Property News · December 20, 2015

Ignore the landlord-martyrs: it’s time for the Bank to intervene over buy-to-let


It’s not hard to understand why action on buy-to-let investors is popular. But regulators are merely attempting to stabilise the value of landlords’ assetsThe poor persecuted buy-to-let landlords of Britain. Many are developing a martyr complex – victims, they feel, of a barrage of new taxes coming in from next year. They will have seen the latest intervention last week – potential new powers for the Bank of England to restrict buy-to-let mortgages – as yet another blow. In online forums landlords share their woes about the “latest tax grab” and ask “why are we so reviled?” – although the answer may lie in another discussion thread where landlords swap tips about “How to tell a great tenant the rent has to go up a third”.All the Bank of England is doing is saving landlords from their own greed. It is almost beyond dispute that buy-to-let landlords have fuelled price rises generally, and priced out many potential first-time buyers. Now the Bank is concerned about risky lending and wants powers to restrict the size of buy-to-let mortgages, to prevent boom turning into bust. In other words, the Bank is intervening to protect the value of landlord’s assets from falling. Continue reading…

Source : theguardian.com
Read more…Ignore the landlord-martyrs: it’s time for the Bank to intervene over buy-to-let

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