Pushing the private

Chief Executive Liz Peace explains to the PPP Journal what the British Property Federation would like to see prioritised by the new Housing Minister, Grant Shapps.

The idea of 'residential for rent' – how residential properties can be managed to yield a rental income is a key issue for the British Property Federation. We have a small but committed cadre of people who deal in residential investment and there are more who would like to assemble funds to invest in this sector. If we could tap into this potential we would add substantial numbers to the availability of housing for people in this country.

This has been talked about for a long time and the first thing the government needs to do is to encourage institutional investment in the Private Rented Sector (PRS). There was a Treasury consultation right up to the election looking at ways of encouraging institutional investment into PRS throughvarious potential tax breaks, in particular the disaggregation of Stamp Duty Land Tax on bulk purchases and the encouragement of residential real estate investment trusts.

As well as tax changes, there are things that the Department for Communities and Local Government could do to encourage the PRS. For example, changes to the planning system could be used to encourage the construction of homes specifically for rent rather than sale. Generally thou... › Read more