Countrywide says fewer frustrated sellers now resort to letting out

There are fewer ‘accidental landlords’ - vendors who resort to letting out their homes because the sales market is difficult.

That’s the view of Countywide: new research from its upmarket Hamptons International brand says that since buy to let tax changes were introduced in the 2018 Budget, there have been fewer accidental landlords.

The agency suggests that further fiscal changes against BTL from April 2020 will increase the amount of tax some landlords, who have lived in their rental property at some point, will have to pay if they sell. 

Countryside says the proportion of homes that came onto the rental market having been listed to sell within the previous six months in Great Britain peaked at 8.6 per cent in 2018 following five years of growth.  

However, this year the proportion of homes let by accidental landlords fell to 7.1 per cent the first fall since 2014 and the lowest level in five years.

Every region recorded a fall in the proportion of homes let by accidental landlords, with London seeing the biggest drop.  

However, London is still the accidental landlord capital of the country: so far this year 10.1 per cent of homes listed to rent in London had been up for sale during the previous six months, down from a peak of 12.6 per cent in 2018.

The South East recorded the second biggest fall in the proportion of homes coming to the rental market having been up for sale (down 2.3 per cent year-on-year), followed by the East of England (down 1.9 per cent year-on-year).

Meanwhile Scotland (down 0.4 per cent) and Wales (down 0.3 per cent) saw the smallest changes to the proportion of homes let by accidental landlords.

“Great Britain’s most expensive regions and where prices have risen the most, recorded the biggest fall in accidental landlords” explains Aneisha Beveridge, head of research at Hamptons International.

“This is unsurprising given that landlords in these areas will have seen the greatest gains, which are likely to exceed the annual capital gains tax allowance, and therefore could see their tax bills rise the most.”