Summer Budget 2015 – Landlords Reactions

Reply to the comment left by "Martin Silman" at "02/08/2015 - 18:00":

Martin,

Well done, you got me.

I believed you right up to;

"If we were not there, they would have sold to some other sector"

I have been responsible for everything from planning permission on brown field sites to twigs in vases ten years later.

I don't think you have a clue what you are talking about.

Hi All
In todays Sunday Mail in ref. to business the following quote was given:
Michael Devereux, professor of business taxation at Oxford University, said that withdrawing capital investment relief would call into question whether a Government was taxing profit all. "If you are trying to tax profit you have to give relief for the cost of earning it" he said.
This is exactly what the Chancellor is trying to do in his proposal for individual BTL landlords - I wonder can this really be implemented into the tax returns of individuals?

Reply to the comment left by "kathleen drea" at "02/08/2015 - 20:09":

Hi Kathleen. The professor should be on our hit list then. I've made a note to write to him tomorrow and if anyone else wants to that would be even better. It would be nice to have an ally in the hallowed halls of Oxford.

Reply to the comment left by "Connie Cheuk" at "02/08/2015 - 19:35":

Hi Connie.
Do you have an email address for Martin and Co head office? I tried to email them but got a failure notice. I've received their newsletter, talking about buy-to-let hotspots and buy-to-let growth up to June this year (!) and I want them to ask us to cover the potential demise of buy-to-let if this proposal goes ahead.

Reply to the comment left by "Ros ." at "02/08/2015 - 20:31":

I emailed individual branches, but will certainly look up or call tomorrow. I believe it's in Bournemouth, but will check.

Reply to the comment left by "Martin Silman" at "02/08/2015 - 18:00":

Hi Martin

Which other sector would have bought the new-builds?

BTL landlords often bought properties off-plan, before a spade had been put in the ground. They paid 15% of the price a few weeks later and committed themselves to paying the rest when the properties were finished, perhaps 18 months later.

Because of their commitment, the builder was then able to borrow to start on the next project. If he had had to wait for owner occupiers to commit, possibly when the site was finished, he would not have been able to move on so quickly. Thus landlords enabled builders to develop more sites than they could have done otherwise.

BTL landlords also bought properties after they were finished which owner-occupiers could have bought but did not want to.

You say that builders would have sold them to somebody else possibly more cheaply. You are assuming that the builders would develop sites on that basis.

The fact is there would have been 57% fewer new-builds between 1986 and 2012 without landlords. The majority of these were bought by individuals. It is thanks to landlords that these properties exist today. They facilitated an expansion in the supply of dwellings. Some of these have since been sold to owner-occupiers, including FTB’s.

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Brown" at "02/08/2015 - 15:28":

Mark B: landlords simply cannot increase your rents on a whim if the market is not ready to tolerate it. I suspect that there may be significant upward pressure on rents, but that will dictated by future market dynamics.

I actually think 6k is not a bad start for the first few days of any petition (that took place mainly over a weekend, holiday season, parliament in recess). But remember this is NOT a Property118 petition. Given that it the reality is now starting to spread, hopefully by mid next week it should have filtered through to all LL associations. Some of which eg NLA/RLA may have good contacts to lobby in parliament.

As I put in my emails to my MP David Gauke (who also has a little job down at the Treasury), the data and their analysis of it that led them to the conclusions they have come up with should be shared with the electorate, as I assume many of us have done so with their MPs.

In addition to everything else he has done to open up the debate, BTL Scotland has also sent some very sensible freedom of information requests.

This is just the very start of the debate…

Reply to the comment left by "Ros ." at "02/08/2015 - 20:31":

Ros, it's St Stephen's Court, 15-17 St Stephen's Road, Bournemouth BH2 6LA
01202 559922

Reply to the comment left by "Connie Cheuk" at "02/08/2015 - 20:37":

CEO Ian Wilson.

Contact given on site is not for him.
Investor relations team -
Bell Pottinger
martinco@bell-pottinger.com
0207 861 3232

Sunday evening's slogan:

Support Your Fellow Landlord – Sign the Petition Against the Landlord Tax Changes
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/104880