UK Taxman Clamping Down On Landlords Who Failed To Declare Rental Income

Be warned!  The UK Taxman is clamping down on landlords who failed to declare their rental income.

Obviously, this is a crime.  I am not sure why these people decided not to declare.  It would not be difficult for the taxman to check.  Already, they have 'named and shamed' four landlords, owing from £29,500 to £152,000 in tax.

Remember to declare your income and pay the taxes!

Here is a link to the UK Taxman website on their latest campaign - https://www.gov.uk/let-property-campaign

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Full article from - http://www.lettingagenttoday.co.uk/615-landlords-named-and-shamed-by-hmrc

A week after an HMRC announcement that it was clamping down on landlords failing to declare rental income, four landlords have been ‘named and shamed’ on the Revenue’s latest list of large-scale tax defaulters.

The four - from London, Wiltshire, Ayr and Hertfordshire - owe from £29,500 to £152,000 in tax and have now additionally been obliged to pay penalties ranging from £11,850 to a staggering £168,000.

Only one landlord has previously appeared on the large-scale tax defaulters list published periodically by the HMRC.

“These are people who have received penalties for either deliberate errors in their tax returns or deliberately failing to comply with their tax obligations,” according to a statement from HMRC.

The Revenue publishes this information after completing a tax investigation and final penalties for defaulting on tax payments are imposed. The four landlords were among 25 defaulters named on the latest list published this month by HMRC.

In a piece of good timing, the UK’s largest property franchise is this week producing a 15-page guide to buy-to-let tax issues.

Martin & Co has teamed up with experts at Tax Insider to produce the guide, looking at the importance of tax planning, reliefs and exemptions. It is now being offered to landlords who take part in Martin & Co’s Big Landlord Survey.

This survey aims to produce data on landlord’s thoughts, problems and aspirations. Landlords are being invited to answer questions ranging from internet use to future investment plans.

“We know a large proportion of landlords are considering buying more investment properties but unfortunately only a select few consider the tax implications of their investment strategy before they decide to invest. Instead, they take a view that they will address the tax issues when they decide to dispose of the property” says Martin & Co chief executive Ian Wilson.

Last week the HMRC announced that computer-based seminars, purpose-built for landlords, would be made available to landlords who have so far not registered to pay tax, have under-declared their earnings or under-paid tax.

HMRC has also started writing to about 40,000 landlords about their tax as part of the campaign. So far, more than 2,500 have voluntarily contacted HMRC to put their tax affairs in order under the Revenue’s ‘Let Property’ campaign.

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Happy Investing!

HDB Starts Work On 40,000 New Homes

Singapore's Housing and Development Board HDB starts work on 40,000 new homes (BT May 27, 2014)

The new housing estates will feature thematic housing typologies - big words.  What do these mean?

Punggol Matilda will be a waterfront home.  Sounds attractive indeed.

The 3 Gen flat concept sounds interesting though HDB is only building 50.  Sounds very few, since there are 40,000 new flats expected.  Wonder why.  Is it still experimental?  Going forward, I think these 3G flats would be more popular.  Not a bad idea to have 3G living together. 

For an overseas reader, I think they must marvel at how fast our Government can built up housing infrastructure. For sure, London is experiencing a chronic housing shortage, with no end in sight.  Singapore Government has pumped up the supply in a huge way.

That said, our tiny little island is certainly getting very crowded, with many skyscrapers.   A bit ugly, but what choice do we have? 

Happy Investing! 

Malaysia most popular place for property buys

This article appeared Fri 23 May 2014, Straits Times.

Not surprising, given Malaysia's proximity to Singapore. To be more accurate, I think Johore is the most popular investment destination for Singaporeans, though I would be very interested to know which other Malaysian cities or states Singaporeans like to invest in.

Where Will The Singapore-KL High-Speed Rail Stations Be Located?
I think once the location of the new stations on the new high speed rail link between Singapore and KL are finalized, the property around those stations would become very valuable. Even buying a property in KL sounds more interesting, if indeed we can get to KL in 90 minutes or so, from Singapore, via a convenient high speed rail link.

Student Accommodation - Beware!
On London, the article quotes this chap from ECG Holdings who reportedly said that once Singaporeans go to Zone 3 and further out, they tend to invest in student accommodations that give a rental guarantee. He then cites some pricing numbers for such student accommodation.

This is not true, in fact, potentially very misleading. I do not know where this chap got his data from and I stand corrected if he can show the data to support his statements. More cynically, he may just be trying to attract some attention to student accommodations, which I have blogged a lot about in earlier posts. Beware of them!

There are decent residential deals in Zone 3 and beyond. And all of them don't come with rental guarantees simply because the rental stream is strong. Which developer would need to give a guarantee? Only those that are un-confident of how well their units could rent out.

Developments like Stratford, Hoola, Royal Wharf etc are all in zone 3. We own units in Zone 3 and they are doing fantastically well from a yield perspective, and they are definitely NOT student accommodation.

Happy investing!

London Property a Market cycles - crowd sourcing views

Crowd sourcing views on these articles - London Housing market cycles.

Next article.

Next.

Next article-

Please give me your views on where you think the London market is headed and why in the community forum and I will collate and do a blog piece on the topic of London property market cycles.

http://londonproperty.vbulletin.net/forum/uk-economy-news-trends/526-london-property-market-cycle-crowdsourcing-views

 

Some Projects Unsold - Singapore Property (HSR Research)

It was reported in the ST 20 May 2014 that some housing projects were seeing little or no demand.

Here is the second page of the news report. The news report makes reference to a research report by HSR.

HSR Article
I managed to find the source article, which is available for free download here.

This is the highlight from the HSR report - Home Prices Set to FALL in 2H2014.

50 Projects with Less Than 50% Take-Up Rate
HSR went on to compile a list of 50 projects with less than 50% take up rate.

Treasure on Balmoral and Victory Ville
Treasure on Balmoral and Victory Ville, both at 0%, not a single unit sold since launch.

How do you think the developers are going to move these units?  HSR is recommending that they cut prices but I guess the developers would be loathe to do that.  Imagine all the buyers who had already bought coming back to hound them.

Anyway, it would be very interesting to see what happens next.  Clearly the market has softened and this piece of research by HSR is certainly useful for all to observe.  As many commentators have noticed, there is a lot of supply coming online in Singapore.  See my previous blog post on this issue - Singapore Property Prices Coming Down.

So, is it time to enter the Singapore market again? Do share your views on your community forum.

Happy Investing!

Singapore ahead of London as convention centre

In a ranking of world's best convention cities by the International Congress and Convention Association, Singapore ranks ahead of London. Singapore is 6th, London is 7th.

According to the BT article, last year, Singapore held 12 World Congresses and several key meetings, many of which were held for the first time in Asia or in Singapore.

In London, an important convention centre would be the London Excel arena.  I took a walk there not too long ago, see this post for some photos.

Number 1 city in the world is Paris, followed by Madrid and Vienna. The top 5 cities are all in Europe; not surprising since the Europeans have a large common market and industry conventions are the norm. It would be extremely expensive and inconvenient for them to host a convention in Asia.

I never knew that Paris and Vienna were top cities where conventions are concerned.  I don't know anything about the property market there.

Only 2 Asian cities in the top 10.  No American cities.

Happy Investing!

Arrowhead Quay, Canary Wharf by Ballymore - 500M to Canary Wharf Tube

Ballymore has announced that they are looking for joint venture partners to develop three largescale waterside residential developments in London.  One of these developments is Arrowhead Quay, Canary Wharf.

The finalised design proposes two slim towers of 50 storeys (172.4m AOD to top of plant screen) and 55 storeys (188.4m AOD to top of plant screen) in height, to provide a residential-led mixed-use scheme. There will be a total of 792 residential units.  As expected, there will be penthouses on both towers (surely very expensive!)

The towers have been carefully designed so as not to appear as one single mass, however they will be linked at ground floor level with a double height, glazed lobby.

The towers contain:
 • Private and Intermediate residential units;
 • Ancillary residential indoor and outdoor amenity space including podium level amenity space and sky garden, a gym/swimming pool, cinema, residents’ lounge, business suite; and
 • Ground floor retail units and café.

The amenity space proposed at podium level (located at the second floor) provides both communal residential space as well as child playspace. A sky garden is proposed at level 53 of the east tower. Private balconies are provided for all residential units. Further amenity space is provided at ground floor in the form of a publicly accessible ‘western garden’.

Location
The site is bounded by Marsh Wall to the south, the Britannia International Hotel to the west, the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) to the east and West India South Dock to the north.

Zooming out a bit more, the location is very good, even nearer than Dollar Bay Tower, Canary Wharf.

This aerial photo shows you the plot - the red part.

Transport Links - Excellent

• Canary Wharf Station on the Jubilee Line Extension, approximately 500m from the Site
• Future Crossrail station approximately 600m from the Site (2017/18)
• DLR at South Quay Station located approximately 220m east of the Site;
• DLR at Heron Quays Station located to the north of West India South Dock;
• Several bus services within approximately 300m (5 minutes walk) from the site.

Pricing?
Ballymore is now in the midst of looking for a JV partner.  So this project is not about to be launched anytime soon.  However, given the type of pricing seen in Dollar Bay, this one will surely be priced even higher.  Perhaps they hope to entice some rich Chinese developer to partner with them.

Views?  Do share them on our community forum.

Happy Investing!