Q4 2024 update: Budget, Renters’ Rights and rental trends #33

In their rental market update for Q4 2024, Suzanne Smith and Richard Jackson discuss the impact of Labour's first budget on landlords and property investors, the latest on the Renters' Rights Bill and what's happening with rental trends. >> Ask a question: Click here for question form What we cover in this episodeLabour's Autumn BudgetWhat's happening with the Renters' Rights BillSoftening of rental demand Labour's Autumn Budget Richard and Suzanne discuss the key changes for landlords and property investors in the budget: SDLT. The Chancellor increased stamp duty by 3% for "additional properties" on 31 October 2024 and there will be a further increase on 1 April 2025, when the first threshold will be lowered from £250,000 to £125,000. This will add £2,500 to the amount of stamp duty payable on the average property. Capital gains tax - no change for property investors. Income tax - the impact of fiscal drag is that the amount of tax people pay will increase in real terms as the bands are not being increased byt inflation. National insurance contributions - the budget increased employer national insurance contributions and lowered the threshold, meaning that employers will need to start paying NICs at a lower amount. Pensions - no changes to potentially exempt transfers or the various caps, but most unused pension funds and death benefits will be included within the value of a person's estate from 6 April 2027, which means they could be subject to inheritance tax of 40%. >> Blog post: What the 2024 Autumn Budget means for landlords and property investors What's happening with the Renters' Rights Bill The Renters' Rights Bill is making good progress through the House of Commons, and entered the Committee Stage on 22 October 2024. The Committee are going through the Bill on a clause by clause basis. The Housing Minister has made it clear that they won't be backing down on fixed terms or making exceptions for students. The ambiguity around up front rent payments has been discussed a lot, and the Minister said he will make the position clear in the Bill. >> Blog post: The latest on the Renters’ Rights Bill >> Related episode: What the Renters’ Rights Bill changes about rent Softening of rental demand There are signs that the renal market is slowing down, with demand softening. Anecdotally, Richard and Suzanne have recently seen it in London and Kent respectively. This is backed up by Rightmove's Rental Trends Tracker for Q3 2024 which says the average number of enquiries per rental property is now 15, down from 23 last year. However, this is nearly double the 8 before the pandemioc in 2019. The advertised rental price is dropping before finiding a tenant for more than a fifth of rental properties. Credits window.addEventListener('message',function(e){'https://widgets.blubrry.com'===e.origin&&'object'==typeof e.data&&(document.getElementById(e.data.senderId).style.height=e.data.height+'px')}) Music: "Paradise Found" by Kevin MacLeod of Incompetech. Licensed under Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 License.