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You’re Wrong Boris! Landlords tell PM to back rental sector

A landlords’ trade body has ticked off Prime Minister Boris Johnson for his attitude towards the rental sector.

He suggested in his speech to the Conservatives’ virtual conference that people could only make a home out of a property they owned.

But the National Residential Landlords Association says it has evidence to the contrary.

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A landlords’ association survey found that 63 per cent of renters had redecorated their home and 52 per cent had made significant changes to their gardens with the permission of their landlord.

Chris Norris, NRLA policy director, says: “Whilst we believe that those who want to should have the opportunity to buy a home of their own, the Prime Minister is wrong to imply that renters cannot turn the properties they live in into a home of their own. 

“Indeed, landlords much prefer to have tenants settled long term in a home they feel comfortable in and want to look after.

“If the government really wants to support homeownership it should consider changes to the tax system to support and encourage landlords considering leaving the market to sell to first time buyers. 

“Reports that ministers are considering an increase in Capital Gains Tax would serve only to incentivise landlords to hold on to properties longer than they might otherwise have done.”

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    Who would have thought it, we voted conservative and got labour.

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    But if you had voted labour last time you would have got communism!

     
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    • 07 October 2020 10:55 AM

    Marxists more like!!!!!!!!

     
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    So I guess we vote Farage and hopefully get something resembling traditional conservatism…

     
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    • 07 October 2020 13:18 PM

    So who do you go for:
    Keir Starmar
    Boris Johnson
    Nicola Sturgeon
    Ed Davey
    Rishi Sunak
    Nigel Farage

    No brainer for me....

     
    Algarve  Investor

    @Luke Aaron, Farage hasn't even been able to be elected as an MP despite seven or eight attempts. He is a serial failure. He couldn't even win in Thanet, a real Brexiteer hotbed.

    He will never get close to being an MP, and we'll be all the better for it.

    Farage doesn't care about the man/woman on the street anymore than Boris. He's a Tory reject and a perennial contrarian. He still hasn't got over being an outcast at Dulwich College, one of the most prestigious private schools in the country.

    If you think Farage - Trump's mate and a serial failure at elections - is the answer, I dread to think what the question is.

     
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    He's a 'serial failure' because the system is not in the slightest bit fair. It favours the two big parties and relies on them to enact any kind of change. He's also one of the best all-round politicians in the past century, being very quick-thinking, media-savvy, knows his history, has outstanding oratory skills as well as tenacity and the ability to speak to the common man. His ideals are very fair-minded and I don't think we can do much worse than him to be honest. There's not a lot wrong with Trump's actions either underneath the whole 'two fingers up to the media's "usual" way of doing business'. Who would you suggest as an alternative, because it certainly ain't more of the same or the loonies in Labour.

     
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    Just think what labour would have done if they had got into power. Who knows what the latest leader would do? Hopefully he would be less extreme than the likes of Corbyn and McDonnell!

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    Does Boris not like the colour of No. 10's front door? He could always move out!

    Perhaps in his younger days his experiences of living in other peoples' houses were largely limited to an overnight stay after a party?

    NB. Note the use of PERHAPS - a question, not an allegation!

  • Mark Wilson

    The NRLA make me laugh 'If the government really wants to support homeownership it should consider changes to the tax system to support and encourage landlords considering leaving the market to sell to first time buyers'.

    First time buyers have been squeezed out of the market in part due to BTL speculators. No wonder it is a lobby that is only talking to itself.

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    Life has always been difficult for first time buyers - with mortgages rationed during the credit squeeze of the 70's, 15% interest rates in the 80's or 90's (can't remember when exactly - only remember the pain).

    The difference with previous generations is we worked to overcome the difficulties - with deposits saved over years from earnings and not funded bank of mum'n'dad, no granny's equity release or legacies etc.

    So why not encourage landlords to "right" what you see as a "wrong" by providing tax incentives if landlords sell to first time buyers - assuming the ftb's can sacrifice their fancy cars, holidays, costalot coffees etc. to save the deposit?

    To help all home buyers, landlords already have a 3% (4% in Scotland) Stamp Duty penalty imposed on property purchases. We also, uniquely, pay tax on turnover, not profit, pay 28% CGT - with only a single year's CGT allowance - no matter how long we have held the property we then sell.

    By contrast those who could more correctly be called speculators can bed'n'breakfast shares to get an annual CGT allowance, enjoy an annual dividend tax allowance and those who buy over businesses can get £1 million of capital gains taxed at 10% instead of the 28% paid by landlords.

    However I suspect you're not too interested in finding "solutions" to the "plight" of first time buyers and more interested in continuing to hammer landlords!

     
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    Mark. You do realise the evidence says the exact opposite, right? That - apart from the 2 years following the credit crunch, FTBs have for the last 25 years been the biggest, or the very closest second place, of all buyers?

    If you can show me the slightest evidence - real evidence, not a hearsay comment in the Guardian - then you might have some credibility but the EHS, ONS, NHPAU and even the LSE disagree with you.

     
    Mark Wilson

    Every flat acquired to rent is on more flat out of owner occupation. Falling interest rates has pushed values higher as investor v's owners chase yield. It is not true to say raising a deposit has always been this tough. All you need to look at is the salary multiplier to an average salary to work that one out. The removal of tax relief was an attempt to the level field as are higher stamp duty rates. The last two years may demonstrate the damage speculators have caused to the owner occupation market, remove the tax gift and the investment becomes less attractive. Tax drives every investment and BTL is being hit. House inflation is a terrible thing for any economy. Removing the speculator is not a bad thing for society and government is acting. The easy money has been made, exit via the gift shop.

     
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    And where do the people that cant get a mortgage because they are on benefits/ too old to qualify for a mortgage/Only want to live in the area temporarily/Don't want the commitment of the property for various reasons.

    WHERE DO THEY LIVE?

     
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    Every flat bought for renting potentially provides a long term home to those who can't afford to buy and many of them will never be able to afford to buy.

    The Council and LHA's can't house them all. Would Mark rather they lived in cardboard boxes?

     
  •  G romit

    "First time buyers have been squeezed out of the market in part due to BTL speculators."
    Where you evidence? Successive English Housing Survey do not support this. Also explain how BTL landlords are speculators? BTL is by its very nature long term. Or is it just your usual emotive specious bs?

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    This article lambasts the PM for stating "people could only make a home out of a property they owned.", giving 'evidence' such as X% of a survey (it is not stated when this survey was done, what it was called and how one can find it....you keep doing this, Landlord Today!) of tenants redecorate their properties. Dodgy evidence and dodgy reporting, I'm afraid. Painting the walls of a bedroom or putting up curtains of their choice in the lounge is not evidence of 'making a home'. Only idiot tenants would give their time and money to truly 'make a home' when they've signed a one-year tenancy agreement and can then be evicted. If landlords really want their tenants to 'make a home' of it, they should grant 5 or 10 year tenancies.

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    The average length of a tenancy is well over 3 years in most parts of the country, so plenty of time to make it their "home".

    "No fault" evictions are a leftie myth. Landlords don't evict good tenants, especially now when they can't easily evict and so much prefer the "devil they know".

     
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    Hi Robert: Fact checker please: please can you give the source of or evidence for "average length of tenancy is well over 3 years in most parts of the country" please. (So many people on 'Landlord Today' give 'facts' that support their arguments without stating where these 'facts' are sourced'.) Good if you could state this. Many Thanks.

     
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    English Housing Survey (that the MHCLG also cite in their own research) states 3.9 years as average according to the most recent figures I can find. This is widely known and accepted to be correct.

     
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    Similar evidence for Scotland given to the SNP and ignored when they brought in their loony legislation in December 2017, which caused many to move to Airbnb, fhl etc. and rents for the best properties rose by 30%.

     
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    Thanks Luke. Sorry, I probably did not make myself clear. It's not the length of the average tenancy that decides whether a tenant feels 'at home' - it's the length of the tenancy as stated in the tenancy agreement. A tenant may wish to stay put for years, but with a 12-month agreement, he/she will never feel the property is their 'home', with a possible notice to quit always on the horizon.

     
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    In that case the SNP has sentenced its renting supporters from never feeling at home!

    It's very rare for a decent tenant not to stay on after the initial period of the rental agreement. "No fault" evictions are largely a myth but actually work in the tenants' favour in hiding the real reason why the tenant is looking for a new home.

    In Scotland, where they can no longer hide behind the myth of a no fault eviction, landlords are now alert to checking tenants out more thoroughly before giving them potentially unlimited possession of a six figure asset that will be extremely difficult to repossess if things go sour. This higher risk caused massive departures from the PRS, accompanied by massive market-driven rent increases for the best properties.

    Yet again, loony lefties have ended up harming the vast majority of decent tenants to protect the minority of rogue tenants.

     
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    David Wirth - Thats cos the decision on if a tenant can stay in a property is being taken out of LL hands with the constant interference in our business.

    Can I respectfully suggest that you really think through some of your comments before posting as I dont think you are really getting it
    Many Thanks

     
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    Absolutely anyone who buys a house is speculating. The only exception might be someone building on a large estate they already own. There are different levels of speculating of course but most of us buy a house to get on the bandwagon of house price inflation and currency devaluation. These two cancel each other over, say, forty years but in the end if you price your house in Spanish holidays it will still be exactly the same number.

    I have some properties. They are not worth any more to me now than when I bought them in terms of spending power. The point is that I could sell them and have my spending power from thirty years ago returned to me. If that cash had been in a bank it wouldn't buy more than one holiday in Spain now. (very simplified)

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    Totally agree Fred. Years ago there was an indexation allowance which took inflation into account and thus mitigated the amount of Capital Gains Tax payable on long-held property investments.

    If this were brought back, plus allowing landlords to "roll up" unused annual CGT allowances and make Stamp Duty less onerous then I am sure many landlords would be happy to sell to those first time buyers with the gumption to sacrifice some luxuries and save the necessary deposits.

     
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    The PM is seriously mistaken on this. The average tenancy is 4.2 years (EHS). I have two tenants of 15 years, one of 12, one of 10, somebody right now RELUCTANTLY leaving after 9.5 years. None of their houses look anything like what I gave them. I have one new tenant just moved in to a £25,000 refurbishment who has almost immediately asked to redecorate my £3000 paintwork. I have agreed, as they seem to want a very long term let to get kids into and through school.

    I hear this often in my day job as a landlord accreditation trainer. The usual govt horsesht about the sector being insecure and unhomely. And yes, when Osborne spouted his lies about wanting to get FTBs on the Ladder whilst forcing out landlords, there was clearly an ideal opportunity for the 2 to meet in a mutually beneficial deal! But guess what? Osborne was not interested in the same way that this government - now planning to put UP CGT - are also clearly not interested.

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    You not seriously gonna let 'them' redecorate after you just paid out £25k?

     
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    I have many long term tenants, one retired couple, been my tenants nearly 10 yrs, transformed the garden, hard and soft landscaping , new kitchen unit fronts, new work tops, decorated to a very high standard and even installed a wet room, all at no cost to me.

     
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    Could 'Landlord Today' please, please stop referring to the PM as 'Boris' - Headline above: "You're wrong Boris'. I'm certainly not on first-name terms with him. Blair was never just 'Tony', Brown was never just 'Gordon', Cameron was never just 'David', Trump is never just 'Donald' It gives the impression of friendship/informality with the PM. 'Johnson' please, Landlord Today.

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    • 08 October 2020 09:49 AM

    Shows a lack of respect. Which says it all really.

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