The Future for Buy to Let Landlords

David Lawrenson of LettingFocus sees some positives from what appears to be a gloomy year for landlords. The Future for Buy to Let Landlords It’s been a funny year for so called “buy to let” landlords. They have been clobbered by George Osborne’s hikes to Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) – a special tax designed just for pesky “Mom and Pop” landlords. Interestingly, […]

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Scottish Landlords Registration Scheme Fails and Implications for the Rest of the UK

David Lawrenson of PRS consultancy www.LettingFocus.com shows how government seems to be failing to learn from past experiments to control the private rented sector – and calls for more robust analysis. Landlords have paid £11.2m in fees since the introduction of the Landlord Registration Scheme in Scotland. But the scheme has resulted in only 11 people being reported to the […]

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Local Housing Allowance and More Changes to Policy

David Lawrenson of www.LettingFocus.com explains the “work arounds” and the sleights of hand involved in the latest changes in Local Housing Allowance funding. The government has just voted to cap rises in several benefits, including local housing allowance (LHA) base rates, at the lower of 1% or the 30th percentile of local rents – which means that in practice, in […]

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Buy to Let Mortgages and Tenants on Benefits

Some mortgage lenders still don’t let landlords who have mortgage loans with them to let their properties to tenants who are on benefits. Many private landlords are reluctant to let to tenants who are dependent on housing benefits, preferring tenants who do not have to rely on the state for any assistance. There are a number of reasons why: 1. […]

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Government Policy on the Private Rented Sector is Not Joined Up

Sometimes government policy doesn’t seem to join up too well – with different policies apparently conflicting with each other. Two good examples are (1) the lending activities of state owned banks which appear to hamper what local councils are trying to do with their private rented sector access schemes, especially lease schemes and (2) policies on HMOs which appear to […]

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