Capital Gains Tax

Keep_pedalling

Anthear said:

The property is currently used as a main residence.

Your main residence ?

I can't see a ban on oil boilers by 2026.  That's only 3 years away.  I've have an oil boiler for the past 17 years - there has to be a suitable replacement option and at the present time, there isn't.  Long term there has to be change, but I can't see it happening in 3 years.

I think it probably depends on where in the UK you are thinking of renting out.  Huge variation across the country.  If the Gov want to bring in more stringent measures about the rentability or saleability of housing stock - which in the bigger picture is not in itself a 'bad thing' they will have to give homeowners and landlords help with the cost of these, particularly with the energy situation being what it is.

Completely understand the market value concept - wouldn't suggest it working any other way.  There is no Stamp Duty to pay on a purchase of up to £250k is my understanding - or have I misunderstood?

At the moment it is £250k and £425k for first time buyers but as you said earlier no guarantee it will stay that high, but once you have lost your FTB status there is no getting it back. 

You don’t say how old your children are but if they are a good few years away from buying their first homes there are alternative investments to be considered other than property. For a start they should be considering putting  £4k into a lifetime ISA before the 6th April and another £4k soon after and take advantage of the 25% bonus, although doing that would be another reason to avoid buying a share in your rental property.

Anthear

Our main residence

Just out of interest - why all the negative comments about rental property?  I've been a tenant - people will always need somewhere to live.  

Thanks for the info about a Lifetime ISA - I see that you can only put £4k in every year and it forms part of your £20k ISA allowance and the rules about how you can use that money are stringent - all in all it's not overly flexible, although it does help people save for retirement or property purchase.

Jeremy535897

The 3% higher rate for stamp duty starts at £40,000 for second homes.

Tenanted property will always be required, more so now that most people cannot afford to buy. But there is a world of difference between owning lots of low maintenance modern properties as a commercial landlord and owning one or two old and inefficient to heat properties as a private landlord. The other problem is the risk of the tenant from hell. If you own 100 properties you will almost certainly have one and can easily cover the cost from the other 99, but if you have one property and get the tenant from hell, you can lose a lot.

For reasons I don't pretend to understand, politicians of all persuasions seem determined to make it as unattractive as possible to be a private landlord.

2026 is one date for the demise of oil boiler replacement. This somewhat wordy document suggests 2028, but it is quite old. It may have been updated:
https://www.theccc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Sector-summary-Buildings.pdf

Anthear

Thanks Jeremy - I wasn't anticipating holding the property for more than a couple of years so would be within the 3 years to claim the Stamp Duty back.

There would have to be a comprehensive programme of alternative fuel to oil - so many homes off grid in rural areas and I think there would always be exceptions ie farm buildings etc.

Thanks for all the comments, it helps to consider all the angles.  :-)

Jeremy535897

I think it will be very interesting to see how it all develops. The government appears to be relying on heat pumps to heat houses, combined with an increased program of insulating homes. Unfortunately, we have the oldest housing stock in Europe (probably the world), and what insulation can achieve is limited. As for heat pumps, in a rambling old property the installation cost might be £50,000, and the result might be no more than taking the chill off the property (not even that when the temperature outside drops below freezing). This also assumes that thousands of installers will become trained and readily available to do this work. In my area I have been trying for over six months (and failing) just to get someone to replace a few roof tiles. If all these heat pumps were installed tomorrow, and we stopped using gas and oil to heat homes, the National Grid would need to at least double its output (ignoring electric cars), and it already has to tell wind turbine owners to stop their turbines when it is windy because the infrastructure cannot cope.