The costs of being a London landlord are not worth the effort
With extra tax on a second home, and a reduction in tax relief for rental income introduced last month, owners of rental properties are selling up and moving on
London — Jennifer Pickford, a 39-year-old owner of four London rental properties, is not only not purchasing any more — she’s considering selling the ones she has. She isn’t alone. The proportion of homes bought to rent out in the city tumbled after an additional 3% tax on second-home purchases was introduced in April 2016. Now landlords are facing a second hit with a reduction in tax relief for rental income, introduced last month. "If I thought stamp duty was bad, the tax-relief issue really was the nail in the coffin," Pickford, an accountant from Surrey, said in an interview. "It just makes the whole exercise unprofitable and pointless." The number of properties for rent in London jumped in the last year as landlords rushed to make purchases before the stamp-duty tax increase took effect and a slow sales market prompted more owners to offer their properties for lease instead. As a result, the average asking rent for homes in Greater London fell 4.2% in the first quarter from a y...
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