John Heron, managing director of Paragon, said housing policy has failed to motivate landlords to expand their portfolios.
“If we look abroad to countries around the world with larger private rented markets you find housing and fiscal policies considerably more supportive of private landlords, with tax breaks for depreciation and capital losses a routine element of the mix used to motivate landlords,” he said.
“Such an approach in the UK would make investment less cyclical and more long-term, to the benefit of landlords, tenants and ultimately the UK plc.”
Heron was opening speaker today at the CML’ s eighth annual buy-to-let and private rented sector conference, held at London’s Earls Court Conference Centre.
He said in the 15 years since the market took off in 1996, buy-to-let has revolutionised the rental market.
“Today, standards have improved significantly, as has property choice. Since 1996, the number of privately rented properties in the lowest energy efficiency bands has effectively halved, whilst the growth in the number of homes meeting the decent homes standard has exceeded both the owner-occupied and social housing sectors,” he said.
