Money blog: Two key deadlines for parents today – missing them could cost you thousands | Money News

By Brad Young, Money feature writer

It’s little surprise that the average landlord is aged 59.

Many people under 30 are struggling to put down one deposit, let alone two.

But 64,000 landlords haven’t yet hit their 31st birthday, according to accountants UHY Hacker Young. 

Some 3,000 aren’t even 21.

We’ve spoken to three Gen Z investors trying to play their hand in a middle-aged investor’s game.

Live-at-home landlords

Dylan Renshaw, 26, from Derbyshire, is building his property empire from a room in his parents’ house.

He put down his first deposit, worth £27,500, on a two-bed property in Nottinghamshire at the age of 20, having saved since he was 16.

At the time of purchase, he was earning £30,000 as an assistant contract manager for a construction firm, while paying £250 in rent to his mum and dad.

“I’m not going to hide that,” says Renshaw, who comes from a family of landlords.

“I was living with family. There are a lot of people that struggle to save because they’re renting.”

Renshaw says he started working as an apprentice at 16, saving in premium bonds and a Help-to-Buy ISA, a government scheme offering up to £3,000 to people saving for their first home.

The bonus cannot be spent on buy-to-let mortgages, but a residential property can be rented out after a change in circumstances, which Renshaw says applied to him when his job was relocated six months after he bought the property.

Renshaw has since put down another £27,000 deposit on a three-bed in Derbyshire, making his monthly mortgage payments £950 across both homes, while charging his tenants £1,590 in total.

“It’s quite daunting and it’s quite worrying to have that fiscal responsibility and if it goes wrong, you need to have a contingency in place,” he says.

Asked how he owned multiple properties while some of his friends are still saving for their first, he says: “People have had different circumstances, different upbringings, different priorities.”

He points to friends who moved out of their parents’ home to rent with partners, or acquaintances who have struggled to get a mortgage due to outstanding car finance

“I don’t feel I’ve made any major sacrifices. I just feel I put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into sourcing the right properties, making the right budgets.”

Renshaw’s “ultimate goal” is to earn enough to spend most of his time at a family home in Cyprus.

“It’s a lot more relaxed and there’s a lot less stress,” he says.

“There’s a lot less tax.”

Too much red tape?

For Liam West, from Evesham, taking on his first tenant at the age of 20 was a daunting prospect.

“Absolutely. I’m a big worrier,” says West, now 26, who rents out a one-bed flat in the Worcestershire town valued at £130,000.

“It was a whole learning curve as well, and you constantly have the doubt of: is this right? Am I ready to do this? Is it financially going to work? It was a big risk.”

West’s great aunt died when he was 14, leaving him and his mother half of the flat each, which she turned into a rental.

Six years later, West, who lives in the family home rent-free, took out an £80,000 buy-to-let mortgage to buy out his mum’s stake in the property.

“Because of my age, I feel like there was a lot more red tape we had to go through,” says West, a joiner by trade.

The process took six weeks and his mum had to act as guarantor for his first two-year mortgage term.

West charges his tenant £700 a month while his mortgage payments are £440, having rocketed up from £160 in 2023 due to interest rate hikes.

“It’s not the most profitable business in the world,” he says, explaining he pockets around £50 a month on average, which is saved for emergencies.

“Don’t go and spend it like it’s free because you will need that money eventually,” he warns, such as if the tenant leaves or the boiler breaks.

His friends “don’t know the stress involved, they don’t know the responsibility” – but would he rent to any of them?

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no,” he says. “Absolutely – friends, family – no. Wouldn’t entertain it. I guarantee something would happen in terms of money.”

Has it all been worth it? Financially, no, he says, but it has given him an opportunity for personal growth: “I can do something now that not a lot of people my age know the first thing about, which I’m quite proud of.”

He hopes to expand his property portfolio and combine it with his skills as a tradesman by renovating and renting out homes.

“That would be a dream,” he says. “I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t.”

A ‘horrendous’ experience

West’s dream stands in stark contrast to the nightmare scenario described by Morgan Dagnall, 26, from Northwich.

Neighbours living beside his three-bed rental property in the market town have complained of police visits, the smell of cannabis, excessive noise and people living in the property who aren’t tenants.

His mortgage, meanwhile, has skyrocketed from £821 to £1,375 a month since January, meaning he and his girlfriend have lost “thousands” of pounds.

“I have had such a bad experience – why would I ever do this again?” he says.

“I cannot go through the stress and the management of it. It’s been such a toll, especially on my fiancee’s mental health. For her, it has been horrendous.”

The couple got together aged 17 and saved £2,000 in their teenage years. After university, they lived with their parents for 14 months while paying very little rent and depositing 70-80% of every paycheck into a house fund, including two Help-to-Buy ISAs.

The pair were earning a combined salary of approximately £47,000 and saved £23,000 for the deposit.

They lived in the property until July 2023 before relocating to Salisbury for work and renting it out for £1,390 a month, including bills.

“We were originally going to rent out and get another property and build a portfolio, but based on our experience so far, I don’t think we’ll be doing that,” says Dagnell.

He says the tenants have refused to communicate for several months, the blinds are always shut and he’s been told people were moving large electrical equipment, water systems and suitcases in and out of the property.

Dagnell and his fiancee moved back in with his parents in January, intending to kick the tenants out and sell the property because it no longer feels like their home.

But this means they can’t fix on a mortgage so they’re stuck on the bank’s buy-to-let standard variable interest rate of 7.24%.

“It all sounds like sunshine and rainbows when people say get into property, build a property portfolio, but there are far too many complications, things you need to know, and how much time and stress you need to go through,” he says.