there is not in general, a need to get this type of investment managed. However, for every 4 properties where nothing ever goes wrong, there’s always 1 case where attention is required. That is just the nature of the way things work and we usually see things requiring attention at the most inconvenient of times i.e. when it snows, during Christmas, during bank holidays and so on. So, with these two considerations in mind, we offer two options.

‍Managed – if you live far away from your proposed investment, then yes, we would recommend that you get us to manage the property. The choice is wholly and completely yours, but if you are unable to get to the property or to manage local tradesmen, then you need something to take care of this when things go wrong.

‍Unmanaged – we would say that if you live within 30 kilometers and have experience in managing your own portfolio of properties, then there really isn’t a need to use us as your property managers.

It would be your property with full title, registered at the Land Registry, so yes, feel free to keep hold of it or sell it on. The question is still valid however – since the lease is for a predetermined amount of time, the next buyer of the property would be encumbered with the remaining years on the lease, so it is obvious that should you wish to sell on during this time, the only buyer that you could sell it to would be an investor.

Please note, that the rents would be indexlinked and you would see an increase in rent over the lease period in line with inflation, so you could technically sell it on for the same yield that you bought it at (but at a higher price), but again, this is speculation. Once the 3, 5 or 7 years are up, then yes, your options to sell it on would be opened up to both homeowners and investors.

You have multiple exit strategies with social housing and can sell at any time. A two month break clause is in place if the owner wishes to exit the agreement with the housing provider. It’s your asset - you can do as you please.

We advise that you can absolutely mortgage your investment into social housing, although we do find lenders have more stringent criteria in comparison to standard buy-to-let mortgages. In any case we will be happy to provide you with our recommended mortgage partners who will be able to assist you at any point.