Section 24 tax grab?

The thing that interests me, is who is buying all these rental properties that other Landlords are selling up? I never see anything written on this other than the adverts we keep getting from benevolent companies offering to buy our whole portfolios for a knockdown price!
My only exposure is when I went to view some pretty rundown properties "up North" in Stoke-On-Trent that the seller informed me he was getting 9% returns on, as he was letting to the local authority. When I got there, I have to say they were all in a pretty shocking condition in terms of general maintenance and I also noted that the local authority was also happy to class "rooms" in their converted lofts as bedrooms, when they definitely did not meet either building regs or minimum size requirements! I turned up an hour early to view the area and couldn't quite work out why this huge coach was pulling in behind me in this narrow side street, until a stream of what appeared to be mostly foreign nationals, from the Indian sub-continent and China, came off and started entering the properties to look around. I went and spoke to the coach driver while he was on his cigarette break and he said that he drove such groups all around the country for a week at a time after airport collection, every two or three weeks, for a firm that promotes the high returns of UK Rental Properties abroad.
Has anyone else come across this? I was gobsmacked!
Where would one look to see who is buying the properties that private landlords are offloading? Presumably just through Land Registry?

Reply to the comment left by Arthur Oxford at 09/11/2023 - 12:04
When Stoke been up north , most properties that landlords sell are sold to private families unless they are in a rush to sell then the portfolio people mop them up at lower than market price , in my experience when selling l sell with vacant freehold position and put on the open market. I live in the North of England.

It will be at least another 6 years before S24 is reversed as it took Rep of Ireland 12 years to reverse theirs and incoming labour government would probably allow zero tax relief on the 20% we get now (extra tax grab).

https://www.property118.com/ireland-reversing-finance-cost-restrictions-landlords/

Reply to the comment left by Fed Up Landlord at 09/11/2023 - 10:33
What you fail to mention is S24 was deliberately aimed at unincorporated landlords, and created a two-tier BTL sector. Those in Ltd companies who could still claim relief on their 'business financing', and private landlords who couldn't [apart from the 20%].

I am the latter, and sold my first rental in 2016. I had planned to let my house and buy a home outside London, and had remortgaged for £700K. Then the full impact of S24 hit me. If I had continued, I would probably be bankrupt by now! So, I sold that house in 2019. I sold another flat in 2020, and have one left [blighted by leasehold] but which I will sell next year. I did buy a large house for cash in 2020 which I extended and intended to let, but have just sold that and taken the profit. I'm done with BTL, and the only ones losing out are tenants.

Absolutely correct. NRLA have been doing a great job lobbying in relation to Rental Reform Bill. S24 now needs a serious review to halt the PRS crisis.
Originally aimed at higher rate tax payers having a tax advantage however
another consequence is that Student Finance calculate student loan based on the pre finance adjusted income. So will have to sell a couple of properties and evict longstanding families to pay for kids getting through Uni. madness.

From the governments own Private Landlord Survey in 2021 - "Almost two thirds (63%) of landlords were aged 55 or older, representing 68% of tenancies"
It really doesn't take a genius to work out that if you clobber a cohort of older private citizens with a turnover tax that has the real possibility of financial hardship, or even bankruptcy, they will opt to enjoy their retirement with cash in the bank rather than tied up in loss making assets. That 68% of tenancies equates to nearly 3 million households. It's really not surprising that there's such a crisis in the sector. Section 24 hit all leveraged landlords with it's full 100% force in 2021 so a lot of unhappy landlords in Jan 2022

Reply to the comment left by Michael Booth at 09/11/2023 - 12:36
Well it's North of Oxford! I generally start to get heart palpitations if I venture above Birmingham! Thanks for the response, I was just absolutely amazed when 60 people got off a coach to collectively look around three tiny mid-terrace properties! The floors must have been groaning. It was a hard pass from me!

What is worse, it that it is a double tax. We get taxed on the money we pay out as loan interest, and the lenders get taxed on the profit they make from the loans.

Surely that in itself is not legal, surely taxing at both ends of the transaction is fraudulent?

Reply to the comment left by howdidigethere at 09/11/2023 - 23:06
Thats only the same as paying a mortgage .. You get taxed on your income from your job (eg office worker, nurse, driver etc) and the mortgage company get taxed on the profit they make from you. The difference being for a landlord is S24 so you get taxed on your turnover

Reply to the comment left by GlanACC at 10/11/2023 - 07:37
It's the idea that, unless you have a 'Ltd', you aren't running a business, even though you are providing exactly the same service, to exactly the same people, in exactly the same areas, and paying exactly the same costs. Also, most are likely to be paying higher taxes in the first place because they are personal and not corporation.