A government move I'm in favour of

[andrewducker]

Last year George Osborne announced that, soon, landlords wouldn't be able to offset tax against mortgage interest.

Today, I was keeping a friend company while they looked at a flat they were thinking of buying (to live in) and the seller was complaining that he was pushed into selling because of that change.

I had to resist the urge to cheer at him.

(Obviously, the long-term answer is to build a ton of new houses, so that there's enough supply to meet demand, in the places where people actually live nowadays. But removing the advantage that landlords have over buyers is still a good thing. And this is on top of the 3% stamp duty surcharge for a second home.)

Comments

[cmcmck]

I agree with you, but the trouble is, if like us you're buying then selling (we thought that continuing to have somewhere to live might be a good idea) you get stung with that extra stamp duty! Admittedly it can be claimed back once you sell, but we're having to dip into savings that we'll be relying on in retirement and that we had no intention of dipping into to make up the shortfall.

This could scupper quite a few sales where people are tight for the price!