The 5 years because the introduction of the three per cent stamp responsibility surcharge on extra properties has led to a pointy fall within the size of the non-public rental sector.
Research by lettings company Hamptons exhibits that the surcharge – coupled with the tapering of mortgage curiosity tax aid on buy to lets starting in 2017 – has meant that landlords have purchased fewer properties and the non-public rental sector has shrunk.
Between April 2016 and the top of March 2021 landlords bought 700,100 properties throughout Great Britain. However, Hamptons claims that with out the tax modifications, landlords would have purchased an additional 249,800 or 36 per cent extra properties.
Fewer landlord purchases have meant there have been 4.91m privately rented properties in Great Britain in 20/21 accounting for 17.5 per cent of households – 381,990 fewer than the sector’s peak in 16/17.
Hamptons believes that had these tax modifications not been launched there would have been 5.16m rented properties in Great Britain at the moment making up 18.4 per cent of households.
Back in 2015 landlords bought 16 per cent of properties in Great Britain, however by 2018 this determine fell to a low of 11 per cent.
Over the final 12 months the lure of a stamp responsibility vacation in England has seen landlord purchases choose up marginally, to 13 per cent of gross sales. However, 72 per cent of all rental properties in Great Britain at the moment have been purchased earlier than April 2016.
Southern areas, the place properties are costlier, have been hit hardest by the tax modifications.
In London, the share of properties purchased by landlords fell from a excessive of 20 per cent in 2015 to 11 per cent throughout Q1 2021. As a end result, landlords have bought 61,300 properties in London since 2016.
However, this quantity would have risen to 103,300 or 69 per cent extra properties had the tax modifications not been launched.
This drop-off in new funding means 81 per cent of all rental properties within the capital at the moment have been purchased earlier than April 2016, in contrast to simply 65 per cent within the North West the place landlord purchases have remained extra resilient.
Higher yields and decrease entry prices imply simply 14 per cent or 14,800 extra properties would have been purchased by buyers within the North West with out the tax modifications.
Aneisha Beveridge, head of analysis at Hamptons, feedback:“The tax modifications launched from 2016 onwards have undoubtedly taken the warmth out of the buy-to-let market. Landlord purchases have dropped and consequently the rental sector is seven per cent smaller than it was at its peak in 2017.
“Even with out the tax modifications, we nonetheless assume the rental sector can be barely smaller at the moment than in 2017. Growth within the sector was slowing within the lead up to 2015 and the lure of authorities help measures similar to Help to Buy and the removing of stamp responsibility have seen extra first-time patrons (would-be tenants) turn into homeowners.”
