Sympathy was in short supply for a Telegraph reader who bought two flats in Kew for her sons only to be told they wanted to live in Hackney – 14 miles down the road.
Lee Shortt and her husband thought they were doing the right thing when they invested in two buy-to-let properties as family investments costing £900,000 all told.
But they were let down by their sons after they revealed they wanted to plump for the trendier climbs of east London, which is an hour’s Overground schlep away.
The properties have been rented out up until now, although neither are turning much of a profit, with one seeing its monthly mortgage cost shoot up from £500 to £1,400 last year.
NB: A quick search for £500 flat lets in Kew suggests they were probably turning quite a healthy profit at one point.
The mother-of-two wants to help her sons, aged 27 and 31, get onto the property ladder, but only has £2 million in the bank earning 3.6 per cent in interest, and is conscious she and her husband eventually need to retire.
And they don’t have huge pensions, having cashed in over the years to pay school fees, leaving them with a dilemma of epic proportions.
“One of our sons is on £50,000, but he still can’t afford to buy on his own. Neither of them want to live in Kew, where the buy-to-lets are, they want to live in Dalston. Hackney was a war zone in my day.
“So we’re stuck with these two buy-to-lets. We don’t know what to do with them.
“We’ve let them for the past five years. We could pay off the buy-to-let mortgages, but this does eat into our capital. We could, alternatively, keep one flat and then have a second home outside of London.”
It’s a terrifying thought, but ultimately, what can one do?!
Related: ‘Not that difficult’ to get on property ladder, NatWest chief claims