Hi, hope everyone is alright....

first post,

where shall i start? well, i am a novice in these matters, and am hopeful that someone here can help me, please,

basically, i own my house outright, in North London, with no liability or mortgage, and the value is approximately £350,000. I don't work, am a student, but I am considering leaving my studies at university to study independently, privately, by myself as it were, and moving abroad.

The situation is this,
i believe there is a downward turn in property prices now, in the UK, well this much is obvious, but that it is a trend that is going to continue for some time as opposed to being a temporary situation, and rather then see my house depreciate am curious as to what ways i can garner some capital out of it in order to either........

a) leave it in a bank and let the interest accrue, or

b) invest it in a few small, relatively secure and low risk, nominal property investments abroad (Berlin, Wroclaw, Buenos Airies for instance) and anticipate steady, though not exorbitant, capital growth in tandem with some small rental yield

------

now, in either scenario, a) or b), i would plan to live for the next couple (2-4) years in a low cost, low rent country, effectively, becoming an emigre, then return to England envisaging that in either scenario, house prices will have stagnated or decreased, or even if they have gained value, it will be of less amount to that which i shall have garnered from pursuing either option a) or b).

The situation, though, is this,

im at a lost as to how to quickly realise the value of my house, ie. to raise its worth into lump cash. To have the money as soon as possible to save or to invest,

naturally, the obvious solution is to place the house for sale, wait for viewers, hope for buyers, then eventually, hopefully, eventually, voila, to sell. The conundrum here, though, is this.
I dont believe i can sell my house that quickly, on my road already there are 7 properties, approx 4% of all the properties on my road, advertised for sale and they range in value greatly as much as +/- £80,000, although this is mainly a terraced road, with the occasional semi or detached, but generally speaking, the houses are much of the same and the variances in prices seem rather random rather then strategic or representative of their differences.

Do i have to follow this route, is this the only route, to realising the current, relatively immediate, value of my house into hard capital?

Not being well versed or particularly understanding of financial opportunities, such as raising equity, i'm of the belief that 'selling' the house is the only way to do this, but is it?

I need to ask and i need to know, please, please, how else can i raise capital from my house, without understating its value, in order to pursue scenario a) or b) ?


Please please please if you know anything or have any type of advice you can offer, or experience, please do so, as i'm of the belief that time is of the essence here and although its rather pragmatic, i'm feeling as though each day that passes i am losing out.....

thanks so much,

goodnight,

I have no financial knowledge whatsoever, but am in a vaguely similar situation to you, although my house is worth less, and I don't wish to leave the country.
Just some thoughts:
You can't (or may have trouble realising it's true value) sell your house, and as you have no imcome you can't mortgage it, why not rent it out? You'd get a monthly income and you'd still have the option to sell when houses prices have gone up again. You could even look into converting into flats and/or student accomodation to maximise rent.
Just my thoughts.

Why don't you rent until house prices go up? You'd get a monthly income and in a couple of years your house might be worth up to £0.5m. You could even look into converting into flats and/or student acomodation.