Jeremy Corbyn & Your Property Business
October 10, 2015
Many in the landlord community viewed Ed Milliband’s proposals for the private rented sector with derision and after a short post election honeymoon period we have been digesting surprise tax changes from George Osborne’s Summer budget. Next the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour Party leader, described by party heavyweight Lord Faulkner as “a political earthquake.” In the run up to the May 2015 election National Landlords Association colleagues and I jousted through a string of media interviews rebutting proposals for increased regulation. I remember […]
Do you remember the news headlines about interest rates just over a month ago? On 17 July 2015, The Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney warned the nation that the decision to raise interest rates “will likely come into sharper relief around the turn of the year.” Unemployment figures for July had plateaued at 5.6% and with some sectors claiming they were struggling to recruit, wage rises had crept up to 3%. The current inflation rate of 0.1% has largely reflected falls in […]
The chancellor pulled a number of rabbits out of the hat in his Summer 2015 budget statement. Although many column inches had been dedicated to the loss of buy to let tax ‘perks,’ the landlord community was not expecting the measure to actually materialise. Until April 2017, landlords will be able to set all mortgage finance costs against rental income, but thereafter relief will only be applicable at the basic tax rate, albeit phased in over 4 years. The big questions are who will this […]
In its latest Financial Stability report the Bank of England commented that buy to let could pose a risk to financial instability, especially if interest rates rise. The theory is that this could cause landlords to fall into negative cashflow, where their rental payments no longer cover the cost of the mortgage payment. This could force them to sell in a hurry, potentially destabilising the housing market.
I was in New York for the general election and had the luxury of watching the results at the leisurely time of 5pm onwards. I was as shocked as everybody else when I heard the broadcasters’ exit poll and watched in amazement as the results unfolded. I suspected that we might find ourselves in a 1992 scenario where Labour support had been overestimated and so I wasn’t totally surprised that the Conservatives were the largest party, though I didn’t expect them to get a small […]