Insurance News Archive
New HMO planning measures 'are a tax on buy to let insurance holders'
Posted by Jonathan Walker
The new planning permission measures for shared housing effectively place a tax on buy to let insurance policyholders, according to an expert.
On Wednesday (January 27th) housing minister John Healey announced the plans to require planning permission for new houses in multiple occupation (HMO) with three or more tenants who are not related.
Chris Horne, editor at Property Hawk, said that the plans would create a "huge amount of uncertainly" for buy to let insurance policyholders considering buying property to rent out to multiple tenants.
"The difficulty [is] in the landlord making a decision when they are buying a property as to whether they are likely to get planning permission," he explained.
Mr Horne said that this was not necessarily the best way to control the high density of shared accommodation that has sprung up in certain areas.
He suggested that the new planning rules could put buy to let insurance policyholders off investing in rental property.
29 Jan 2010
