Two And Three-Bed Buy-To-Lets 'Will Become Unviable'

Two and three-bed buy-to-let properties will become more difficult to buy under lenders' plans to apply far tougher checks on landlords. Landlords with traditional 25pc deposits will be unable to buy property in 91pc of areas if all lenders go ahead with plans to increase the amount of rent which is required to cover their mortgage payments.  The analysis also suggests that more than half of landlords who bought three years ago with a 25pc deposit will be unable to remortgage under the new tougher conditions - forcing them to sell, pay down the debt or increase rents. Lenders have already tightened requirements for buy-to-let borrowers, motivated by the Bank of England's consultation in March, which made income checks more stringent. Read more on the Daily Telegraph website.

Osborne: 'Building Doesn't Come Easy’

George Osborne has used his party conference speech to reaffirm the Conservative policy toward housing. He said to supporters in Manchester: “Building doesn’t come easy and especially when it comes to new homes and infrastructure that the country needs. We are going to get many more homes built for families to buy, we’re sweeping away planning rules on brownfield sites, this autumn we will direct our housing budget towards new homes for sale. We will give housing association tenants the right to buy. We’ve had enough of people who own their own home lecturing others about why they can’t own their own one too.” Read more on 24dash.

Bedroom Tax Impact on Grant Allocations

Housing providers have warned that the government is ‘storing up future problems’ because more than three-quarters of its grant funding programme will be used for the development of one and two-bedroom homes. Of the 62,000 homes to be developed with the 2015-18 affordable housing grant allocation, 77% will be one and two-bedroom properties after the government requested that providers focus on smaller-sized properties. The allocation has been widely interpreted as a reaction to under-occupying tenants needing to downsize to avoid the bedroom tax. Housing providers told Inside Housing that civil servants from the CLG had contacted them to scrutinise why they had included bids for funding to build family-sized homes. Read more on Inside Housing.

Sale of Small Council Homes Condemning Thousands to Bedroom Tax

Thousands of one- and two-bedroom council homes have been sold off since 2010, preventing tenants affected by the “bedroom tax” from downsizing to avoid the penalty, research shows. Figures obtained by The Independent show that a severe shortage of smaller council homes across the country is being exacerbated by the Right-to-Buy scheme – leaving many victims of the bedroom tax with no choice but to accept reduced benefits. In the areas hardest hit by the housing crisis, more than two-thirds of council homes sold off under right-to-buy since the Coalition came to power had one or two bedrooms, figured obtained under Freedom of Information show. Read more on the Independent website.