The latest tax surcharge on landlords for most landlords is a bad move. Higher transaction costs will obviously reduce a landlords long-term investment returns and may well discourage some potential buy-to-let investors from making the leap. It's understandable that having to swallow a 3% stamp duty surcharge will simply be too much for some potential landlords.
Treasuries war on landlords
The Chancellor & Treasury continues it out and out tax war against landlords. All this comes off the back of the booming buy-to-let sector. Stepping back and trying to view it objectively the Government has given us landlords historically low interest rates and created the conditions for many of us to book record rental profits. The Government 'giveth now they are determined to taketh away too'. If you were being very critical; one could argue that the low interest rates were only instigated to prevent a house price crash of gargantuan proportions that would have dragged down what was left of the British banking system and the economy with it. All this was caused by the Government this time lead by New Labour (do you remember the pre Corbyn lot of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown's et al) failure to act properly to regulate the banks in the first place. I digress.The stamp duty surcharge could be good for me
I'm currently selling a classic buy to let property (2 bed maisonette & still open to offers!). The surcharge due to come in during April could be good for me. The forecast now is for a stampede of buy-to-let purchasers before the deadline. This hopefully will help cement and speed my current sale to a buyer looking for a buy-to-let . This is my silver lining out of a set of onerous tax changes. Not so good for other landlords though. We are after all easy pickings. I do worry that when this current bizarre monetary environment returns to so called 'normal' we could be left we a range of strange and divisive policies that discriminate against landlords and the private rental sector.Landlord insurance - professional rates - online brokers
"All this was caused by the Government this time lead by New Labour (do you remember the pre Corbyn lot of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown's et al) failure to act properly to regulate the banks in the first place."
ReplyDeletePlease also add that the Tories have done absolutely nothing to increase regulation of the banking sector - in fact, they have reduced it.
Nor did they call for greater regulation at the time. The Tories are even more banker-friendly than New Labour, and all the underlying causes of the last financial crisis are still in place. It is only a matter of time before the next one.
Still, it is good to see Property Hawk calling for greater bank regulation. Presumably you'll be backing Corbyn all the way on this, as he is the only party leader calling for greater regulation of the finance industry?
Lastly, let's not forget that although inadequate regulation and supervision may have played a part, the financial crisis was caused by widespread, institutionalised criminal fraud in the banking industry.
Blaming the regulators for that is like blaming the police force for rapes and murders.