Extra stamp duty clobbering Welsh landlords with £92 million extra tax take

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Landlords and holiday homeowners continue to be clobbered by a tax grab from the Welsh Revenue Authority.

The latest figures show revenue from the higher rate of stamp duty – Land Transaction Tax (LTT) – increased by 50% from £61 million in 2020/21 to £92 million in 2022/23 – albeit down from £97 million the previous year.

The Welsh government caused outrage among landlords after it hiked stamp duty by 1% for anyone buying a property that is not their principal residence including second homes and buy-to-let properties in December 2020.

New data reveals a total of 59,560 transactions for LTT from April 2022 to March 2023, which pocketed the authority £287 million for residential transactions. This included £92 million additional revenue raised from higher rates and £95 million tax due for non-residential transactions.

Reduced

Adam Al-Nuaimi (pictured), head of data and analysis, says there was a marginal increase in residential LTT revenues despite lower numbers of transactions towards the end of the financial year, which was likely to have been influenced by wider economic conditions.

He adds: “In the year to March, we have seen reduced activity for residential higher rates in some areas of Wales, particularly in some of the western or northern areas.

“Possible reasons for this could include the impact of wider economic conditions or second homes policies beginning to impact upon transactions.”

The maximum level at which local authorities can set council tax premiums on second homes and long-term empty properties was increased to 300% in April as a way to help people find a home where they grew up.

Read more about LTT rates in Wales.

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Is the Private Rented Sector heading back to the 1970s?

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Strikes, rocketing-interest rates and high demand for housing. You would be forgiven for thinking that we were back in the 1970s!

Fashion may have changed drastically since then but with housing affordability at its worst in decades, renters and homeowners now face heading back to the past.

View Full Article: Is the Private Rented Sector heading back to the 1970s?

Will the looming PRS reforms make evicting badly-behaved tenants more difficult?

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After years of campaigning and lobbying by tenant groups the Government has committed to huge changes for landlords when evicting tenants.

This includes most controversially binning Section 21 notice evictions, which enable landlords to give notice to tenants without naming a ‘fault’, commonly known as no-fault evictions.

These are used most often to remove tenants who have stopped paying the rent and built up significant arrears, or who are behaving badly or breaking their rental contracts in other ways.

Rishi’s promise

Rishi Sunak recently promised to ensure that landlords will still have the ability to remove tenants who behave badly as part of his campaign to stop anti-social behaviour in our wider society.

But what will all this mean for private landlords once the Renters (Reform) Bill goes live next year, and will evicting rogue or badly behaved tenants become more difficult?

Answering these questions in the latest ThePropertyCast episode are experts Paul Shamplina and Paul Sowerbutts of Landlord Action, along with HFIS chief executive officer Eddie Hooker. Listen in here or watch them on Youtube below.

View Full Article: Will the looming PRS reforms make evicting badly-behaved tenants more difficult?

Rents hit new high as landlords deal with ‘queues of prospective tenants’

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Tenants are feeling the squeeze as new rents outside of London have hit a new record high of £1,231 – that’s 33% or £300 more than pre-pandemic 2019.

Renters in London are now forking out £2,567 for a new tenancy with rents 28% or £559 higher than in 2019.

View Full Article: Rents hit new high as landlords deal with ‘queues of prospective tenants’