How to put buy-to-let property in your pension

The new pensions system still won’t allowed you to hold buy-to-let property in your pension wrapper. But there is a clever way to get around this, says Merryn Somerset Webb.

The new pensions system that begins in April will be remarkably generous to retirees. They won't have to put up with rip-off annuity prices, they'll be able to withdraw money from their pension when they like, and they'll be able to pass down money inside a pension to their heirs tax-free.

But there is one thing they still won't be allowed to do: hold buy-to-let property inside their pension wrapper. Instead, if they want to buy property to provide them with an income on retirement, they will have to take the cash for the purchase out of their pension wrapper first.

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up
Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.