Slowing investment in buy-to-let is hitting tenants

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OBR Report:

With fewer new investors in buy-to-let properties around, tenants are beginning to struggle to find suitable accommodation at an affordable price in some locations.

New landlord taxes and more stringent letting regulations, as well as stricter mortgage lending criteria and the prospect of higher interest rates and slowing house price growth are combing to have a cooling effect on prospective property investors.

However, many small-scale landlords can still rely on property for retirement income, and as an asset class it still compares favourably with other alternatives, (building societies, banks and stocks and shares etc) when it comes to investment returns. With good tenant demand and rising rents, small-scale landlords with minimal borrowing are still achieving excellent yields.

Many larger portfolio landlords have been planning to or already do operate their businesses through a limited company. There are tax advantages in this mode of operation for some, but the costs involved in converting a privately held portfolio into an incorporated structure may be prohibitive for many; though it could be viable for new purchases. Anyone contemplating this should seek professional advice.

A recent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) report shows that the government’s policy of discouraging buy-to-let investment through the various measures listed above may not be working in the way it intended, i.e. encouraging more owner occupier investment, along with more corporate build-to-rent investment.

In its Economic and Fiscal Outlook the OBR has warned of warned of “subdued growth in residential investment.”

Commenting on the report Alan Ward, chair of the RLA, has said:

The “…assessment by the OBR demonstrates the folly of taxing the supply of new homes to rent.

“It is more important than ever that we recognise the dynamic role the rental market can play in swiftly responding to the country’s ever changing housing needs.

“The government should come forward with a package of pro-growth tax and planning policies to support private landlords who want to invest in the new housing the country needs if renters are to be able to find the accommodation they want.

“The build to rent sector is not delivering at the rate required and in the past private landlords have delivered three out of five of all new homes.”

The OBR Report (Economic and fiscal outlook, March 2018) says:

“Real residential investment rose by 7.8 per cent in 2017, up from 7.6 per cent in 2016. In line with our forecasts for house prices and property transactions, we expect relatively subdued growth in residential investment over the forecast period. Housebuilding is expected to slow in the near term, reflecting subdued turnover in the housing market and modestly higher interest rates.

“Housebuilding is then expected to rise as housing market turnover picks up. Housing improvements are also expected to slow in the near term thanks to recent weakness in real wages, before picking up as real earnings growth picks up. Over the medium term, residential investment is expected to grow broadly in line with real GDP.”

House Price Inflation Forecast

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Pay off or file injunction on neighbour harassing tenants?

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I have rented out a property for nearly 2 years after relocating abroad for work. My property is an upstairs maisonette that I lived in with my wife for 3 years. Prior to moving we had problems with the downstairs neighbour who complained many times about leaks into their property

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Splitting Rental Income Between Spouses on first BTL

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My wife and I are about to invest in our first buy-to-let, and we want to make sure we get all our ducks in a row and maximise our tax liability.

I work part time, earning less than my annual income tax allowance;

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Are fitted carpets landlord fitting or content?

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We’ve just had a neighbour’s drain backup cause flooding in our lower ground floor flat bedroom. Luckily flat is between tenancies.

However, our block of flats landlord insurance company is refusing to cover our fitted carpet replacement, stating it’s content and as such not covered.

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RLA commissions research on affects of Section 24

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The RLA are asking Landlords to have their say on the impact of the removal of Mortage Interest Relief under Section 24 under a new research project by the University of Cambridge.

The RLA has commissioned academics from the university to conduct the research and will use the findings to provide evidence to the Government as part of their ongoing campaign to have these unfair changes reversed.

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Buying a property with an existing tenant

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As being a landlord becomes less financially lucrative, with higher taxes and more regulation, there are more properties coming to market with existing tenants. We’ve put together the things you should be considering if you are buying a property with a tenant.

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Is government thinking of disallowing operating costs, and for companies as well?

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Yesterday the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government launched a survey “Questionnaire used for the English Private Landlord Survey 2018.”

“The Ministry says that landlords and agents who are protecting a deposit in one of the authorised schemes are randomly chosen to participate

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Section 21 no-fault possession claims down nearly 5000

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Landlord Action responds to latest MoJ statistics

The latest landlord possession figures released by The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) show that the number of accelerated possession cases (section 21 no-fault eviction) are on a downward trend, with nearly 5000 fewer cases in 2017 than in 2016. 

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Do I just write off the judgement?

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A quick question of general interest that may warrant floating past Property118 readers and experts. I have obtained a judgement for arrears that a problem tenant owed.

However, the tenant has gone to Poland with no thought of returning and is gleefully telling friends and everyone that there is nothing anyone can now do!

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Scottish Labour leadership contender pledges rent controls

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Rent Controls:

Richard Leonard, in his campaign to succeed Kezia Dugdale as Scottish Labour leader, has staked his claim to introducing a ‘Mary Barbour law’ for rent controls.

The biggest applause from the crowd at Scottish Labour’s spring conference came after a proposal by Leonard to introduce a “Mary Barbour law”, which he said would “reign in the power of landlords” and create “stringent” rent controls.

Mary Barbour led the 1915 Glasgow rent strikes, and a statue of the rent strike legend was recently unveiled in her honour in Govan.

He said Scottish Labour, if he became leader, would do more than “tinker around the edges” of society’s problems and introduce a radical set of policies which put power back into the hands of the many.

New legislation recently introduced by the Scottish Government has given local authorities the ability to introduce limited caps on rent increases in what they call “rent pressure zones”, primarily the major cities in Scotland, but Leonard’s proposals, like those of Jeremy Corbyn in England, would it seems go much further.

Leondard has proposed a similar system to that proposed by the Living Rent Campaign, a points-based system which would link rents to housing standards, and then rent control would be tied to the average income of Scotland’s tenants. In their policy paper, Living Rent has argued that linking a package of rent controls to housing quality would force landlords to drive up housing standards in the private rental market.

Jeremy Corbyn has set on a path for Labour policy in England, lengthening tenancies to five years with inflation-linked controls on rent rises within these terms, but Mr Corbyn has also said in a recent speech that Labour would go further than this and directly limit rent, based on models seen in other countries.

Meanwhile, rent controls have been discredited around the world as long-term counterproductive to a rental market and tenants in particular.

Research carried out by the London School of Economics (LSE) for the London Borough of Camden concluded that:

“Economic principles suggest that traditional rent freezes (often called first generation rent controls) work badly, especially over the longer-term. They lead to immobility, poor quality housing in the sector and incentives for landlords to transfer to other tenures if possible.

“Almost all countries that have had such controls have either liberalised their systems completely (the UK) or limited their purview to rent increases within tenancies (often called rent stabilisation).”

Even housing charity Shelter has said that Jeremy Corbyn’s proposed rent controls could “exacerbate Britain’s housing crisis”, and “would result in a reduction of rental property.”

Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, has said that:

“What ends up happening is landlords will just sell because they can’t make any money. That actually exacerbates the crisis, because you end up with an even greater housing shortage.”

Given that small-scale landlords continue to play such a vital role in the UK in the provision of housing for tenants in the private sector, including government funded tenants on social benefits, upending a delicate balance stuck by the shorthold tenancy, at market rents, over the last 30 years or so, is perhaps a risky strategy.

Dr Julie Rugg of the Centre for Housing Policy, at the University concludes in another LSE report:

“Evidence from across Europe shows that small landlords own a large proportion of the sector. Even Germany, traditionally held up as the model for institutional investment, has a substantial proportion of properties owned by individual landlords.

“Given that this situation is likely to continue, it is essential to consider in more detail the economics of small landlordism, and – perhaps less tangibly – the cultures of letting across Europe. If we allow the contention that small landlordism might not be innately problematic in the UK, we need to ask what successful small landlordism looks like.”

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