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6 million young people rely on Landlords, Letting Agents or parents for rental properties
Despite the recent falls in house prices, millions of young people remain forced to rent properties or continue living with parents, according to a recent report by The National Housing and Planning Advice Unit. (NHPAU).
The third annual study by NHPAU conducted by YouGov, highlighted the problems that young people continue to face in getting on the property ladder. It reports that of all 18-34 year olds who do not currently own their own home (being in rented accomodation or living with parents), almost nine out of ten cannot afford to buy an average-priced first time buyer home with their current level of income. This means that until mortgage finance becomes more readily available or until house prices drop even further, they will be unable to afford to get on the property ladder and will be reliant on letting agents and landlords (or parents) to provide quality rental accomodation.
The chair of the NHPAU, Professor Steve Nickell, said: “Many people are simply in denial about the new housing we need. If we don’t provide enough new homes, more people will live in overcrowded conditions, more young people will be forced to continue living with their parents, and the aspirations of millions to live in the kind of homes they want, where they want, will be dashed.”
Local Housing Allowance (LHA) is already a bit of a mess, with many landlords choosing to shy away from this sector of the rental market (see 2 reasons why landlords say “no” to housing benefit tenants). Now, with the Government’s budget cuts, even more landlords will be turning away housing benefit tenants. Read more of this article (Should landlords lower rents to fund housing benefit cuts?) ...
Because there are more tenants around than properties available to rent, landlords and letting agents are quite rightly, selecting the tenants in the best position. And given the choice, landlords would rather rent their properties to people in employment than people claiming housing benefit. Here, we discuss the reasons why. Read more of this article (The 2 reasons why landlords say "no" to housing benefit tenants) ...
Capital Gains Tax (CGT) is a tax payable on a profit. The profit is calculated when an asset is disposed of e.g sold or given away. As landlords, we pay CGT when we dispose of a property other than our main residence. Profits are subject to an 18% tax for basic-rate taxpayers and 28% for higher-rate taxpayers. There are many exemptions and reliefs available to landlords to help reduce the amount of CGT payable. Read more of this article (Landlords and Capital Gains Tax) ...