Daily Telegraph wants to talk to Scottish landlords now buying in England

Over the last two years I have bought 2 flats in docklands (E16 Silvertown/ Royal Docks).

I have an established portfolio of 10 letting properties in Edinburgh built up over 15 years. Being a landlord is my career now, having taken redundancy from a job as a chartered accountant in financial services a few years back. I did this primarily for time flexibility so as to have more time to spend with my young family as my wife has a senior full time career.

I now plan to run the Scottish portfolio down and increase my investment in England as I am concerned about the rent and eviction freeze policies and the generally anti landlord rhetoric coming out of Holyrood.

That the first minister has made Patrick Harvie of the Greens, who has a mere handful of voters, housing minister is a serious concern. He talks like a marxist and as if he would be happy to see the private residential sector in Scotland eliminated. In Edinburgh, rents are high and supply is low. If you take my portfolio the tenants as you might expect in a wealthy city are far from vulnerable, most are IT and finance graduates in highly paid professional jobs, others have been junior doctors, media/tv workers, post doctoral researchers etc. One thing these people have in common is that they need a nice place to live, often for a short time, before moving on for a job or in some cases buying their own place, a purpose that cannot be fulfilled by buying or social housing.

Tenants are not all the same and in my case they are not the stereotype of the struggling, vulnerable tenant that is being bandied about by the SNP/Green coalition. Why should they have their rents frozen, when I have increasing costs (have just switched a mortgage from c£200 to c£450 a month on one flat) and often although they may be younger than me they may well be from better off backgrounds and have better future prospects than I have myself. The landlord/ tenant asymmetry of Scottish legislation isn’t logical and must be driven of political dogma and chips on shoulders. It also fails to recognise the behaviours/ economics of supply and demand.

I feel cheated to have chosen to invest and work hard (I set up and maintain most if my properties directly) in the private rented sector, if I had chosen to invest in commercial property such as office accommodation I would not have the same unfair constraints on my business. How can that be wise or fair?

It is probably worth saying that I am proud born and bred Scot and am somewhere in the middle of the political spectrum on most issues. I feel that Holyrood is letting me down and has skewed politics to chase independence votes on a number of issues including this one. As a result they are punishing rather than representing people like me.

Reply to the comment left by 4bsy at 24/01/2023 - 10:39
I also have family in Scotland and I am up there often; but I would now think twice before *investing* in Scotland. And if my family in Scotland wanted to invest in buy-to-let I would now advise them to invest in buy-to-let in England.

Whether anybody owns a buy-to-let based in Scotland, a bank based in Scotland, or a business based in Scotland what the proprietors of that business need to understand is that Scotland is left-wing. Scotland used to vote labour en masse; and now Scotland votes en-masse for a party of left-wing national socialists.

The SNP is a single-agenda party and if it ever achieved independence for Scotland what is happening now gives you a good idea of what an independent Scotland would look like. Quite what would happen to the Bank of Scotland or the Royal Bank of Scotland if Scotland ever did achieve full independence (it has plenty of autonomy now) I do not know. But as an investor I would be wondering about my RBS or BOS shares if they remained headquartered there.

we were fortunate with our timing and managed to remortgage all our current properties during april 2022 and august 2022 for 5 years interest only fixed.
we intend to share some of this good fortune with our tenants and will not be considering any rent increases until mid 2024.

Reply to the comment left by Jonathan Cocks at 25/01/2023 - 13:30
So you've been fortunate enough to fix your interest rates (I'm not sure whether that was in England, Scotland or Wales) until 2027 but you are considering raising interest rates from 2024.

So, presumably you still perceive there to be some risk if you don't raise rents ahead of increasing interest payments.

Reply to the comment left by Beaver at 25/01/2023 - 17:46
Hi Beaver thank you for your comments.
we have 4 mortgages in England. coincidently with 4 different Lenders and 2 different Mortgage brokers.
i am sorry but i do not understand your comment 'but you are considering raising interest rates in 2024' no i will be considering raising the tenants rents in 2024, based on our outgoings on each property. i am expecting(hoping) interest rates to have peaked by 2024, cashflow risk is not just the cost of mortgages. i expect there will be increases in the cost of my annual gas check, the insurance premium, the maintenance costs, and s2 properties will need money invested to improve the EPC to achieve a 'C' rating. but until i know exactly what is required i am waiting.

Reply to the comment left by Jonathan Cocks at 26/01/2023 - 13:00
Ahh...I see. I was confused because this thread is really about Scottish BTL landlords now buying in England. I thought you might have properties in Scotland.

Like you I don't raise rents unnecessarily before I have to and in my case that's because I prefer to reduce the risk of void periods. And yes, all costs are going up. So any further investment I make won't be in Scotland, much as I love visiting the west coast.

But the truth is that the Scottish Nationalists probably wouldn't want me there anyway. 🙂

Reply to the comment left by Beaver at 26/01/2023 - 15:26
hi Beaver. i can only apologies for my Senior Moment i did not read the subject matter correctly, and wasting your time etc.

thank you for your last response.
that said it was good to connect,
i do not like Void periods either, and if one has a good tenant, that has added value in its self and i like to speak to my tenants a least monthly to build a working relationship.

i do not own any property in Scotland. i had thought about it 2 years ago as my youngest son was based in Edinburgh. but he has changed jobs and in now based in Aberdeen. He has sorted out his own accommodation, thankfully without me getting involved..
yes i am glad i do not own properties outside England.

Reply to the comment left by Jonathan Cocks at 27/01/2023 - 01:38
That's OK thank you. 🙂

The article at the top of this thread seems to have been inspired by the telegraph. They've put an article up about landlords abandoning rental property for improved savings rates here:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/uk/landlords-abandon-property-investment-improved-savings-rates/

Whether you are a landlord renting in England, Wales or Scotland governments need to understand something: Keeping your money under your mattress isn't socially useful, although it does save tax; putting your money in the bank isn't socially useful either; putting a roof over somebody's head is socially useful.

I understand that some investors are now turning to NSI to invest their money...lending their cash to the government in an attempt to fix the enormous c****p of the response to the Covid outbreak. All parties were culpable in that debacle. And it seems there's an attempt now to get 50+ somethings back into the workplace. With attacks on pensions and private property being muted if you were 50+ why would you bother going back into the workplace? You'd be better off spending your money and sticking any surplus under your mattress.

But that doesn't help tenants, wherever they come from.