The trade body has called on the Chancellor to introduce measures, including treating landlords as small businesses for capital gains tax purposes, re-introducing roll-over relief for landlords looking to invest, and called on Osborne to review Stamp Duty to make it a fairer system for all.
Ian Potter, Operations Manager at ARLA, said: “Landlords must be treated as the entrepreneurial businesses they have now become. Supporting growth and encouraging greater investment into the private rented sector will help boost our economy and is an open goal for the Chancellor.”
He highlighted that landlords are unable to take advantage of the tax relief available to other small businesses so hindering their ability to reinvest in their portfolio, with some landlords facing tax bills of up to 28% when selling a property.
Potter added that encouraging investment in private rental housing stock would help improve conditions for the 3.4m private tenants currently in the rental sector.
In addition, Potter argued that the time had come for the government to address the Stamp Duty system: “The dampening effect of Stamp Duty on the housing market recovery is recognised across the industry. The current ‘slab structure’ distorts the UK housing market and takes money out of the pockets of homeowners in a totally unfair way.
“Now is the time for the government to modernise the duty to move away from the current ‘slab’ structure to create a fairer, more logical system.”
