Why do people bother with buy to let? asks industry figure

Prominent industry figure Jonathan Rolande says: “It is hard to see why anyone would still want to buy to let given that there seems little prospect of capital growth and returns.”

Rolande, spokesperson for the National Association of Property Buyers, says government indifference is making buy to let far less attractive than before, and consequently leading to a sharp fall in supply 

“Landlords are in the peculiar position of being a minority, apparently hated by all sides. Those struggling to buy their own home often blame them for pushing up prices, having created scarcity in the market. Tenants see them as profiteering from the crisis in housing, pushing up rents needlessly and being slow to spend money on repairs” he says.

And he adds: “The government seems to view them with indifference, neither supporting them nor providing any kind of strategy to make them unnecessary. There is an attitude of ‘well, if they don’t want to be a landlord, someone else will’, which means many are choosing to quit the sector already disgruntled by legislation that has made the business of renting out property far less profitable. It’s also a legal obstacle course where minor errors can trip up the unwary, often with huge financial implications.”

Then Rolande issues his doubts as to why investors should pick buy to let.

“With more legislation on the way – EPC changes will cost many landlords dearly – it is hard to see why anyone would still want to buy to let given that there seems little prospect of capital growth and returns.

“In their rush to rebalance the market in favour of tenants and home buyers, the government seems to have overlooked an important point: owner-occupiers pay more than landlords. Partly because of tax breaks, higher loan-to-value mortgages and lower interest rates, owners will almost always outbid an investor buyer.

“We may soon end up in a situation where much-needed homes disappear from the rental market forever, before any housing stock has been built to replace it. Already beleaguered tenants will face fewer choices and inevitably, higher rents. With landlords facing this death-by-a-thousand-cuts policy, it seems once again that it will be those that can least afford it and have the fewest options that will suffer in the end.”