Welcome to “Landlords’ Barometer #31”, my first of 2016 – a year that promises to be VERY interesting and challenging for the private rented sector!
Here are the hottest topics of the New Year so far:
1. Landlords unite! Help fund a Judicial Review of Clause 24!
Far from relaxing at Christmas, two landlords, Steve Bolton and Chris Cooper, launched a crowdfunding effort to fund a Judicial Review of Clause 24.
The “stretch” target of £50K was reached in a matter of days, and saw the entire property community unite under a common cause – to challenge the Government over the tax changes introduced in the Summer Budget 2015.
This hot topic had 232 comments at the time of writing and has engaged and united landlords like never before!
2. Housing crisis?! You ain’t seen nothing yet!
Solicitor blog Nearly Legal picked up on some flaws in the Housing and Planning Bill and quickly gained traction with the concerns raised about provision of social housing and how the dwindling supply will impact on tenants across all tenures.
Along with this, I curated other issues that are going to fuel a major housing melt-down.
Contributors to this thread include solicitor Giles Peaker, landlord Nick Parkin, and industry commentator Kate Faulkner.
3. 10 simple ways to simplify a landlord’s life in 2015
Late last year, I took time to reflect on how we can simplify our landlord lives. It was inspired by an event I attended before Christmas which was at a yoga studio and was about coping with stress.
A few things came out of that event for me which I thought I could apply to my landlord life:
- Simplify things.
- Learn to say “No” to things.
- When making decisions about which actions to take, put your responses into three categories: Yes; No; Yes, but later
Inspired by this, I researched 10 ways to simplify your landlord life.
4. Top 30 most popular discussions on Property Tribes of 2015
It’s always interesting to look back over the past year and see what grabbed eyeballs. I curated our top discussions of the year and there are no surprises which topics got landlords fired up!
5. Time is of the essence for landlords who want to minimise the amount of money they put into a deal
There are under 80 days for landlords to complete property transactions!
Stamp Duty changes and increasing regulation of BTL mortgages, including stricter lending criteria being introduced, means that landlords have a diminishing window of opportunity to purchase property when looking to minimise their financial input.
Thank you for reading my column and I take this opportunity to wish all EYE readers a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2016!
Comments (6)
Thanks for commenting Woodentop.
I don’t believe I said landlords would stop buying after 1st April, but why pay 3% extra if you don’t need to? Creating awareness of deadlines can help landlords make decisions that could save them money.
Also, I am more than happy to admit that I learn something new every day and I like to share things that might assist others, never assuming that others know more or less than myself. 🙂
Thanks for commenting Robert.
The problem is that the 3% stamp duty hike is upfront cash that an investor has to find.
Also, capital appreciation is highly speculative and cannot be guaranteed.
Savvy investors look at cash flow and an additional 3% up front eats into the cash flow of the property very significantly.
Hope that explains the reasoning behind not paying 3% if you act quickly?
You normally bring some good points to the table but does this means that when 3% come into effect, landlords will stop buying? Err no.
Simplify things.
Learn to say “No” to things.
When making decisions about which actions to take, put your responses into three categories: Yes; No; Yes, but later.
Have you only just learnt this fundamental lesson in life?
“Landlord purchasers have only weeks to minimise their financial pain on Stamp Duty Land Tax”
An additional 3% tax on purchases is unlikely to phase an intelligent, professional, investor; 3% is only half the annual national average increase in prices. Over the weekend I found a postcode district where prices are 42% below where they ought to be for no other reason than there is an abundant supply.
Call me old fashioned but investors spotting the potential for >40% capital appreciation (given time) and double figure yields in the mean time are unlikely to be put off by a 3% purchase tax. I’d pay a finders fee of 5% to find investments like that.
Did you cross reference the volume of repos in this same area ? Usually when you have supressed house prices in an area it’s due to poor local economic activity !
It isn’t poor economic activity.