Private landlords’ confidence is at the lowest level since late 2006 according to market research company BDRC Continental, thanks to anti-buy to let measures announced last year.
“There are few ‘happy ever after’ tales here. Many private landlords in Britain are really concerned about the impact of the 2015 Budget when tax relief on private rental properties was cut, and given the housing shortage, the potential knock-on effect on renters and the supply of rental homes is something that we all need to care about” claims BDRC director Mark Long.
He says his firms‘ research shows that 59 per cent of landlords believe that the 2015 Budget will decrease their profitability; amongst large-scale landlords with 20-plus profits that figure rises to 81 per cent.
Only 39 per cent of landlords with a specialist buy to let mortgage believe their short-term prospects as good or very good, compared to 48 per cent of mortgage-free landlords.
Around a third of landlords are considering incorporating.
However, although landlord confidence may be down, tenant demand shows no signs of weakening. Almost four in 10 private landlords report increasing demand for rental properties in the areas they operate in, up five percentage points from late 2015.
Landlords with mid to large sized portfolios are particularly positive, with over 45 per cent reporting increasing tenant demand.
“With almost a decade of data on the sector, and 36,000 interviews, we can identify trends and it’s clear that the current sentiment among private landlords is very low” says Long.
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The changes are set to hit all landlords of any size but its the mid to smaller portfolio the government must be after, say 3 to 5 properties with a heavy mortgage commitment.
I have done a variety of maths on different portfolio models and 3/5 properties with a 75% overall mortgage are particularly vulnerable.
Unless your lucky enough to own in an area where property is going up by at least 7% pa, it is probably best to sell a property and use the equity to pay off some mortgage payments on the others bringing them into profit. I don't know how many properties this policy would release onto the market but I think its inevitable that with in the next two years action of this kind will happen.
This can only be good news for the larger companies able to withstand the assault and continue purchasing BTL.
In my opinion government only wants big fish in this game and is taxing accordingly.
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