Straw Poll to combat further government attacks – Please help

Straw Poll to combat further government attacks – Please help

9:14 AM, 9th October 2018, About 6 years ago 84

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There is now the possibility of the Government extending its fiscal attack on the PRS, Click Here, by scrapping lettings relief of up to £40,000 and reducing the PPR period from 18 months to 6 months. The supposed quid pro quo being landlord exemptions from paying 50% of their CGT that would otherwise be payable, if they sell to ‘sitting’ [sic] tenants of 3 years’ standing who would also receive the equivalent of 50% of the CGT due as a deposit contribution.

The ‘think tank’ Onward, In its latest report, has proposed this new fiscal attack ‘include’ the two ‘tax relief’ policies, implying this could be extended to include further tax assaults on the sector. The group has previously suggested the complete disallowing of finance costs and even disallowing costs such as that of furnishings in rented houses.  I have previously written about this for an article on Conservativehome titled “The Government’s attack on private landlords is misguided“.

This latest suggestion, which it is rumoured may be announced in the forthcoming Budget, is based on the idea that there are annually 88,000 tenants who would thereby purchase the rented home in which they live. The authors of the report have provided no evidence that this would transpire, other than quoting a survey finding that 9 out of 10 renters would like to own. They then make some dodgy extrapolations.

With the lack of any hard data on this, I am therefore conducting a straw poll and I would be grateful if as many landlords can answer as possible.

When answering, include all properties, even HMOs (however ridiculous this may seem). Please can you answer the 4 points in the comments section below numbering them from 1 to 4 and then give your views on this policy if you have any? We need landlords’ expertise on this as otherwise our voices will not be heard.

  1. What percentage of your current tenants have lived in your property for more than 3 years?

  2. What number of tenant households does this equate to?

  3. What percentage of all of your current tenants (counting a household as one) do you believe would take up this offer to buy the landlord’s property, including meeting mortgage requirements (if a deposit was gifted to them) and wanting to buy the property they rent from you (rather than a different property elsewhere for example)?

  4. What number (of households) does this equate to?

Additionally if you believe your tenant is not able to afford to buy, can you explain why you believe that to be the case?

Please leave your answers below in comments.

Thank you very much for your assistance


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Comments

John Dace

12:14 PM, 13th October 2018, About 6 years ago

1) 40%
2) 3
3) 0
4) 0
Tenants prefer to rent or financially unable to get mortgage.

DC

15:20 PM, 13th October 2018, About 6 years ago

1. 33%
2. 6
3. 0%
4. 0

Sue London

15:53 PM, 13th October 2018, About 6 years ago

1. 50%
2. 13 households
3. 5%
4. 1 household

Stewart

17:40 PM, 13th October 2018, About 6 years ago

What percentage of your current tenants have lived in your property for more than 3 years?
1: - 50%
What number of tenant households does this equate to?
2: - 25
What percentage of all of your current tenants (counting a household as one) do you believe would take up this offer to buy the landlord’s property, including meeting mortgage requirements (if a deposit was gifted to them) and wanting to buy the property they rent from you (rather than a different property elsewhere for example)?
3:- 2%
What number (of households) does this equate to?
4: - 1
Additionally if you believe your tenant is not able to afford to buy, can you explain why you believe that to be the case?
5: - They are on benefits or low paid work. Many of my tenants are young professionals and although they are happy to rent whilst working here (Newcastle) they move on after a year or so because of job moves, relationship changes, starting a family etc. and do not want the trouble and expense of buying, furnishing and then re-selling. Renting is is ideal for them but they don't want to buy from me.

Rob Hoy

18:38 PM, 13th October 2018, About 6 years ago

1) 25%
2) 5
3) 0
4) 0
Out of the 5, 4 are either retired or on benefits and the other household stay as the rent is lower that similar properties. All seem happy to contact the local agent and get the problem fixed. Their finances are not sufficient to buy even with the "gifted" deposit. As for CGT, 75% of the properties are in negative, marginal equity so the "gift" would be zero.

Dr Rosalind Beck

18:50 PM, 13th October 2018, About 6 years ago

Thanks all. Including some answers emailed to me, I now have a sample of 51 landlords owning way over a thousand properties with fewer than 2 percent of tenant households in a position to buy. I welcome any more replies as the bigger the sample, the more standing this poll has.

Ian Burton

19:52 PM, 13th October 2018, About 6 years ago

All My houses are managed by an agent so I do not know accurately how many of them have even been in for > 3 years, but it is certainly more than 3. Again as most of mine are social housing, I again do not know if they'd even want to buy their own home (most of them think the world owes them a home so I'd guess its not high on the priority list.) Given all of that, on the basis of at some point in the near future I will be selling my portfolio (only because I am getting to the age that I can't be bothered too much anymore and also most of them are the famous west brom buy to let victory) so personally reducing my CGT in one fell swoop would be a good idea.

Ahmad Jibril

21:55 PM, 13th October 2018, About 6 years ago

1. 10%
2. 5
3. 2%
4. 1

Mark Parsons

22:04 PM, 13th October 2018, About 6 years ago

1 70%
2 2
3 0%
4 0
On benefits or has part time job, so would find it very difficult to get a mortgage - not that they have indicated that they should like to buy.

Peter G

22:40 PM, 13th October 2018, About 6 years ago

50%
1
0
0
one tenant is a taxi driver with 3 young children and I expect him to move from our 2-bed flat to a larger property in the coming months so he will not be interested in buying our place. The other tenant with 2 children moved out from our 2 bed flat to buy a house 20 miles away at a price she could afford so I am seeking a new tenant for my empty property but there is a glut of new flats in the area and the void is taking a while to fill as there are too few people wanting to rent (but they cannot afford to buy in this very expensive part of Berkshire).

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