Stuart Law, Chief Executive Assetz, commented: “We have recently witnessed a flurry of rather ill considered opinions and proposals for a change in legislation, many from organisations who should know better.
“Paul Diggory, president of the Chartered Institute of Housing, has recently condoned the ill-considered view that buy-to-let investors have priced out first-time buyers and caused the affordable housing crisis, blatantly ignoring the fact that house prices have risen solely as a result of low interest rates over an extended period. He has also recommended the removal of the existing tax relief available for buy-to-let investors, which allows them to offset this against their rental income tax returns.
“To suggest that buy-to-let landlords have caused house prices to go up and that they should now be victimised, singled out from other businesses, is a simplistic and blinkered view - not something we would expect to be hearing from the president of a professional body, which purports to ‘maximise the contribution that housing professionals make to the well-being of communities’.
“We have also seen the Institute of Directors backing up this misguided suggestion. As a member myself, I in no way support this stance and was never consulted before they took the decision to speak out, supposedly on my behalf. The IOD should know full well the significant contribution to GDP that the property rental market contributes and the economic consequences of such a tax change.
“Given the recent surge in rentals, as reported by the RICS, it appears that supply/demand for rented property is finely balanced, moving towards a clear state where demand outstrips supply. A sudden large-scale termination of tenancies and a withdrawal of housing stock from the rental market, a likely consequence of introducing such punishing tax changes, would lead to an almost immediate rise in rents, as landlords look to recover their tax losses through rental increases.”
