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Landlord buy to let insurance: Updating rent-a-room scheme could provide "back-up" for lack of housing stock
15 Jul 2010
In news which could be of interest for buy to let property insurance customers, SpareRoom has advocated an update of the government's rent a room scheme to provide "back up" for the UK's housing shortage.
The scheme currently allows people to rent out rooms for up to £4,250 tax free per year but, as the limit was last raised in 1997, Matt Hutchinson, communications manager at SpareRoom, believes it may be time for a rethink as it is "making people charge too little for their rooms", which he believes artificially deflates the market.
"It is putting them off ... [as] they are scared of straying into self-assessment as a result," he added.
He went on to say that room rental was a "vital piece" of the private rental sector.
Buy to let insurance customers could also be affected by a recent report from Easyroommate.co.uk, released on July 12th, which claims that the average room rental price is set to increase by ten per cent in the next two years.
Posted by Judith Stevenson
