We're trying to decide whether to sell our flat, and having a really difficult time with the decision.
We kept the property when we moved house a couple of years ago. We really didn't want to hold on to it, but there was very little appetite in the market in our area at that point and we were desperate to buy our now house. We stretched ourselves quite thin in order to get it done, but we held on to the flat whilst drawing out some equity.
The problem we have is that the mortgage products offered to us now that our BTL 2 year fix has ended are rubbish - interest only, and a slight increase on the previous mortgage. Plus the mortgage debt is quite high, therefore meaning there's not a a huge amount of relative value in cashing in at this point.
This means we're not paying off any of the mortgage debt, so it's much less of an asset than it would be on a capital repayment mortgage. The other complication is that we receive our second home stamp duty rebate if we sell the flat by next April. And it's not an insignificant amount of money. Finally we're renting it out to some friends at the moment, and we'd need to kick them out if we sell. That's less of a concern, but still a tricky subject to be broached.