I must sell or gamble I can weather the storm
HANNAH Pike fears she may have to sell her two buy-to-let properties next year if interest rates continue to soar.
The 42-year-old mother-of-two is due to remortgage a £462,000 three-bedroom semi-detached property in Wokingham, Berkshire, and a £380,000 two-bedroom terraced home in the Oxfordshire town of Thame in the next couple of years.
Hannah, a part-time personal assistant from Wokingham, says: ‘Something has to give and the mortgage market turmoil is causing me sleepless nights. I must either cut and run – or gamble that I can weather the storm. But the latter means a hike in rent for tenants.’
She adds: ‘I want to keep the properties so that one day they might be passed on to my children. But if I do this, it will mean raising the rent on the Wokingham property from £1,500 to perhaps £2,000 a month – and for the one in Thame from £1,100 to £1,350.
‘It is not about making money out of my tenants, but keeping my head above water and not falling into debt.’