Landlords count the cost of a Tory Election win

Can you remember 10.05pm on Thursday, 7^th May 2015 ... with the shock news that BBC Exit Polls suggested the Conservatives would be returned with majority? Landlords and letting agents breathed a  huge sigh of relief, as landlords, faced with rent controls from Red Ed and the Labour Party, now had something to cheer about as the Tory’s were always considered to be a political party that accepted the importance of the rental market, supported its development while properly targeting the lawbreaker landlords renting out below standard rental accommodation.

Since May though, George Osborne announced future rises in stamp duty for buy to let landlords and a change in the interest relief on buy to let mortgages, some people have started to question that loyalty. However, things could have been a lot worse for landlords as previous ideas of making landlord’s pay more tax was the idea (which was seriously considered) of increasing Capital Gains Tax rates to the landlord’s own income tax levels. If Landlords would have had to pay capital gains tax of 40% to 45% on any uplift in value, I can tell you here and now, that would have made investing in property a non starter for almost everyone.

However, I will admit the loss of mortgage higher rate tax relief will make a number of properties not stack up financially. The new rules are likely to slow demand in the housing market, which is in fact good news for the other landlords, as there is less competition from 'amateur' landlords offering too much.

Just a thought,  making landlords think twice and

run their numbers more cautiously is not such a bad thing.

So looking at the numbers, the November figures have just been released and they show a growth of property values in Gloucester of 0.2% over the month of November. That figure doesn’t surprise me due to the time of year. It’s quite dangerous to look at one month in isolation, so looking at a more medium term view, over the last 12 months, property values in Gloucester have risen by 3.7%, not bad when you consider inflation is running at -0.1%.

However, regular readers know my passion for looking deeper into the stats. The really interesting information is the value growth, but what types of property are actually selling in Gloucester?  Looking at all the properties sold, as recorded by the Land Registry, within 3 miles of the centre of Gloucester in September 2015 (this data always runs a couple of months behind the house price data) compared to September 2007 (a couple of months before the credit crunch started to bite and the subsequent property crash).

	Sept 2007	Sept 2015	Difference
Detached in Gloucester	57	55	-4%
Semis in Gloucester	82	72	-12%
Terraced Houses in Gloucester	63	57	-10%
Apartments / Flats in Gloucester	39	23	-41%

Now I have mentioned in previous articles that the numbers of properties selling in the city has certainly dropped post 2008, but what amazed me were the greater drop in the number of apartments selling in Gloucester compared to the drop in semis and terraced properties.

Less properties are selling than last decade in Gloucester

and the types of properties selling have changed ...

interesting times ahead for the Gloucester Property market!

Therefore, all I can say to the landlords of Gloucester is do your homework, make sure the numbers do stack up, take advice and opinion from professionals and above all, for those of you planning to add to your portfolio, buy the right property at the right price.