Richard Blanco

Here are my latest top ten tips for running a successful property business which I presented recently at The Property Investor Show at Excel in London.
1. Get The Right Structure
Section 24 tax changes have made purchasing and letting property as an individual less profitable.  This is because you will be taxed on your turnover – tax relief on mortgage interest at 40% is being phased out over the next 4 years.  So it may be more tax efficient to buy using a limited […]

I recently spent two days at the Property Investor Show, held twice a year at Excel in East London.  Footfall was noticeably lighter that at events in 2016.  I gave two talks and was sat on a panel called ‘The Great Landlord Debate’ about the state of the market and forthcoming regulation.
There’s a lot of sobering data around at the moment.  House prices are falling, rental demand has slowed significantly and rents are falling in many parts of London.  NLA research tells us […]

1. Regulation of Buy To Let Mortgages
The rise in Buy To Let mortgages from 5% in 2009 to 16% of mortgage lending in 2016 concerned the Bank of England.  The governor argued that if the market had a downtown, lots of landlords selling all at once could seriously affect the UK economy.  Regulation by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) started on 1 January 2017 and a second phase will come into force on 30 September 2017.  Phase 1 introduces a new stress test which is […]

The government’s stamp duty surcharge continues to be a fantastic cash cow for the treasury. Official figures show that it raked in £670m in the first six months since it was imposed on 1 April 2016 comparing very favourably with the projected tax take of £625m for the whole of the first year.  Such figures mean that it is highly unlikely to be repealed as it is providing more useful than expected amelioration of the national debt.
According to research by the UK’s largest […]

The latest data from the Office For Budget Responsibility (OBR) shows that stamp duty is really harming the housing market in London. Recent hikes brought in by George Osborne are reducing transactions and the result is that treasury receipts will be lower. The OBR predicts that the government will collect £66.6bn instead of £76.2bn in stamp duty over the next 5 years. Since the 2014 Autumn statement, residential sales over £925,000 have incurred stamp duty rates of 10% and over £1.5 million this rises to […]