Housing Crisis solutions

[Aslockton]

I watched the Tonight programme last night which seemed to suggest the rise of 2nd home owners and airbnb is causing the lack of housing.

What's the solution? If I were in change...

1. Prevent Landlords increasing rents by more that 2% a year (straight away)
2. Tax all rental profits at 40% (starting next year)
3. Rise stamp duty on non-primary residence purchases to 20% (straight away)
4. Double council tax on 2nd homes and airbnb (straight away)
5. Waive capital gains tax on all second property sales for 2 years. (This will encourage 2nd home owners and landlords to sell up)
6. Make it law that tenants have to be offered the home first (if landlords sell) and the price will be determined by an independent adjudicator (like lease sales are).

Are these ideas unreasonable/ bonkers or both!!
If I had a second home, I would be tempted to sell up.

Some people need to rent because they can’t get mortgages, for various reasons. If there are no landlords (because it’s not worth having a second property) there can’t be any renting - could create a bigger problem in the long run

Apologies for typos (incharge, raise) lease length extensions, not lease sales

Waive capital gains tax on all second property sales for 2 years

I really like this idea...with the addition that any saved tax would need to be repaid if you purchased another property (that's not the primary residence) within 5 years.

There is a housing crisis because the population is expanding far faster than we can supply housing. It is increasing mainly through adult immigration, not through birth and family formation, which would put less strain on the housing stock. The city where I live has seen a population increase of 8 per cent in the past ten years. The housing stock has been expanded by the endless creation of new housing estates ( but without any increase in sewerage, electric generation, ,new main roads etc) but it can’t keep up.
I expect this answer will be replied to with accusations of racism and then be removed. It is still true, though.

It might be a good idea to build maisonettes on new developments so that there are double the number of houses, if people don't want to live in high rise buildings.

I'm not against 2nd home owners, they are investing their money and given the opportunity I think alot of people would do the same. I think more affordable, alternative housing options should be considered. I love the idea of tiny houses. Where I live a 2 bed new build is around £300,000 which is crazy money for a first time buyer/single person. I think we need to think outside the box when it comes to the housing crisis.

Those ideas would drastically reduce the numbers of BTLs and would probably reduce the numbers of people buying new second homes. Council tax would have to go up by much more than 100% if it is intended to force someone who can afford a second home to sell up.

A doubling of the council tax in Cornwall for example
would be about the same as the cost of a weekend's skiing so people who already own those houses would barely notice. Even capital gains tax at 100% wouldn't make much of a difference as the owners would have saved £££ on holidays over the years by having the property.

Private rental to be capped at 2/3rds of local authority rent for equivalent sized property. Maybe a rental £ per sqft for bigger properties.

Social housing build scheme.

I don't think no. 5 would work for those with a large portfolio, often the profit made from renting long-term far outweighs that of selling.

Licensing all holiday let's and airbnbs for a start. They havenyo pay a free tolucrnse and oversupply in the area canbe a reason to refuse. Double council tax for these properties.

May encourage landlords to let residentially and not as holiday let's.

Will help an oversupply of holiday let's in some areas.

Double council tax for second homes.

May not stop most people with loads of money but will put money into the coffers of the local council who can then invest in new affordable housing.

They have to pay a fee to get licenced - that should say!

They need to (at least where I am) stop building so much student accommodation that's then just empty. They need to start building houses for non students who need them too.

I don't know enough to know if it would work but in the same way there is a requirement for a certain number of 'affordable housing' dwellings to be built on a new development there could also be a requirement that a percentage of the houses should be social housing that go straight to the LA (or HA) upon completion, possibly wiht the cost being shared by local and/or national government. I realise this will put the prices of the purchased houses up but it spreads the social housing out as well as increasing the amount of it.

We defiantly need more social housing now so many landlords are selling up and we know now that building big estates of it causes problems.

Abolishing the right to buy is essential too

We need more sustainable and equitable support for first time buyers, more council houses, removal of right to buy and agreed, OP - more strenuous rules around buying and renting out multiple properties

I am not expecting all landlords to sell up, but if a quarter are tempted with no capital gains tax it may increase the housing stock. Look what happened when stamp duty was abolished for a year.

There must be lots of people with 2nd holiday homes that are used for only a few weeks a year. The Tonight programme highlighted people buying in the Lake District for future retirement, but had no intention of living in the property for a few years and a covenant saying it could not be rented out for holidays. Madness.

I work in the council in London and the area is currently being gentrified There has been a lot of new bills which Landlord to have a lot of property have bought and they are sat empty some of them as people cannot afford the rent they are charging

Yes, I have a friend who works in sales for new build flats in London. She said they are bought up by large investors who sit on them empty waiting for the market to rise. They are in no hurry to rent them out.

I don’t know how much of a dent it would make but I’ve always thought properties bought through RTB shouldn’t be allowed to be rented at private market rates, even if they are sold on. They should be let through Council, who for a fee can act as the managing agent (lower fee than private companies), sort the maintenance etc. Landlord still responsible for big jobs such as kitchen upgrades. There could be tiers, or some sort of thresholds for which properties can be let to those on the housing register, and those ‘open to all’ (my council has two separate lists, not sure if it’s the same for all). Rent amount should be on par with social housing rates, again maybe tiers for type/condition of property.

People can still make use of RTB, Councils can still get use of some properties they’ve sold off, landlords and tenants get some form of security in different ways, compared to general private let. Most councils have a ‘lettable standard’ for example which applies to more than just gas safety and electric testing.

I’m sure there are issues with this idea but I think if councils had a finger in the pie, they would also be more proactive to help both tenants and landlords where there is non payment of rent, ASB, or crap landlords.

Wow so much nonsense about tax here and restrictions there. While the elephant stomps around the room screaming ‘look at me’.

Housebuilding. Supply and demand.

This

And this

Where I am in London the crisis is the rental sector. Some estate agents have left the market there is so little. People are offering a year up front even. Many people go for each property and rent prices are climbing higher and higher. Some people need to ent and taking away the market isn’t helping the , they won’t be buying if the market falls a little.

I don’t have a broader sense of the whole country, but the issue here is affordable housing. Either rental or to buy. Flats are being built at a crazy rate, but so little of it is affordable. Both in for rent and sale it’s the one bed flats and small properties that are inflated, the 2-3 beds often aren’t much more. The fanciest ones are often even empty once built!

for me what needs to be done

-some socially planned housing. Somewhere between estates of detached houses/ fancy flats and high rise. Large areas with social developers to make practical housing. What is being built needs to change. What is built needs to be better joined up and planned, like the new towns where

-selling a second property needs to be easier tax wise, buying one needs to have more barriers

-shared ownership needs to become a social model, between council owned and private sales. Not for profit

No need for hammering private landlords but regulations around ensuring properties are habitable and repairs etc are attended to quickly need to be improved and there need to be penalties for landlords who ignore the regulations and councils who fail to enforce them.

This already happens in most new build estates. In order to get planning permission and grants etc approx 30% of new housing estates need to be for social housing, usually under a HA.

In addition these days they're not allowed to have one end private owners and one end social housing to avoid a "getto" scenario. It's now all about mixed tenure so you could own a £500k house and your neighbour in the same house rents it from an HA for £600 a month.

It been a while since I worked in that section of social housing, but if I recall the thinking behind it was that if you were unemployed, you'd see your neighbour getting off to work every day, maybe a nice car and it would make you want to aspire to the same. We know that's nonsense but that was the govt thought process 🤨