It's worth considering that their opinions are very strongly motivated by personal interest. And of course they're absolutely right that the proposed changes would massacre the buy-to-let market. The guy claiming it'll result in a shortage of rental properties is just fear-mongering to keep his business running.Sybil wrote: ↑Mon Sep 09, 2019 7:42 am Any good investor would take into account how political changes might change the investment environment. Any person thinking of buying to let should take into the account the policies of the main political parties if they announce drastic changes with regards to it. The comments I have quoted are the general consensus of the experts in the field of buy to let.
Personally I have no plans to buy to let because I do see change coming. I think that the idea the uk opposition have is going to be catching on in many places. Property prices have soared up faster than incomes have, while at the same time we consider shelter a human right. With more and more youth unable to own their homes and getting bilked harder and harder by investors there has to be change eventually. Property prices can't keep going up 5-6% an year when incomes don't match it and birth rates are dropping resulting in decreased demand. People have slowly been pushing past the age old wisdom of "no more than 1/3 of your income to rent/mortgage", and we are seeing people at 40-50%, but there is a breaking point where it can go no higher unless incomes suddenly magically increase. I just can't see any way that this works, and the UK opposition is just trying to get ahead of the inevitable reckoning before it blows up in our face(as to whether this is the best solution, I am unsure).
This whole thing feels like a ticking time bomb, 2008 was just the first warning, but it's back to business as usual. I've left REITs out of my portfolio because of this and am still wrestling with renting vs buying(probably sticking to renting).
One final note on buy-to-let: since it's everything in one baggie, it's the very opposite of diversification, and it has extremely high fees(stamp fees/taxes etc). I'd really say that if you want to be in property, invest in REIT's, unless owning the house is somewhat of a hobby for you or you are confident you can manage it for cheaper(remember, finding tenants etc takes time).