Buy-to-Let – Dead or Alive?

Buy-to-Let Rush?

Since the FPC's warning, Chancellor George Osborne has announced that stamp duty rates will rise steeply for anyone buying a home that is not their main residence – which would include buy-to-let investors as well as second-home buyers.

But with the higher rates of duty only starting at the beginning of this financial year, there are worries that there may be a rush by some would-be landlords to buy properties before then, which might help to push up house prices even further.

Lending to landlords has grown rapidly in recent years. There are now 1.7 million buy-to-let mortgages, making up about 16 per cent by value of the total stock of all outstanding mortgages.

Each year, more than two million individual landlords declare rental income to HM Revenue & Customs in their tax returns. For the 2012-13 financial year, 2.1 million taxpayers declared income from property, up by more than a third from the 1.5 million in 2007-08.

Earlier this year, Mr Carney said the Bank was in discussions with Mr Osborne about obtaining greater powers to regulate the buy-to-let mortgage market.