Is it worth buying buy to let now

[Whaeva]

Thinking of buying buy to let but not sure if it's good

You need to.look into the yearly tax return rules, for many it's not worth it any more. Also the EPC is changing soon but no one knows yet exactly how that will be implemented. At the moment you need your EPC to be D and if it costs more than 2k?? To get it to a D your exempt. But soon it has to be a C and it could be a higher figure to be exempt. Some houses can't get to C. I can only get mine to a C with solar panels or a heat pump. Expensive investment if that's the case

Is there any indication as to whether they are going to force this through for sure? If it renders many landlords unable to continue, what will they suggest happens to all the private tenants?

OP are you thinking of buying outright or will you be getting a mortgage?

I am saving up to buy a property outright but not sure what to do in this current climate.

I wouldn't have thought so and I say this as a tenant. If you're buying with cash, other investments would likely pay better with much less hassle. If you're borrowing, the interest rates will eat a lot of your potential profit. Many people rely on the appreciation of the property as an asset to make it worth doing in the long term, but given the predictions for the property market you'd have to be looking at keeping it up for a decade. That's a long time to lock your wealth away.

Then there's all the EPC regulations, potential problems with tenants, repairs. I really wouldn't do it.

Potential changes to CGT too.

Need to take a buy to let mortgage. Not sure what the rates are now exactly

Being a landlord is a job. Unless you can totally commit to the many and ever increasing obligations of a landlord, and cover potentially months of missed payments/emergency repairs etc without putting yourself into difficulty I wouldn’t bother. So may landlords are now selling because it’s simply not worth the profit now.

In some cases it may be, but if this is your first property to let I’d say probably now is not a good time. Although goodness knows what’ll happen to tenants now all the landlords are being practically forced to sell.

It's obviously not going to be anywhere near as lucrative as in the past.

Your mortgage will be far more expensive than in the last 15 years.

There's probably not much hope of capital growth in the short to medium term and you could likely lose some of the value of your capital.

If you already own a property there's additional stamp duty to pay.

And that's before the income tax rules that are stricter than the 'money for old rope' days and forthcoming changes to EPC rules.

Plus it's likely that you'll earn more money on savings interest going forward, which increases the bar above which it's 'worth it'.

BTL might be worth it in areas of high rental demand if you manage to get the right property at the right price and have the time and contacts to be a landlord (repairs etc).

But at the other end of the scale it can be a lot of hassle for little or no reward, if interest rates increase, you have voids, your tenants don't pay/trash the property, you need to replace the boiler etc etc.