From The Telegraph, two days ago:
Landlords will sell 500,000 properties in the next 12 months, according to new research from buy-to-let investor trade body the National Landlords Association (NLA)...
The sudden pessimism follows George Osborne’s double-whammy tax attack on the sector. In his July Budget he announced the removal of landlords' mortgage interest tax relief which, when fully implemented in 2020-21, will mean some landlords pay tax on zero income or even on losses. And in November he announced that landlords would pay a 3pc stamp duty surcharge, coming in from this April...
Many also predict that rents will rise as landlords seek to pass on the costs.
Fair enough, that was the whole point - keep owner-occupation levels up which of necessity means landlords selling up (as we saw between 1945 and the 1980s). Of course rents won't rise one penny, apart from the fact that landlords can't pass on costs, if there really were a sell-off of any magnitude, it would be higher earning tenants who buy them, pushing down the average incomes of remaining tenants and hence average rents.
So how bad is that sudden pessimism..?
From The Telegraph, today:
House price growth has hit a 17 month-high, as the supply of new properties being put up for sale tightens. UK house prices rose 9.7pc in the year to January, up from 9.5pc a month earlier, according to the Halifax. This is the biggest jump since in July 2014, when prices rose by more than 10pc...
Some experts believe the housing market is being lifted in the short term by buy-to-let investors looking to make a purchase before the sector is hit with a rise in stamp duty in April.
Not that terrible then, if they are still piling in, eh?
Or do the Homeys genuinely believe that landlords who are piling in now will sell them off again after 6 April 2016? Why would they do that?
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