3% levy on second homes

by In Finances, Landlord Tagged , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

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Well, I was feeling slightly smug for a few weeks about Scotland not being affected by the 3% surcharge for buying a second home that was announced in the Autumn Statement, but despite the SNP’s avowed loathing of Westminster, they’ve not hesitated in going, ‘Oh, that’s a good idea,’ and doing exactly the same for LBTT (Land and Building Transactions Tax, our version of stamp duty).

Scottish Budget: New 3% levy for buying second homes

I’m really not sure what the recent flurry of legislation affecting landlords is supposed to do, other than reduce the amount of rental stock, thus pushing rents up.  Anyway, if my purchase looks like it’s going to get anywhere close to not completing by the date this comes in (unlikely, but then I thought I’d be six weeks into renovations by now!), I shall be strongly suggesting that the seller pays it.

Tax changes for residential landlords

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My lovely accountants, the Long Partnership, have started their own YouTube channel and this week’s soundbite is about the tax changes for residential landlords.  Much food for thought and well worth two and a half minutes of your time.  I’m wondering if I should stick to holiday cottages rather than going into buy-to-let, as they’re not affected by the changes and there’s a wonderful local cleaning company who can do the changeovers for me.

Holiday let – half home, half hotel

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I’m writing this lying on the sofa in a hotel suite in Vienna (my husband’s been working out here, so we were able to access a corporate rate that made it less expensive than a tiny hotel room in London) which is my home from home for a few days and it’s got me thinking about what I can learn in terms of furnishing my holiday let from how this four-star hotel has decked out one of its best rooms.

Firstly, the shower.  I LOVE it.  It’s a combination shower with a fixed waterfall head and a separate hosed shower, a bit like this:

shower riser

(that one’s on sale at Victoria Plum at the moment).  Since I don’t have much space to play with in the bathroom and I’m not a fan of over-bath showers, I think this is a fab idea – we only have a rainfall head in our shower at home and it makes it a pain in the behind to (a) clean and (b) wash the dog!

In fact, the bathroom in general has been done beautifully – not quite enough space for his & hers sinks, sadly, but they’ve provided top-of-the-range toiletries and flannels for us, enormous white fluffy towels, enormous white fluffy bathrobes and there’s a separate loo.

They also score points for having HD Samsung TVs in both the living room and the bedroom and the pod-system coffee machine is a nice touch too (not that I drink it, but my husband is enjoying a morning caffeine jolt each day!).  The sofas are comfortable, there’s air conditioning and there’s a small balcony with a table and two chairs on it with stunning views over Vienna.  All things I can take and use (well, I can’t magic up views of Vienna, but I can manage stunning sea views instead).

What don’t I like?  Some of the furniture positioning is a little strange.  For example, there’s an enormous desk in the bedroom, but the wardrobe is in the living room – I’d have swapped those around.  Also, no mirror in the bedroom, the bed is two singles pushed together rather than a double/king (with two single duvets on it) and I’d have liked a sound bar/music system I could dock my MP3 player into.

Talking of beds, I stayed in a Travelodge in London on my way out here and got one of the new beds – they’re not kidding, they really are incredibly comfortable, though the edges of the mattress are quite hard and I caught my leg on it more than once walking past the bed to the bathroom!  I’m prepared to overlook that, given that I didn’t wake up with my normal stiff back (I tend to fall asleep on my side and over-curve my lower back – or, in less posh terms, I sleep with my bottom sticking out!).  Apparently you can buy them – I’ve just had a look and mattress-only is £399 for a standard double, so they’re definitely going on my list.

Rental reforms in Scotland

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An interesting entry on PropertyHawk’s blog this morning about changes to the private rented sector tenancy system in Scotland.  Full details of what the Scottish Parliament is proposing can be found here, but in summary:

  • No more ‘no-fault’ repossessions, i.e. you can’t simply ask a tenant to leave because their tenancy has ended.
  • Tenancies will not roll over.  At the moment, when a Short Assured Tenancy expires, the tenancy simply continues on a month-to-month basis if a new one isn’t signed.
  • Notice to Quit will be 4 weeks if the tenant has been in the property fewer than six months, 12 weeks if more than six months (changed from 28-40 days currently).  Notice to Quit on the tenant’s side is also 4 weeks up to six months, but only 8 weeks for longer.

They’re also planning to introduce a model tenancy agreement.

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Rents up here aren’t hugely expensive, but one thing that snuck into Nicola Sturgeon’s speech on this yesterday that will probably send a shiver down the spine of landlords further south in Scotland was:  “I can also announce today that the Bill will include provisions for rent controls in rent pressure areas.”

It’ll be interesting to see what the eventual legislation looks like and how it affects the rental market across the country.

Diary of a wannabe house hoarder

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My name’s Caroline and I’m a house hoarder.

Well, not yet I’m not, as at the moment I only own the one house, but I’ve had an offer verbally accepted on another which means I’m hopefully at the start of a long-held ambition to make a living out of buying, renovating and renting houses.

Of course, this would be significantly more straightforward if I still lived in Bristol (or Reading or Cambridge or Croydon, where I’ve also lived), but no, I had to wait to get cracking with this until I’d moved to one of the more remote places on the UK mainland – I live on the north coast of Scotland, 26 miles from the nearest town, nearly 100 miles from the nearest town with what you might call a normal high street.  Slap bang on the edge of nowhere.

It’s undeniably a wonderful, beautiful, peaceful place to live, but the housing market is slow-moving and flat, the rental market is virtually non-existent and it’s quite common for a house to take one or two years (or even longer) to sell.

So this experiment of mine could quite possibly go horribly, hideously wrong.  Grab some popcorn, get comfy on the sofa and come and join me as I find out whether my long-held dream is going to turn into a nightmare!