Tenants bearing brunt of government home ownership focus

Tenants bearing brunt of government home ownership focus

8:40 AM, 12th August 2019, About 5 years ago 2

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Tenants in private rented housing are bearing the brunt of the Government’s focus on boosting home ownership at the expense of the rental market.

According to the latest figures from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), a fall in the supply of private rented housing whilst demand from prospective tenants increases is “likely to squeeze rents higher.” Tenant demand has picked up despite the Government’s efforts to boost homeownership and RICS notes that many respondents to its latest residential market survey saw a rise in the number of enquiries from new home buyers in July.

Over recent years tax changes by the Government, including restricting mortgage interest relief to the basic rate of income tax and introducing a three per cent stamp duty levy on the purchase of new homes to rent out, have led some landlords to leave the market. This is despite the Institute for Fiscal Studies warned that it was “plain wrong” to argue that landlords were taxed more favourably than homeowners. The Chartered Institute of Housing has also noted that “tax reliefs deliver a much bigger benefit to home-owners than they do for private landlords.”

David Smith, Policy Director the Residential Landlords Association, said:

“These figures demonstrate yet again that hitting the private rented sector to boost homeownership serves only to hurt tenants. Demand from tenants and new buyers is increasing at the same time. It is vital that the needs of both groups are met.

“The Government needs to stop making landlords the scapegoat for the housing crisis and embark on a raft of pro-growth measures to boost the supply of homes for the private rented sector. If they do not, supply will continue to fall, meaning higher rents, less choice, and a reduction in quality for tenants.”


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Comments

David Lawrenson

13:08 PM, 12th August 2019, About 5 years ago

A big issue is that the government has introduced so many new regulations and tax changes effecting the private rented sector without evaluating any of them.

Not that it would have been easy. So many of the new regs and taxes have come so close together (in time), that to evaluate them would be almost impossible, in most cases.

As I noted last week, the particular shambles of Right to Rent ( (a Theresa May policy when home sec, by the way) could have been avoided if only they had bothered to evaluate the pilot areas before rolling out nationally, Same applies for Universal Credit. See here...

https://www.lettingfocus.com/blogs/2019/03/right-to-rent-scheme-breaches-human-rights-law/

Really is poor government! Not that we could expect any better under Labour, of course.

David Lawrenson
http://www.LettingFocus.com
Independent Advice for Landlords

david Brinsden

9:41 AM, 28th August 2019, About 5 years ago

I have been a long term landlord with 12 properties, half of which have been let to benefits claimants. This has peaked for me & I am now selling up. I am selling my 3rd property & really don't think I will go back into residential, I am now focussing on commercial properties.

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