Landlords are concerned about Budget announcement

Buy-to-let landlords are bracing themselves for more significant alterations to the market to be announced in Wednesday’s budget.

Landlord News reported last week that 66% of investors expect to see further changes to the sector. Research from The House Crowd also showed that the EU Mortgage Credit Directive, coupled with tax legislations, had led 70% of landlords to suggest that their investments will be affected.

‘Little cheer’

Now, estate agency Chestertons has said that landlords can look forwards to, ‘little cheer,’ when the Chancellor opens his briefcase later in the week.

Nick Barnes, Head of Research at Chestertons said, ‘we expect confirmation of further bad news from the Chancellor, particularly the announcement of the rules regarding the 3% surcharge on second homes and buy-to-let properties.’[1]

Mr Barnes believes that Osborne has been naïve in not heeding warnings from the property industry over the impact of the tax changes and landlords’ buy-to-let mortgage tax relief.

Vital

Cory Askew, Executive Director at Chestertons also said, ‘we would love to see the Chancellor throw some sort of bone to smaller buy-to-let landlords that are so vital to a vibrant private rented sector.’[1]

Additionally, Askew called on the Government to see more of an emphasis put on finding development land, alongside cutting red tape which is slowing building.

‘Fiddling about with stamp duty or trying to influence investment behavior is unlikely to achieve anything positive in this respect. More likely it will have the opposite to the intended effect,’ he warned.[1]

Hopeful

However, Jeremy Duncombe, Director of Legal & General’s Mortgage Club, said he is hopeful that the Chancellor will not meddle in the market again, at least not in the Budget.

Duncombe said, ‘the full impact of the announcements made in the Summer Budget and Autumn Statement are not yet clear, so further involvement at this stage could therefore derail the important market changes that the Chancellor was seeking.’[1]

[1] https://www.lettingagenttoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2016/3/budget-preview-landlords-wary-of-further-setbacks