The Daily Mail gets it?

"Existing landlords are offloading around 3,800 properties a month, Ministry of Housing figures show." This is only one figure, but in this respect, Robin Hood (aka Osborne) has succeeded in getting lots of properties on the market.
However, it is not clear how many of those 3,800 per month were bought by FTBs, and of those that were, how many had prices inflated with taxpayers' help (by Help-to-Buy etc).

Thatcher gave occupants big discounts (taxpayer funded) to buy their own council houses. Osborne has done the same with ex-PRS houses.

I am trying to sell one per year. Currently the first one has attracted very little interest from first time buyers but a huge amount from investors/developers. It is a developer investor who is currently proceeding with the purchase. His plans are to 'do it up' and sell it on. I have neither the inclination nor time to be bothered. I have 4 other properties now currently empty. all natural causes - moved on or away etc. I have no intention of reletting them. Going to leave them empty and sell one per year . They are not mortgaged. I have calculated that I am better of leaving them empty, paying the heating/repairs/council tax costs and not dealing with getting rid of tenants again (I did this last year. it took nearly a year and I was out of pocket over £5K. HB and the courts were a joke - never again). Following this route I pay less tax in income to HMRC. I can claim repairs as required and running costs. I'll make less annual profit but get it back in CGT. I have other properties to keep an income flow coming in all let to professionals. I may be proved wrong by readers but this way I sleep at night. There are too many rules/regulations and pitfalls for an old fart like me want to do it anymore.

I only have 3 properties and when I worked out actually how little I've made from them over the past 5 years and how much work I've put in for that return on my investment, coupled with the ever increasing rules and regulations and extra tax etc., I'm seriously wondering if it's worth the effort. There was a time when I enjoyed being a landlord and I think I do a good job and my tenants have been happy. But now, it's just one thing after another and the 'rules' are constantly changing, always meaning less profit.

My plan was that eventually the properties would provide my pension and then be left to my children. However, they will never make me rich, just provide an adequate amount of income for a comfortable retirement from the age of 65. After attending a training course recently for my job, I realised that unless I can become too rich to care about paying nursing home fees etc. when I'm old then it's quite likely that my assets (properties and rent) would be used to pay for any care I may need and I won't be able to leave them to my children as I intend to. Whereas if I spend all my money while I'm younger, and have no assets when I get to that stage of life, the state will pay for the care I need. As I'm going to be one of the many people stuck in the middle range of being reasonably ok financially but not wealthy by any means, I'm seriously wondering if working hard as a landlord (in my spare time, alongside my 'proper' job) is worth it anymore. Why not just take my money now, retire early and enjoy the next 20 years or so and let the future take care of itself?

The government is not encouraging me to do anything else at this point in time!

The Daily Mail may get it but clearly very few of their readers do, judging by the comments. What's more, those that do are far from sympathetic, seeing landlords as rip-off merchants getting their comeuppance. They seem to be under the illusion (delusion?) that if landlords sell up all the rental properties will suddenly become affordable for first time buyers and no-one will ever need or want to rent. Cloud cuckoo land.

Reply to the comment left by Old Mrs Landlord at 23/01/2019 - 12:44
Be that as it may, Mr GO is succeeding in killing off an entire sector for
*investors who create wealth and provide a service to society at large,
*pensioners who rely on rental to fund/aid their retirement
*a great source of revenue for HMRC
for what purpose I have no idea - for the effect of PRS on house prices and housing costs is nothing compared to what QE and low interest rates and the likes of 'Help to Buy' etc do to bump up the value of every asset class over the last 10 years - not just housing.
*For invstors, it is disheartening and they go elsewhere to create some other 'bubble' - if you can call PRS that.
*For pensioners, some will now have to rely on the state in their old age
*For HMRC, its another 'own goal'.
Instead of moving towards equal prosperity, we have gone for equal poverty.
Well doen Mr GO. I couldnt have done it better if I tried.

The trouble is, government policies do not dramatically alter course in a hurry without some sort of catalysmic event and our semi intelligent politicians are currently too busy justifying their existence mouthing over Brexit and will be for years to come blaming each other for whatever outcome we end up with. So it could be at least another decade before this PRS klilling spree will be recognised for the painful lose-lose exercise that it is. And the cycle will start again - witness Rent Control. I may be long gone by then but I hope my children will be primed to make a killing. Meanwhile, LLs are dropping like flies and the damage to our country will be just another unnecesarily painful experience in the rear view of history. The only hope we have is for the market to crash soon and we can start picking up the pieces again sooner rather than later.

Reply to the comment left by sam at 23/01/2019 - 17:48Sam, I was in full agreement with you until your final sentence. You may take it from my nom de plume that I am well aware of the effects of recent legislation on older landlords but I don't think my children are any more likely to "make a killing" than I have. I have made a reasonable return on hard work, luxuries forgone and risks taken. Mind you, what I think of as luxuries my tenants look on as normal lifestyle entitlements. However, a market crash will cause severe hardship to many leveraged landlords as well as landlords who need to sell up in order to avoid being bankrupted by the new tax regime (not to mention all those first time buyers who have been conned into taking out Help to Buy loans).

Reply to the comment left by Deborah Clare at 23/01/2019 - 12:20
I am wondering same as you as well, there is no way out by currently system.

Yep GO's search for more tax receipts has undone all the careful housing market management since the crash. In Ireland and Spain property prices halved with the inevitable impact on confidence and the overall economy. Now as more British landlords unload houses the property is often not selling. Why?- because many BLT props are not what FTB want. In my city center houses have been on the market for 2-3 years with price declines of 20-40%. Indeed it is now cheaper to buy some houses at less than new build cost.