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Where Taxpayers and Advisers Meet

Buying student house for daughter

mkmum
Posts:5
Joined:Tue Feb 12, 2013 1:44 am
Buying student house for daughter

Postby mkmum » Sat Apr 08, 2017 9:54 pm

Daughter is going to university this year and will stay in halls for the first year. We want to buy a property for her to live in from July 2018. We have been advised that we need to buy now because most property is already let for the 17/18 year an if we don't buy before November it is likely anything suitable would be let for 18/19 so she wouldn't be able to live in it.

We have seen a property that is currently 3-bed an is already let from July 2017-July2018, When those students move out we may extend it to a 5-bed property. The price will be £260K now and £100K for the extension.


She is a first time buyer and it will be cash purchase as we will be raising some of the cash to buy it from our main residence.

So we can either buy it in her name and sshe can let to friends or we could own it and let to her and she could sublet to friends (in either case the friends would be letting through a letting agent who will manage the property) - what are the pro's and con's? We were thinkign that as she won't be working if she got the income she would get tax relief and we wouldn't need to give her money to live on, whereas we are both 40% tax payers.

She can't live in the house until July 2018 as the current owner has already signed a rental contract until then. Does this mean that she would need to pay the 3% additional stamp duty even though she is buying it to be her primary residence as soon as she can move into it. Will she be entitled to any CGT relief if she stays in it for 2 years? and does that depend on whether the house is 3 or 5 bed - ie. is it pro-rata'd)

If once she finished university if she moves can she sell/give it back to us if we want to keep it as an investment property - in which case what happens to CGT?

We are trying to work out if its better for her to own it, or us?

Any thoughts?

someone
Posts:692
Joined:Mon Feb 13, 2017 10:09 am

Re: Buying student house for daughter

Postby someone » Sun Apr 09, 2017 8:32 am

The legislation says that you have to be purchasing with the intention of it becoming your main home.

I have no idea whether buying a property with a sitting tenant could count (this is a legal question) if your intention is to evict them at the earliest possible time and live in the property. I think the presumption would be that it was an investment purchase. One possibility would be to have a very long time between exchange and completion. The current owner then gets the deposit and rental income and your daughter only gets the house and pays the balance once she can have it with vacant possession.

If you give her the money now then the clock will start ticking for IHT purposes straight away. But she needs to remember that she's legally required to pay the balance when it's due and will lose her deposit (at least, possibly more if house prices fall between now and then) if she spends the money on something else.

someone
Posts:692
Joined:Mon Feb 13, 2017 10:09 am

Re: Buying student house for daughter

Postby someone » Sun Apr 09, 2017 8:35 am

Hmm, no, I'm wrong.

As long as it's your daughters only property, it doesn't matter whether it's an investment property or home. She still won't have to pay the extra SDLT.


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