Three good reasons to get out of buy-to-let now

Alarm bells should be ringing for buy-to-let investors, says Merryn Somerset Webb. It won't take much to tip the market over, dotcom-style.

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An interest rate rise could take the shine off buy-to-let properties

A few weeks ago, I wrote that I was concerned about the buy-to-let market. Nothing new there, you maysay it has long concerned me that people are relying on capital gains rather than rental returns to make their gains. But there is something new rough sums suggested to me that the changes to the tax relief on buy-to-let mortgage interest would push quite a few investors into negative cash flow even before interest rates rise to force sales (or at least discourage new purchasers), and possibly push prices of buy-to-let style properties down at the margin. Add in a couple of changes in interest rates (upwards) and carnage might not be far behind.

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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.