Right to buy tenant plan to cost LLs £50 Billion

Cakeguts

Just been reading the Fabian Society policy report and they are certainly going the right way to create the law of unintended consequences as far as private rental properties go. They seem to think that rent controls won't make a difference to the number of properties available to rent. I expect they believe in fairies too.



I would suggest all landlords read it so that you can see what people who have no idea about markets work think that they can improve the situation. The bit I particularly liked was that tenants would like to be able to rent in the area of their choice at a fair rent. (Of course they would. Central London at a rent price for a house in Burnley seems like a good idea? )



I have no idea how they think someone who has bought a rental property is going to be able to pay the mortgage on a rent that is less than the mortgage repayments.



Then it mentions other European countries where the authors have basically just made things up about the rental systems. They obviously haven't done any research at all and have just generalised about countries in Europe.



Then they came up with this bit of misinformation that 60% of the population wanted rent controls introduced. But they haven't asked the whole population of the UK only people in Manchester, Reading and London and then only people renting.



It is not actually research just a sort of left wing rent control advert with all the important bits missing.

Sailtheworld

Malthusian wrote: »

Not exactly, people would just buy second homes overseas instead.

I doubt it.

I've got a second home in Cornwall. 4 hours door to door in a fully expensed company car. I go for a weekend once a month, Christmas and three weeks in the summer.

I looked at a place in Portugal - far more costs and hassle - a 30% additional SDLT and I wouldn't have bought the place and I wouldn't have bought a foreign place either. Don't know where the money would end up (a couple of foreign holiday and possibly a few hotel stays in the UK) but I'd be disinclined to vote for whoever dreamed up the 30% idea.

Chrysalis

The-Joker wrote: »

Section 21 ending is going to mean a lot of very unhappy LLs just wanting out, they just want the tenants out and then sell up never to go back

Yep and s21 is only the tip of the iceberg, they throwing a fit over that, they would never tolerate proper regulation to fix the market, so thats why I consider it unfixable.

It will take a decade or so to supply adequate social housing tho so in the mean time the private market would have to stay anyway, so minor changes like scrapping of s21, banning LA fees etc. But I think anything heavy handed wouldnt be able to be done.

Also I think been discriminate against benefit claimants in both insurance policies and applications is possibly going to be illegal in the foreseeable future given what I watched a few months back at a select committee.

Cakeguts

Chrysalis wrote: »

Yep and s21 is only the tip of the iceberg, they throwing a fit over that, they would never tolerate proper regulation to fix the market, so thats why I consider it unfixable.

It will take a decade or so to supply adequate social housing tho so in the mean time the private market would have to stay anyway, so minor changes like scrapping of s21, banning LA fees etc. But I think anything heavy handed wouldnt be able to be done.

Also I think been discriminate against benefit claimants in both insurance policies and applications is possibly going to be illegal in the foreseeable future given what I watched a few months back at a select committee.

It isn't fixable by scrapping S21 all that will do is cause the landlords with properties that are in desirable areas to sell them. No one is going to be buying nice family sized houses in decent areas with good schools now. They are all going to be buying cheap houses in run down areas for cash because there is a risk that if they need a mortgage they might not be able to pay it if the tenant stops paying the rent and it takes many months to evict them through the courts for rent arrears.



I am not sure what is supposed to happen if a benefit tenant applies for a property that has a rent that is double the LHA and they can't afford it? Does the landlord have to run finance check all the time on people who claim LHA even though they know that the LHA won't cover the rent? As property becomes in shorter supply (it is already happening) this will put even more people off buying rental property.

Sailtheworld

Cakeguts wrote: »

No one is going to be buying nice family sized houses in decent areas with good schools now.

Families might...

Thrugelmir

Malthusian wrote: »

Not exactly, people would just buy second homes overseas instead.

This would result in house prices in places like Cornwall collapsing. All the money that second homers currently spend in Cornwall and Exmoor would be spent overseas instead.

Go to Cornwall out of season (which I do every year). It's dead. Locals have been driven out by overpriced property. Hardly the basis for a vibrant economy.

Cakeguts

Sailtheworld wrote: »

Families might...

Families will have to buy them if they want to live in those areas if the S21 is abolished because no landlord is going to buy them.

Sailtheworld

Cakeguts wrote: »

Families will have to buy them if they want to live in those areas if the S21 is abolished because no landlord is going to buy them.

That sounds like good news.

Cakeguts

Sailtheworld wrote: »

That sounds like good news.

Yes if you can get a mortgage and can afford to buy them. It is not such good news if you cannot get a mortgage and cannot afford to buy a house because in that case you are going to be left with the houses that no one else wants.

Sailtheworld

Cakeguts wrote: »

Yes if you can get a mortgage and can afford to buy them. It is not such good news if you cannot get a mortgage and cannot afford to buy a house because in that case you are going to be left with the houses that no one else wants.

Landlords will have to reduce prices.

If landlords don't want tenants under a Labour government what else are they going to do? Leave them empty and hope the Tories make a comeback five years later.