Summer Budget 2015 – Landlords Reactions

I'm very pleased. My meeting went well and was very informative. As everyone's circumstances vary there's no point saying what we discussed, but I am a happier man now. And somewhat reassured. But what the lunatic Osborne will do next, who knows. Look at page 7 in 5th Feb Private Eye and you will be shocked at how be and the Tories have favoured the big companies.

There has been much debate on the effect BTL has had on property prices, perhaps there needs to be a similar debate on what impact BTL has had on rents.

Twenty years ago I was achieving circa £700 per month rent for a two bedroom flat. Today, flats in that block are letting for circa £900 - £925 per month.

If I apply RPI to the £700 I was achieving then I arrive at a figure of between £1,200 and £1,250 per month.

My view is that rents have not risen in line with RPI due to the increase in the number of properties available to rent – which is largely as a result of BTL

These figures are for the South East and I would be interested to see what rent increases have been in other parts of the country compared with increases in RPI over the last 20 years.

Reply to the comment left by "S.E. Landlord" at "04/02/2016 - 16:52":

My properties in deepest Kent are small and attract about half your rent but the ratios are much the same.

do not forget NZ

Reply to the comment left by "Monty Bodkin" at "04/02/2016 - 16:02":

Eye, 'tis a reet shame the clowns and lunes on HPC don't read the posts from Trendo, Jonathon, David and Monty.

Such hypocritical parasites, "I'm all right with my H2B, but stuff the poor people that need to rent, or want to rent." Keep your head down, and house the (otherwise) homeless best we can.

Yes I have tenants that have been getting help from council too, to avoid evictions. Time Shelter had a rethink..........

Reply to the comment left by "David Price" at "04/02/2016 - 17:03":

I have also noticed a change in the type of tenant looking for property. Increasingly, younger first time renters, a single person or a couple moving in together, they tend to stay for a couple of years before buying their first property. I suspect if rents had increased with RPI these renters would have lived at home for longer.

Reply to the comment left by "Chris Byways" at "04/02/2016 - 18:40":

Chris: it’s best to try and ignore the lunes / loons at HPC. Hard to do that as I’m fairly certain the same half a dozen hardcore posters there are the same few folk who like to dominate every C24 related online news articles comments sections spouting drivel, so much so that I have never personally wasted my time commenting on such articles.

When not carefully copy-pasting selected articles or even more carefully selectively chosen stats, one of their ringleaders who permanently critiques this forums posts recently said of me something like ‘he only sees what he wants to see’.

Seriously? Pot. Kettle. Black.

Back in the real world (a concept perhaps unknown to the 3 main anti-LL leaders @HPC) what I always wanted and still want most personally, is simply for the govt to drop the BS C24 spin and actually consider listening to experts views (as opposed to their cronies, institutional party donors who clearly want a larger stake in the PRS without the competition from professional ‘private’ LLs).

If they want to attack LLs, ok fine, but do it to all LLs, otherwise not a plausible approach. Hence why the State Aid argument is key.

I pray that what Steve and Chris have initiated will at very least eventually encourage George and David G (my MP) to start listening to reason, rather than just doing what their institutional buddies presumably told them to do and spinning a story that some unsuspecting FTBs may fall for.

Mark S (Scum, Spiv, parasite innit)

Hi Mark,

I love reading when I have a few snivelling idle parasitic minutes, quite a giggle really. I guess they do it to depress, quite the opposite!

There are some useful bits of info, and get things into perspective.

From one post I came to these links

A Birmingham HMO at auction £175k min, 21.4k already rented out, and another next door at £22k income
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-52745923.html

Then mixed commercial
Guide £150k min, £48k rent the SDLT +3% not applicable? Clause 24 interest deduct able on a mixed development, don't think that applies does it?

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/commercial-property-for-sale/property-52901206.html

I was in the area today, I could have looked at them!

Inside Housing article this week
The UK will need more than a million extra rental homes to meet demand over the next five years, despite a major government drive to increase homeownership.

This is the conclusion of research, published today, by property consultancy Savills, which estimates the demand for rented housing will grow by 220,000 homes per year.

The figure is based on data from the English Housing Survey, which shows the demand for rented housing has risen by 17,500 per month on average over the last decade.

It said this indicates future demand of 260,000 homes per year across the UK, which will be only partially offset by government plans to build 400,000 affordable homes to buy.

Savills estimates 40,000 households a year will be able to leave rented accommodation to buy these homes, reducing demand for rented housing to 220,000 homes per year.

Susan Emmett, director of Savills residential research, said: “We would question whether policies can accelerate housebuilding enough to see the Government’s target of 400,000 affordable homes for sale reached in the timescale set.

“This analysis demonstrates that we still need to provide a substantial number of homes for rent. Government policy should focus on supporting the development of new homes to rent as well as to buy.”

The government announced grant from the affordable homes programme would primarily be used to build shared ownership and starter homes at the spending review in November.

It has also enacted a 1% rent cut, which has forced housing associations to build more market products and less cheap rental to finance development.

Savills’ research also suggested the mismatch between supply and demand for rental homes is likely to underpin rent rises.

It suggested this would create an opportunity for additional institutional investment in rented housing, reporting that the overall value of deals recorded by Savills’ own investment database has increased from £2.3bn in 2014 to £2.65bn in 2015.

I am so impressed with a recent meeting I had with Mark Alexander that I feel compelled to post my thoughts in the event anyone else is considering taking advantage of Tax Specialist advice via Property118's panel of recommended tax advisers. In fact, my Accountant was so intrigued by the proposed content of the meeting, that he flew in from Cyprus to attend.

A key point that came out of this meeting for me was that the tax planning strategies employed through Property118's Tax Specialist consultancy arm are all based on legislation that can be referenced via the .Gov website and even discussed with the HMRC, unlike the many schemes one gets to hear about that sound "too good to be true".

Although I am yet to experience the very detailed Fact Finding meeting with Mark's Tax Specialist, which I am endeavouring to schedule as I type & again my Accountant wants to attend, I just wanted to meanwhile share my thoughts regarding Mark's general knowledge of tax law & his specific knowledge of the various tax strategies. I can sum this up in 2 words; "mind blowing".

Thank you Mark.