Wednesday, Jan 23, 2008
Crackdown on BTL
BBC: Review of private rental market
The government has the great ability to screw everything they touch. I have great hopes they do irreparable damage to these leaches! With the tremendous "growth in negative profit" both from rental and capital appreciation, it only takes an announcement like this to push thousands of these leaches to sell in a hurry. Plus Inland Revenue will crack down on the sector as well. BTL armageddon in April as CGT changes?
Posted by confused76 @ 06:12 PM (638 views) Add Comment
8 Comments
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1. who stole my pension? said...
He he.This is Brown spin for a windfall tax on BTL! The government needs money and what better from the unloved but mega rich BTL's!
2. Yellerkat said...
BTL owners: % of which are Labour supporters? Vanishingly small, certainly in SE.
BTL victims: % of which are Labour supporters? Far greater.
Seems a no-brainer to me. Ergo Gordo & his buddies will miss an opportunity.
3. This comment has been removed as it was found to be in breach of our Blog Policies.
4. Montesquieu said...
Their timing is uncanny though ... HIPS coming out just in time to add that little bit of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt to the mix ... CG changes ... now better regulation of a dying market... it's brilliant. Maybe there are some socialists left in the Labour party after all :)
Long time coming though .. I was caught out by the last market wobble moving back to England from Scotland in late 2004, had a hard time selling up north so decided to rent, only to see the madness start back up again in mid 2005. I just refused to pay the prices so never bought anything. Some of the slimy landlords I've had to deal with in that time have been truly appaling characters ... seems to attract the worst kind of grasping, stubborn, obnoxious type of individual. Can't wait to see them get well and truly stuffed in coming months
There seems to be no regulation or protection at all at the moment for tenants, but watch these low-life squeal when suddenly their compliant, downtrodden tenants get some RIGHTS .. I can't wait!
My current landlord has it coming particularly .. he bought the place I'm renting now (for £1000 a month, talk about cheap) for £360k in 2003 and put it on the market at £495k in July 2007, dropped to £475k in august ... and has had a total of three viewers in seven months.
The reason he put it up for sale was he had to remortgage around then and went 'oh shit' as he's now having to subsidise my rent by £600 a month ... he offered the house to me for £400k last week but I don't think he'd even get that right now ... pretty poor returns for the biggest property bubble in British history I'd say ....
And there's lots more where he came from who will soon be ready to offload at almost any price to make the pain go away, especially with the Government breathing down his neck.
5. wiltshire said...
About time too. If the governments responsible for so many people being priced out of home ownership then they should ensure that tenants are well protected. Hopefully decent, professional landlords (yes, both of them!) will accept any new rules. The rest know what they can do.
Montesquieu, it's not easy staying out of the market is it? Dealing with landlords when you could be in your own place but I think your decision in mid 2005 was the right one, staying out of the market. No-one could have predicted the market would show the tenacity that it did but nevertheless it looks like it's finally running out of steam - well, it had to one day. Good luck, I hope you get what you want (maybe the place you're in for nearer 300k?).
6. happyrenterz said...
why build a million new homes when you can pester a million BTL'ers into selling up. Good plan!
7. Montesquieu said...
Thanks Wiltshire. Who knows? What does annoy me are these pundits with a vested interest in talking things up, out there pontificating about no crash, flat market or 2% gains in 2008, just a wobble, buy now before it all goes up again in the summer ....
The fact is the market has crashed already. I'm not buying yet, and probably wont' for another year, so long as I don't get kicked out soon ;) But I did have a look at a propety last weekend. Tiny three bed county cottage in a nice fairly rural setting. Purchased at auction by the couple next door who fenced off its land for themselves and left it with hardly any space around it at all (not even enough to turn my car, had to reverse out). But wonderfully 'presented' (in minature country kitsch furniture and Laura Ashley fabric, not to mention the obligatory decking. Even a mini-Aga. Wifey must have had a blast).
Been on market since June at £450k, then £435k since September, according to propertysnake. I just laughed when I saw the inside (my study, in the 4-bed, equally rural place I'm renting, is bigger than its living room, to say nothing of the double garage, extra bedroom or master en-suite in my current place).
Estate agent asked me how much I thought it was worth. Being charitable I said £300k (actually, more like sub-£250k but I wanted to sound serious). She asked if I'd make an offer at that ... 30% off last year's valuation at a stroke, and she didn't bat an eyelid. I said no. Too small.
The crash started in the summer, make no mistake. Both these houses (my landlord's at £475k and this other one at £435k) are still on the books at those values, their respective agents don't want to be the first to drop official asking prices. But they are not realistic valuation-based prices any more. All it will take are a few distress purchases like my greedy landlord, a few reposessions (sadly, many will be people taken in by the whole celebrity makeover relocation relocation free money last chance to buy a villa in Bulgaria circus), and the whole thing is going to collapse like a deck of cards.
8. Happy Btl said...
Well they can do what they want, cos my BTL properties have been paid off completely by my tenants thank you very much. Free houses for me, ha ha ha! :-)
Took 14 years and as I have no intention of selling, I couldn't give a shit whether the house prices go up or down to be honest, as long as I keep getting lots of free money from my tenants. :-)
I don't suppose anyone has noticed, but old Gordy doesn't actually want the house prices to fall because lots of voters will kill him off at the next election, so he won't want to do anything that hurts us landlords unless the market is going up strongly again.
Landlords can't lose. If house prices are falling people don't want to buy, so they rent instead. Great for landlords, cos we just push the rent fees up and get more free money. If the house prices are going up, us landlords need to keep our rent prices lowish to keep tenants in & happy, but no big deal, equity growth makes up for the loss of some rent.
Like the stock market, I'm just waiting for the prices to crash, so I can buy a couple more BTL properties. :-)