What happens if I want to invest in property?

Britain’s property market has traditionally always been considered a stable and sensible place to invest your money, regardless of whether you are an aspiring landlord or just looking to purchase a home to sell-on in the near future.

However, depending on your intentions and unique situation, there are a number of things to consider in order to get the most out of property investment.

Following SDLT changes rolled out in recent years, any existing homeowners who purchase a second or ‘additional’ property – i.e. for buy-to-let purposes – will need to pay an additional three per cent SDLT surcharge upon purchase. If you are intending to invest in property as a buy-to-let landlord, this needs to be taken into account.

The rules governing SDLT can prove costly – and it is important to ensure you can cover these costs, yet continue to make a profit when you come to let out the property. It is equally important to factor in other typical purchase costs such as conveyancing and surveyors’ fees.

An average investor purchasing a £150,000 property will effectively lose £5,000 in SDLT. On top of this, legal fees can cost anywhere between £850 and £1,500.

Furthermore, changes to mortgage stress tests introduced by the Prudential Regulation Authority also need to be considered – particularly if you are an existing investor who already manages a large portfolio of buy-to-let homes.

Following new rules, mortgage lenders must carefully assess the affordability of landlords before they are able to offer them a mortgage. These changes mean that portfolio landlords need to provide extensive tax and financial information to lenders in order to meet the requirements of so-called ‘stress tests’.

On top of this, both existing and aspiring landlords also need to be aware of ongoing changes to mortgage interest tax relief.

First introduced in April 2017, these gradual changes will see the tax relief landlords are entitled to claim for finance costs slowly restricted to the basic rate of income tax between now and 2020. Previously, landlords were able to deduct mortgage interest and other allowable costs from their total taxable rental income – but this is unfortunately no longer the case.

Need advice?

Despite the various tax challenges today’s buy-to-let landlords face, property investment remains incredibly popular in the UK and can still be very lucrative if the right advice is sought ahead of time.

Article sourced from Richard Anthony Chartered Accountants. To find out more about Richard Anthony’s specialist services for the property sector, please call 020 8349 0353.

Demand strong for UK commercial property

Demand for UK commercial property remains strong despite the political and other challenges the market appears to be facing in the months ahead.

According to Cushman & Wakefield’s latest Capital Markets Report, London remains the world’s most popular city for global real estate investment, having outstripped the likes of Amsterdam, Paris and Hong Kong as the most popular destination for commercial property for nine of the past ten years.

The report notes that long-term investors in Britain’s commercial property market are “concerned” about Brexit, but confident that the market will remain robust.

It adds that in London in particular, investment has largely been dominated by overseas buyers, who continue to pump money into Britain’s capital. Specifically, Asian investors in South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan remain very keen to snap up City office space.

However, separate research from real estate group JLL indicates that London is far from the only UK city attracting a lot of attention when it comes to commercial property.

JLL’s latest report reveals that Glasgow’s office market welcomed bumper investment in the third quarter (Q3) of 2018, while the Scottish capital, Edinburgh, transacted more than 300,000 square-ft of office space during the same period.

Elsewhere, data from Savills has revealed that all across the country, demand remains strong for commercial property among domestic investors, who pumped some £18.8 billion into the market in the 12 months to September.

Written by Nick Davies - Partner at Mackrell Turner Garrett

Nick is the Head of Property in our London office, having joined in the firm in 2005. His expertise covers a wide range of real estate transactions, with cases including both residential and commercial property deals, shops, pubs, restaurants, development sites, offices, lease renewals, enfranchisement, litigation and corporate support.

Should you require any assistance with your commercial units please contact our expert Fleur Conway on fleur.conway@daboraconway.com