Just one in five landlords (19%) are planning to to offload their buy-to-let (BTL) portfolio in the next five years, new research by Sequre Property Investment has revealed.

This comes despite a string of government changes around stamp duty, tax relief and a potential change to capital gains tax (CGT).

Findings from the BTL specialist, based on a study among 797 UK landlords, showed that just just 10% have sold part of their portfolio in the last five years.

Of the surveyed landlords planning to offload property, the majority stated they were thinking of selling up because they had become tired of dealing with tenants issues (24%). The next biggest factor when considering a BTL investment is retirement (23%).

However, the study found the previous changes to landlord tax relief did rank as the third most influential factor (19%), while the increase in stamp duty tax followed in fourth (12%).

With a change to CGT failing to materialise in the last Budget, it ranked as the least influential factor (11%), with more landlords exiting in order to invest in different asset classes instead.

Sequre Property Investment sales director, Daniel Jackson, commented: “Investing in property remains one of the safest options you can make in this day and age and so it comes as little surprise that the majority of landlords remain confident with their investment and have no plans to exit the BTL sector.

“It’s also interesting to see that the government has failed to intimidate the nation’s landlords, despite a consistent campaign to reduce profit margins and force them out of the sector. In fact, more landlords have decided to leave having grown tired of dealing with tenants than they have because of various government tax changes.

“So it looks as though the government will have to actually build some more homes if they wish to address the current housing crisis, rather than rely on hard-working landlords to boost the nation’s property stock levels.”

Share Story: