Landlords have shrugged off the Budget’s buy-to-let tax grab but the Chancellor should steer clear of further raids, the boss of lettings and estate agent Martin & Co has said.
The Chancellor is halving the tax relief on landlords’ mortgage interest payments to 20% by 2020.
Chief executive Ian Wilson said: “I’ve never had a client say to me, ‘I’m doing buy-to-let because of the tax breaks.’
“The tax breaks are beneficial but not a driver.
“We did a snap poll and it had negligible impact on sentiment.
“The worst that could happen is the signal that potentially a Conservative government sees there are people making money out of an asset class, and might think about how it could tax and take more money out of that, but I don’t see anything immediately on the horizon.”
The company, which has 284 offices, raised its pre-tax profits by 43% to £1.2 million in the year to June 30.