I would have purchased an apartment or 250K back around the time that this post was created. It was a 3 bed apartment and I would have rented it almost continually apart from a period around 2015 where it was empty for a few months.
Currently stuck with a rent cap of 800pm.
The mortgage is about 1,200 per month.
I would have made up a shortfall of about 500 per month over the years.
I will retire in a couple of years and I will clear the approx 30K balance from the mortgage with my lump sum.
When I retire, the apartment will give me a gross income of about 700 pm or allow me to sell the apartment and realise 300K and only paying capital gains o about 50K.
A modest monthly benefit has allowed me to have a significant asset, and has forced me to save money I otherwise would have spent.
The property allows me to retire comfortably at 60, something I probably would not have considered without the apartment. In my retirement, by not paying the mortgage my net monthly income will be more than when I was working.
Regarding the future, the rent cap means that I am getting about 1/2 the market rent for the property. When my current tenant leaves in a couple of years it will probably be worth leaving the apartment vacant to reset the rent cap.
Over the years when I had difficult tenants I was tempted to sell and cut my losses, but glad now I didn't.
It is getting more difficult with the increased regulation, and tenants rights, although I would always have been fair to tenants and was generally lucky with the tenants I had. The only issue was at one stage it rented it to 3 individual people, a situation that evolved as tenants moved out. This was tricky as I was refereeing disagreements between the tenants till I got them to move out.