Will you be hit by the Budget?

Mr Collinson
In the article you linked to you wrote: "Financially speaking, buying to let has been probably the best thing anybody could have done with their money since 1997, with gains averaging more than 1,400% since then."
At the end of your article are corrections of a couple of factual errors. Please correct this error as well. A gain of 1,400% means the price has gone up 15 fold. Please point to a property that was £10,000 in 1997 and is £150,000 now (without capital improvements) or one that was £100,000 in 1997 and is £1,500,000 now. When you have done that please explain how this is an average increase, i.e. some increases are more and some are less.

Reply to the comment left by Ian Narbeth at 14/11/2017 - 16:31
Looks like Mr Collinson is not only ill informed, he is mathematically challenged as well... Oh Dear! It would be laughable, if it was not so dangerous and tragic.

Reply to the comment left by Mark Alexander at 14/11/2017 - 10:23
Am I overly suspicious (or paranoid)? Maybe Patrick Collinson's purpose was NOT to get landlords to volunteer their profiles and reactions, but to use this energetic forum response to capture many more unguarded and argumentative opinions, from which he can then take out-of-context quotations in his next anti-PRS article in the Guardian?

Thanks Mark

Reply to the comment left by Whiteskifreak Surrey at 14/11/2017 - 14:26I don't think he is as daft as he looks, I think he's just playing to his audience, giving his readers what they want to read.
Anyone with even a passing interest in housing economics knows Osborne's section 24 'level playing field' argument is nonsense. Likewise the obvious consequences of rent controls.
But if he can get some smug looking, slum landlord to pillory themselves, he'll be laughing if the chancellor takes his boot off landlords.
Day after the budget headline;
"FATCAT LANDLORDS GIVEN BILLIONS, NURSES FORCED TO USE FOODBANKS"
His readers will lap it up with outraged indignation.
Maybe he's just hedging his bets, maybe he's caught wind of something?

Hello Patrick
I am surprised to see you on here, I always believed that you hated landlords certainly your articles on landlords would strongly suggest this. Have you ever gave a thought to what its like being a landlord and being under constant attack.
I suggest you do a different article on how much landlords get ripped off by tenants via trashed properties and lost rent. A court system which is not fit for purpose and a government that are quite happy for landlords to take the hit. If its council tax owed they get locked up.
The government is indirectly encouraging bad behaviour , where is the pride in the English anymore. 20years ago people would have been ashamed to leave a house in a state that is all to common now. 40years ago they scrubbed the steps .
They should be held account for rent arrears and it should be linked to their NI number and be paid back. Better still let the landlord claim from the government .
All this rubbish about landlords getting all the housing benefit money which is now well below market rent .
Why do you think any landlord would want to do this? it would get twisted and the landlord would be made out to look the villain.
what we want from you is fact reporting not direct attacks

Why not do an article about the many stories of people like myself and and many others that have transformed areas by buying often tinned up houses spent a small fortune on them then let them to housing benefit tenants, migrant workers, single mothers and so on. This has ground to a near halt now due to section 24, auction houses are not selling all there stock which could be transformed into a family home and landlords are starting to sell up ( I have 3 up for sale now )

Explain to me how this is helping the housing crisis stopping this kind of development around the country ?

I like many others have tried to sell some of my houses to long term tenants ( at a discount )and havent completed one due to bad credit and mortgage availability issues. This attack on landlords is going to create a huge issue for local councils when the first ludicrous tax bills hit next year and the mass sell off happens.

I have incorporated but will still be selling once they become vacant especially the larger homes with bigger loans all due to this tax.
I really don't trust the govenment and media anymore as the worst thing any industry likes is uncertainty and the PRS has been walloped with it in huge doses by people who haven't got a clue how this market works shame on you all for what you have done.

Can't see too many landlords volunteering with what your linked article states about the previous landlord that volunteered:

She was "hunted down on Facebook and subject to nasty postings. On Google, her health status was identified, then shared online. One person even went so far as to make up fake one-star reviews of her book on Amazon"

Patrick,

Sorry I'm not likely to signup an example landlord but I do have some points.

Possibly I'm near unique in this arena - I'm a Guardian Readers , and indeed supporter.

I have a total of 4 buy-to lets:-

Two two bed properties in the South East which I have had for 15 years each, I've never sought to achieve maximum rent but to minimise voids, between the two the total voids are less than 10 weeks. These are not benefit tenants.
The problem is the agents they seek to churn tenants to gain the fees £330 each to new tenants and landlord and increase the rents on each change of tenant, also all sorts of extra fees and wheezes keep appearing, an article which explored the murky world of 'reputable' agents would be revealing.

I also had bought more recently two student pods in a larger 200+ room building, this has only recently become profitable, when I took a more hands on approach. There may however be an upcoming weakness here. T. May as home secretary consistently classed students as 'immigrants'. Stupid they are sources of wealth to the UK if we celebrate £10,000 income from the sale of a car abroad should we not celebrate larger sums for each year of undergraduate study? BREXIT may increase weakness here but the much weakened pound may help. The outlook is of course very rocky until sensible terms are agreed, or BREXIT abandoned.

Mark : would you care to comment on below please .

Net effect of landlord bashing
Government intent : lower house prices.
Policy response : make PRS less profitable so lots of LLs will sell up and get out (which was why you moved to Malta).
Result = less properties for PRS (Really ? : who would be buying these properties that the ex LLs are selling and what use they would be put to – FTB cant raise enough money for deposits and HTB are only for new builds).
PRS forecast : rent goes up due to presumed lower supply and presumed higher demand. Ie more profit for LLs who are staying in PRS (just like what you are now thinking).
Result : money flows back into PRS to buy what are now cheaper property for even higher rent.
Result : property prices go up. Yield falls.
Consequence : rent has already gone up (and presumably wont be coming down) and LLs are making even more money – both income and capital gains. Isnt this the natural order of things (which Gordon Brown failed to banished) ?

My comment : If profit is the motive, should we, the PRS LLs, not be thankful that our politicians are truly semi intelligent ?

A personal question for you : If you had intended to spend 5 years in Malta to avoid/mitigate CGT but have now decided against selling up, what are you doing in Malta ? Is the 360 days sunshine really worth swapping for our good old English food ?

PS : is building more houses the solution ?
FTBs cant handle the high deposits the banks are demanding. HTB will only benefit the house builders by pushing up prices for new build which already command a premium over existing stock (which will also benefit from knock on effects). Ie house prices go up even more. With this kind of policy response, why would anybody want to get out of PRS ?