Housing back at the top of the political agenda
Jeni Browne (pictured top left), sales and marketing director at Mortgage Finance Brokers, told Mortgage Introducer landlords have grown accustomed to weathering political turbulence, but argued this change of leadership felt different.
“We’ve been through five chancellors in the last few years, so landlords are pretty used to tuning out the noise and just getting on with it,” she said. “But this one feels a bit different. Burnham and Healey both actually know housing, which could go either way. It might mean more joined-up thinking, but it also means property is probably first in line when this government starts looking for money.”
Browne flagged two specific concerns she is already raising with clients – the proportional property tax proposal, and Burnham’s refusal to rule out a rent freeze. “Neither of these is government policy yet,” she said. “But I’d be telling clients not to wait around for the detail before thinking about their structure, their portfolio, and how much flex they’ve got in their rent strategy, because it feels like the direction here is pretty clear, even if the specifics aren’t.”
A professionalised market under pressure
Joe Stallard (pictured top right), managing director of House and Holiday Home Mortgages, told Mortgage Introducer sustained tax and regulatory pressure had already transformed the buy-to-let landscape, filtering out casual investors and concentrating ownership among professionals.
The shift had been driven largely by changes to mortgage interest tax relief, which removed much of the financial logic of holding properties in personal names and pushed landlords towards incorporation. Research by Pegasus Insight for Foundation Home Loans, in its Q4 2024 Landlord Trends report, found 74% of rental properties were held within a limited company structure by the end of 2024, up from 36% in early 2020.