November 16, 2020 jim1

Apartments and Flats the Buy to Let Investors favourite in 2021?

The sheer number of apartment and flat owners wishing to sell is reaching crisis proprtions. This may be a major headache for some but an opportunity for Buy to Let investors.

Since the introduction of the EWS1 document as key to the purchase of flats every mortgage lender seems to have taken the risk free option. In effect regardless of what the Government intent was, they have decided it is a necessary document for any apartment or flat. Rumours say over 40,000 sales and counting have collapsed due to the lack of this document.

Origionally intended to address properties over 18m high it seems to being applied to buildings only 18cm high. The survey is not mandatory and yet it is!

So thousands of prospective sellers have found themselves trapped with un sellable residential property. It may not change anytime soon of course as the Government has been saying for many months it will address the issue. It just has other issues on its mind at the moment.

At some stage the blockage will spring free and you might expect there will be a surge in the residential property hitting the market. At that stage most people expect the market will have cooled already from the stamp duty surge.

So prices could fall and if they do then an opportunity may exist for Buy to Let landlords. Adding to a their Buy to Let portfolio may be possible at reasonable prices. So following the Stamp Duty opportunity we may find another opportunity opens up in the near future.

Unless of course the Government looks at capital gains. Then we may find ourselves on another round of unintended consequences.