The vast majority of Buy-to-let Landlords are set to stay in the industry despite the tax increases Goerge Osborne announced in last year.
According to a YouGov survey comissioned by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) 60% say they will take no action in the face of the increase in stamp duty on additional home purchases and the offsetting of mortgage interest against profits.
7% of respondents to the survey of nearly 1,000 say they plan to sell all of their properties while 6% say they will sell some but not all.
7% say they will slow down the rate at which they buy properties and 8% say they will stop completely. Of the remainder, 6% will review their portfolio, 11% are unsure and 2% offered another answer.
According to the CML’s Bob Parnell the main outcome of changes will simply be higher rents.
Bob Parnell said: “Landlords should be able to mitigate the direct financial impact in a number of ways. Indeed, the latest YouGov research corroborates our view that the overall impact will be to lift rents higher and to narrow the availability of homes in the private rented sector.
“The direct effects appear modest, but are likely to be reinforced by the stamp duty changes, announced in the chancellor’s autumn statement. The rapid succession of recent tax changes also risks having a significant indirect effect on investor sentiment, altering the direction of travel for buy-to-let lending and the further expansion of the private rented sector.
“The CML’s latest market forecasts envisage house purchase activity by buy-to-let landlords falling away over 2016 and 2017.
“Given the significant lags in government housing initiatives stimulating additional housing supply, this raises a question about the future availability of rental accommodation in the face of ongoing demographic pressures.”
