Buy To Let investors desert London ‘because of stamp duty’

Data from a Countrywide agency shows that 59 per cent of landlords who live in London purchased their buy to let investment properties outside the capital in the past 12 months.

The data, from Hamptons International, suggests that historically London landlords bought their investment properties near where they lived. 

For example in 2010 just 25 per cent of London-based landlords purchased their buy to lets outside the capital, with 75 per cent investing in London.

However, Hamptons insists that due to high house price growth and a clampdown on landlord taxation, more London-based landlords have chosen to invest further afield in search of higher yields and lower stamp duty bills. 

The proportion of London-based investors purchasing buy to lets in their home region has fallen 17 per cent since 2015 - that was before the stamp duty surcharge on second home purchases was introduced in April 2016.

The agency says that a landlord buying in London during the last 12 months faced a £24,600 stamp duty bill on average, compared to £5,330 for an investor buying outside the capital. 

The average stamp duty bill for an investor buying in London is now £11,760 more compared to pre-stamp duty changes but only £3,910 higher for an investor purchasing outside London.

A record proportion of London investors have headed north to purchase buy to lets. Some 34 per cent of London-based investors bought investment properties in the Midlands and north during the last 12 months, up from just 14 per cent in 2015 and four per cent in 2010.

The East Midlands and Yorkshire & Humber saw the greatest increase following the stamp duty surcharge introduction, with six per cent more London landlords buying investment properties in those regions than in 2015.

The South East remains the most popular destination for London-based landlords purchasing buy to let’s outside the capital. 

Some 11 per cent of London-based landlords purchased their investment properties in the south east over the last 12 months, two per cent fewer than in 2015.