Buy-to-let

Buy-to-let stamp duty changes: the end of the boom? (BT.com 27 November 2015)

I don't for a second think this change by Osbourne will make any difference but, along with him dropping the tax credits changes, it seems on the face of it a startlingly uncharacteristic thing to do. After all, his changes so far have invariably given the advantaged more advantages and the disadvantaged fewer.

I've always been uneasy about a system where it is possible to purchase a second home for occasional use when many fellow citizens don't have adequate accommodation. Likewise a system where landlords can rent out poorly maintained property, stuff 14 students into a 3-bed semi, and generally overcharge for something everybody needs. But the 'buy-to-let boom' takes the biscuit.

Somebody who has a decent house already, and a reasonable income, can borrow enough to buy another house. Not only do they secure a solid bricks-and-mortar asset that will invariably grow in value over the years, but they get somebody else to pay for it! There's what's legal and what's fair. And this, in my book, is blatantly unfair.

More characteristic was Osbourne forcing housing associations to sell off their properties (at a discount!) to the tenants who can afford them. The only way this could be fair is if the policy was extended to private landlords. With rents fixed at housing association levels. Now that would be fair!