George Osborne – The Penicuik landlord’s friend?

Well the last few weeks have been rather hectic as Penicuik landlords, some who use us to manage their properties and other landlords who just read our Penicuik Property Blog, have been sending me emails or picking the phone up to me about the new rules on buy to let taxation announced in the recent budget. George Osborne confirmed in the recent summer budget that the tax relief given to landlords on mortgage interest payments, on their buy to let (BTL) properties, would be reduced over the coming years for higher rate income tax payers. The Chancellor said the tax relief that private buy to let landlords (who pay the higher rate of income tax) would change in 2017 from the current 45%/40% and would steadily reduce over the following four years to 20% by 2020.

With 8% of residential property in Penicuik being privately rented (as there are 530 privately rented properties in the town) these changes are potentially something that will not only affect Penicuik landlords, but also the tenants and the wider property market as a whole. The choice of rental properties could drop, especially at the top end of the market which could push up rents.

However, Penicuik landlords could protect themselves by buying one or more rental properties through, or reassigning one or more existing properties into, a company structure (eg a Limited Company, Partnership or Sole Trader) and by doing so, the total tax paid when the properties are in the company structure is greatly reduced, because a company only pays tax on the profit. Nonetheless, before everyone goes off setting up companies for their BTL portfolios, it must also be noted that there are Capital Gains Tax (CGT) issues to consider both when reassigning properties into a company as well as selling properties from a company which are specific to a landlord’s individual circumstances. In essence, by buying your BTL properties through a company, if you have a mortgage you are likely to pay a lot less monthly tax, irrespective of the interest rate, but the CGT bill will be higher when you come to sell ... as you can see, it is not a ‘get out of jail card’. Now it must be remembered, I am not a tax advisor, so you must take advice from a qualified person (more of that later).

Those planning to purchase a BTL property will have to factor these new rules into their calculations, and this could affect the offers they are willing to make. However, I am not that concerned, as the scaremonger reports fail to see the fact that two out of three BTL properties that have been bought since 2007 have been purchased without the support of BTL mortgage. With those two thirds of landlords paying cash for the purchase of their rental properties, that means this two thirds of landlords will be totally unaffected by the changes.

So what of the future? The British love their Bricks and Mortar, it’s an asset that they can touch and feel and has a 70 year track record of capital growth that has out stripped inflation. Buy to let will still be attractive to Penicuik investors and let me explain why. If you invested £30,000 in Penicuik property in July 1987, today it would be worth £117,311. If you had invested the same £30,000 in to the London Stock Market (the FTSE 100 to be exact), it would be only be worth £85,879 today, whilst Inflation would have taken the original £30,000 and pushed it up to £62,345.

It’s true some central Edinburgh landlords relying solely on the tax breaks rather than high yields may be forced out of the market, but even those landlords could seek to recoup any losses by increasing rents. However, those landlords may leave the market and this could constrict the availability of rented houses even more than it is already, increasing rents and thus pushing yields even higher for landlords and BTL investors still in the market... thus attracting new landlords into the market because of those higher yields.

The reality is, there is too much demand and not enough supply of homes for people to live in in the town. Official figures show the population in Penicuik is rising by 117 persons per year (ie demand rising), but only 71 properties are being built each year (ie supply is low). This sets up the Penicuik (and UK) property market to continue to create strong and steady returns, irrespective of any tax loophole being there (or not as the case maybe).

If the demand is there, I am happy to organise an informal seminar with a local Penicuik financial specialist one evening, whereby they can show you the options available and what might be best for you. Therefore, if you are interested in attending, please drop me an email to news@thekeyplace.co.uk and we will be able to get something organised very soon.

For more advice and opinion on the Penicuik property market, visit the Penicuik Property Blog at www.penicuikpropertyblog.co.uk.