BUY TO LET for my own use every so often

Januszeczek

Hi,

Does anyone know if I can use my buy-to-let property for my own use (not permanent residence)? I am thinking about a BTL mortgage as an investment however I want to know if I can use the property as a "getaway place" if not rented.

Can't really find any regulations around it.

I will appreciate any advice here.

Thanks!

The Spider

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058279986/buy-to-let-for-my-own-use-every-so-often

Airbnb is the usual way to go for this scenario, but they’re trying to clamp down on it all over, can’t really see any other way to do it to be honest, similar to having a holiday home.

Mr Hindley

If you're saying that the main goal would be to have it rented long-term e.g. for tenancies of one year, but if there were gaps in the tenancies, that you might stay there for e.g. a few weeks, or even a month or two - I can't imagine there being anything wrong with this in terms of regulation or mortgage rules. It's still your property, you're not doing anyone any harm. It wouldn't be that different than, for example, spending a little time in the property between tenancies while you make improvements, which I've done.

Practical points to bear in mind would be that you'd probably need the property furnished, and to be let out as furnished, which in my experience as a landlord is OK as long as you expect that the contents will get lots of wear and tear and need regular replacing. Also, bear in mind that in Ireland, your tenants have a lot of rights and what you might expect to be a one-year tenancy could become a lot longer. So availability for your use could be hard to predict.

SwimClub

If you are looking for an investment and using it for your own use then it won't be a very good investment you'd be better off investing in something else.

Property prices in Ireland haven't beaten inflation over the last 20 years, they might stabilise and growth might be better in the future, in a scenario where the last crash was a one off. But you have around a third of the voters in the country who are not property owners and many of those want to crash the market so they can buy a cheap property and they are voting for a party with policies to do that. So we could well be back to the boom and bust model going forward in which case what you are talking about doing, if the last 20 years play out again, is investing in something with a return lower than long term inflation. You could also get tenants in and won't be able to ever get them out. You'd be better off putting your money on deposit at 3% at the moment - you could use the interest to rent yourself a getaway short term on airbnb or whatever.

You can only have one principal private residence, and they are clamping down on empty properties so you might have some issues down the line with using it yourself in response to your main question, regulations around renting change constantly and they are not flagged in advance or communicated clearly, in recent years they are dictated by whatever non-property owning voters want because the political parties are competing for their votes.

Januszeczek

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120118573#Comment_120118573

Thank you. Appreciate your answer!

Januszeczek

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120118648#Comment_120118648

Understand. Thank yo for taking the time to respond!

o1s1n

My buy to let mortgage stipulates that at no point can the property be used for my own residence, it needs to be 100% BTL.

How the bank would ever find out if I was living there is another thing, but it was really clearly noted in the mortgage contract.

Januszeczek

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120119184#Comment_120119184

@o1s1n may I ask you an additional question since you saw the contract?

What about short terms rent?

BTL property is located outside of Rent Pressure Zone (so I will not be obliged to rent for the long term).

I mentioned short-term let to the bank when I applied but since I did not see the contract yet I started to wonder (waiting for the bank to respond but nothing yet).

I will appreciate it if can let me know if you are aware.