Building Assets & Wealth Post Brexit Part 1: Housing

A personal look at the risks & potential opportunities in post-Brexit Britain.

I'm hoping to generate some discussion about exactly what we can expect from Brexit. I'll talk about my personal circumstances for some sort of context.

My goals:

• Well, Financial Independence would be nice! (i.e. a source of passive income that pays my living expenses)
• I need stimulation - I work alone from home, so I'm starved of company.
• While other people travelled during their twenties, I didn't. I want to see more places.
• To continue working - I love my job & feel it brings benefit to people. However I might cut my hours to 3 long days a week (36 hours)
• Adventure, sunshine, exercise.

My Advantages:

• I can work from anywhere (with an internet connection)
• I can charge a good hourly rate
• I love my job & find it fulfilling
• I was born in Northern Ireland & therefore am entitled to apply for an Irish passport (i.e a backdoor to the EU if needed)
• I earn a lot of my income in US dollars (i.e it's actually beneficial to me if the £ continues dropping in value)
• I'm free to work as much, or as little as I want

My Disadvantages:

• I am a bit 'rootless' - I've travelled a lot within the UK, lived in different areas & never put down 'roots'. Maybe I need a firm 'base'?
• I'm probably behind my peers in building up assets, I've never owned property & so have missed the (obscene) rise in property prices in the last 20 years.

My Conundrums:

• Do I continue saving up for a house in Brexit Britain? What is likely to happen to the property market? I suppose my fear is that I belatedly buy a house, then the UK interest rates go up & the country promptly enters a 20-year-long depression. I'll be trapped with my major asset in a failing economy.
• Surely leaving the EU will mean much less buying pressure as less people in the country, also overseas investors will be more wary of UK property as a 'safe haven' for their capital?
• Markets hate uncertainty, surely this will drive house prices down?
• Do I really want to invest 6-figures in a property in a country that's decided to turn inwards, when I see myself as a world-citizen & crave a Mediterranean climate?
• Do I want to be bound to a country that is busy cutting, cutting, cutting? I'm paying tax while the services get cut cut cut. Where's the 'contract' here (i.e. I pay this & in return I get these services)? They are breaking the contract. If I travelled 6 months + a year I'd not be liable for UK income tax (this would please me, I want to opt out of their corrupt system).
• My daughter is 10 years old, I don't live with her mother anymore, but I want her to feel secure & grounded & see me as a stable constant in her life.
• The EU is dysfunctional & possibly doomed. Many European countries are in bad financial shape - it's probably not a good idea to risk buying property in somewhere like Spain either!

My Assumptions:

• British politics will continue to be appalling - incompetent & dogmatic Conservative government with an even more incompetent & dogmatic Labour opposition.
• They'll continue favouring City of London finance companies over the rest of the country.
• Most infrastructure spend will continue to be in the South East of England & London.
• The UK will continue to be a sort of 'pirate island where finance companies can rig markets, dodge taxes, offshore risk, hide money (called 'laundering ill-gotten gains' in more polite company).
• Can I take advantage if these assumptions prove correct?

Option 1:
'Grow up'. i.e Buy a house, work 50 hours-a-week, save into a pension & abandon any ideas of personal freedom, put down roots & buy some tartan zip-up slippers & a pipe.

Option 2:
'No change' i.e Stay in my rented house, keep squirrelling my money away, use my mini-campervan more & enjoy where I've got to in life & wait to see what happens.

Option 3:
'The Goldilocks solution' i.e buy a house, preferably 2 bedroom + a box room & rent out the 2nd bedroom for £100/week. Convert a minibus into a camper & spend 50% of my time exploring in & working from the camper.

Option 4:
Hit the road! i.e Buy a large van & turn it into my 'home on wheels'. Abandon any plans to buy a house. This runs into all sorts of issues like where is my address? How do I get insurance, what will it do to my credit score? Will I like this

Option 5.
Join the French Foreign Legion O.k.. this one is out :-P

Laying out the options like this, it seems that 'The Goldilocks Solution' seems the most sensible option. I have a property asset & home that I'll pay off over the next 15 years, but which gives some stability/security (whether merely psychological or not), I'll also have a 'room mate' as they say in the US to reduce my expenses (no point in paying lots of money for a property if I'm going to be in the camper a lot). It'll also be more stable for my daughter when she's with me (though she says she wants to be a gypsy & live in a van!). Basically it gives me options, it keeps me 'in the world' with a credit score, an address, on the electoral role etc, while also giving me the ability to spend a lot of time on the road. If the UK government commits hari-kari then I'll neatly step to the side & leave in my van :)