Easing tax on landlords would end Airbnb ‘problem�...

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23 February 2024

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Easing tax on landlords would end Airbnb ‘problem’ says NRLA boss

Reversing the tax penalties imposed on buy to let landlords in recent years would reduce the impact of short lets on communities.

That’s the claim from the National Residential Landlords Association chief executive Ben Beadle.

Earlier this week Housing Secretary Michael Gove announced that councils will be given greater power to control future short-term lets by making them subject to planning consent.

Meanwhile, a new mandatory national register will give local authorities the information they need about short-term lets in their area, and the government suggests this “will help councils understand the extent of short-term lets in their area, the effects on their communities, and underpin compliance with key health and safety regulations.”

Existing homeowners will effectively get retrospective planning consent and will still be able to let out their own main or sole home without planning consent but only for up to 90 nights throughout a year.

But Beadle says there’s a way of increasing buy to let rental supply as well as reducing the impact of short lets.

He comments: “These changes aer being introduced as a result of taxation changes which make it more attractive to rent a property in the holiday letting market rather than to a family in the private rented sector.

"The best way to control holiday lets is to reverse the damaging mortgage interest relief changes introduced back in 2015. These changes have served only to decrease supply, heighten demand and increase rents in the process."

The NRLA has been campaigning for changes to the rules around holiday lets to tackle the supply crisis in the private rented sector.

Currently holiday lets are taxed more favourably than privately rented homes, which the association believes is unfair.

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