the times | Saturday December 18 2021 75
Money
efficiency of rental stock,” Ben Beadle,
chief executive of the NRLA, said.
“Most landlords are not property
tycoons.”
The good news
Apart from green ratings,
however, things are looking up
for landlords. The estate agen-
cy Hamptons International
said that the average yield on
properties in England and
Wales was up from 6.1 per cent
last year to 6.2 per cent now. In
London, where demand was low
during the 2020 lockdowns, aver-
age yields have jumped from 4.4 per
cent to 4.8 per cent.
Lenders are also making it easier
for investors, who they consider to be
lower risk than residential buyers.
NatWest and Accord both removed
their minimum income require-
ments for landlords.
“More lenders are trying to grab a
greater share of the buy-to-let market
because it offers good margins,” said
Aneisha Beveridge, head of research
at Hamptons.
Moneyfacts, a data analytics
company, said that the average two-
year fixed buy-to-let mortgage rate at
60 per cent loan-to-value is now
1.94 per cent and has fallen every
month for 12 months A year ago it was
2.53 per cent.
Residential mortgages, however, are
creeping up with the cheapest now a
0.99 per cent two-year fix from the
Monmouthshire Building Society at
75 per cent LTV compared with 0.79 per
cent with Platform at 60 per cent LTV
a month ago.
The proportion of all property being
bought by landlords was 11.8 per cent in
November compared with 9.8 per cent
a year earlier.
“We’ve seen the biggest increase in
Yorkshire, the Humber, the North East
and the East Midlands, where yields are
highest,” said Beveridge.What next?
Since 2017 landlords have had the
amount of tax relief they can claim
against mortgage interest cut back,
wear and tear allowances have been re-
duced and those who do not run a
limited company have to pay a higher
rate of stamp duty.
And they fear that more tax
changes are on the way.
Office for Budget Responsibil-
ity (OBR) documents showed
that the government was
contemplating raising the
level of additional
stamp duty landlords
would have to pay
from 3 per cent to
4 per cent but
ditched the plan
before the budget in
October. A buyer of a
second home worth £1 million would
pay £73,750 in stamp duty, but £83,750
if the rate had gone up.
Ben Beadle, chief executive of the
National Residential Landlords
Association, said: “All the evidence
points to the demand for private
rented housing massively outstrip-
ping supply. This has been exacer-
bated by punitive tax measures
designed to boost homeownership.
All this achieves is less choice for
tenants and higher rents, making
it more difficult for them to save
for a home of their own. The
Treasury needs to recognise the
harm that is being done and de-
velop pro-growth tax measures.”Richard Blanco appearing in the US
TV series House Hunters International
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