Buy-to-let tax changes driving up rents

Four in 10 landlords expect to raise them in the next six months by an average of 5.6%.

Landlords will increase rents in the next six months to pay for rising buy-to-let taxes, Kent Reliance's Buy To Let Britain report shows.

Four in 10 landlords expect to raise them in the next half year by an average of 5.6%.

Of that group three quarters blame rent rises on the gradual reduction of mortgage tax relief for higher rate taxpayers from 45% in 2017 to 20% in 2020.

Andy Golding, chief executive of OneSavings Bank, parent of Kent Reliance, said: “The buy-to-let market now sits firmly in the crosshairs of both politicians and regulators, and we are seeing landlords react.

“Thousands hurried purchases to beat the stamp duty deadline, but it is tenants who are feeling the real brunt.

“Rents are rising, and landlords will increase them further as they pass on the increased cost of running their businesses. Far from supporting tenants, recent intervention will see them bear a heavier financial burden.”

He added: “Increasing landlords’ tax bills won’t alter the root cause of the UK’s housing crisis.

“As long as the demand for homes every year far outweighs the number of new houses, the only way to reduce the cost of housing in this country for tenants and first-timers alike is to build more.

“We need to see a paradigm shift, moving the focus from sustaining demand to expanding supply in all tenures.”

UK rents rose by 3.5% in the past year.