Author Topic: Selling apartment to capitalise on increase in property prices  (Read 1298 times)

jezsh

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Selling apartment to capitalise on increase in property prices
« on: December 01, 2016, 04:11:30 AM »
I was very lucky and bought an apartment in a European capital city two years just as the market was picking up after a long slump. The apartment has since increased in value by 25%. I got it valued at 210k recently and the mortgage is 105k.

Recently I was clicking around one of the big property websites and noticed that similar apartments in the suburbs are priced at 125k and studio apartments are less, around 100k. The suburbs are about 30 minutes from the town centre by bike and there are metros/trains nearby. I'm finding myself really tempted to capitalise on the increase my property has seen and purchase one of these cheaper apartments further out of town, but I'm looking for some impartial advice on whether this is a smart decision.

These are the pros and cons of selling and moving further out as I see them.

Pros:

* No mortgage!
* Lower property taxes due to lower property value
* Possible to rent if I leave the country in future (not possible with my current mortgage)

Cons:

* Transfer fees and associated costs
* Possible difficulty in selling if the market tanks
* If I do decide to leave the country, what happens then?
* Slightly harder to socialise since people are weird about coming "so far out of town"

Do I have my rose-tinted glasses on or is this a good idea that I should explore further?

Thanks in advance for any advice!