The growing CGT rebellion: Fear of tax grab sparks mass sale of homes and shares

StevieJ

JP45 wrote: »

Plenty of stories in today's press (not just the Daily Mail) of BTL and second home owners deciding to sell up, including Merryn Somerset Webb's mother:

Interesting that Webb's mother didn't take her advice when she was predicting the housing market was going to crash in 2008

http://www.moneyweek.com/investments/property/why-theres-still-no-cheer-for-property-prices-14041.aspx

Entertainer

Why are people waiting until now to realise their gains, weeks before an increase could happen?? This has been on the cards for the last two years- alot of people thought that Alastair Darling was going to increase the rate in his last Budget. People should have sold their houses over the last year and realised it at the 18%- it wasn't ever going to go lower than that, plus you had a bouyant property market to sell into. It shows how amatuerish alot of the recent property "investors" have been.

Heyman_2

carolt wrote: »

For all those who said it would have no effect:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1282360/The-growing-CGT-rebellion-Fear-tax-grab-sparks-mass-sale-homes-shares.html

Daily Mail. Ugh.

Peering through the usual Mail frothing of the mouth and screaming headline, it does appear that this is due to the scrapping of HIPS rather than the impending CGT rise.

The CGT issue will be put to bed on 22nd June and I'd be amazed if anyone is putting their house on the market thinking they can wrap up a deal within little over 3 weeks??? Assuming they are that stupid, surely if they haven't sold by then, they'll simply go back to playing the waiting game?

Think it's more down to HIPS to be honest.

silvercar

Heyman wrote: »

The CGT issue will be put to bed on 22nd June and I'd be amazed if anyone is putting their house on the market thinking they can wrap up a deal within little over 3 weeks??? Assuming they are that stupid, surely if they haven't sold by then, they'll simply go back to playing the waiting game?

Technically CGT has always been based on date of entering into contract - so exchange not completion- though still an unrealistic deadline.

carolt

So is it HIPS or CGT that is having the effect? The Guardian reports the same figures but with a different slant:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/may/29/home-information-packs-countrywide-estate-agents

carolt

silvercar wrote: »

So what happens to the tenants in these BTL properties? I haven't seen anything local advertised with tenants. Have they all been given notice? Are they all co-operating with viewings?

Many will be second homes.

And of the rented properties, you'd have to be a brave landlord to give notice to your tenants the second your property went on the market. Plenty of time for that once (or if...) an offer has been received.

Heyman_2

The Independent has a good headline for the same story

House market up since Hips dumped

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/house-market-up-since-hips-dumped-1986200.html

1984ReturnsForReal_2

I just had a case of Dejà Vu............

silvercar

carolt wrote: »

Many will be second homes.

And of the rented properties, you'd have to be a brave landlord to give notice to your tenants the second your property went on the market. Plenty of time for that once (or if...) an offer has been received.

Agree on second homes, but what do landlords do who want to sell quickly? Will tenants accept viewings? I doubt it, particularly if they were hoping for a long term tenancy and now face searching for a new home. Tenants will need to be given 2 months clear notice, so if you want to exchange by June 22, your new buyer is going to want to complete by end of July I would have thought, meaning you need to give notice now if you want to get the lower CGT rate.

I seriously expected a flood of rented properties on the market with "no chain" or "tenant available" on the details. Granted I doubt there are any second homes round here but there are plenty of let properties.

carolt

Quite a few 'no chain' properties around here. In fact, now you mention it, I've been seeing that a lot locally - thought it was a bit odd, as they didn't all look like old people's homes. Being a bit slow...derrr.