Rental Property Prices Fall with New April Tax
A new tax on homes purposed for rental property has changed the dynamic within the UK housing market. The new duty is a 3% tax and was introduced on April 1st. This caused a flurry of activity within the market and a wave of buying buy to let properties. Many estimated this would cause a pause in the increase of property prices across the board, but so far this has not been the case.
According to Rightmove, property prices continued to increase during the four weeks to April 9th. An increase of 1.3% was posted. This equated to an overall increase to the average price of £3,843. Rental property prices fell during the same period by a total of 1.4%.
The increase of non-rental property was unexpected by many, but the increase in purchasing of buy to let property created demand across the board which surprised many close to the housing market.
Miles Shipside of Rightmove commented on the latest data to hit the surface, saying: "Interestingly there has been a stamp duty double-whammy effect pushing up prices in these higher sectors too."
The asking prices of more than 100,000 properties were included in the survey in order to estimate the trend of the rental property sector.
Home owners across the country have not seen a fall in the number of attractive deals for a remortgage as activity within the sector remains strong. Competition among lenders remains keen and low interest rates can still be found for those looking to possibly lower the monthly mortgage payment amount.