The confidence of buy to let landlords has been underlined with a report that points to growing confidence and predictions for a successful 2017.
The report from Shawbrook Bank reveals that 81% of landlords say they are confident about their property portfolio performance over the coming 12 months.
Most of their optimism comes from an improved lending environment.
However, a worrying 19% of landlords said they had little or no understanding of the tax changes taking place.
Landlords say that tenant demand is strong and 30% of buy to let landlords said they had seen a growing number of tenants in the last six months of 2016.
In addition, nearly half of landlords said their income had increased over the past year.
Landlords are optimistic about their portfolio performance
The firm's managing director for commercial mortgages, Karen Bennett, said: “Despite Brexit, landlords are optimistic about their portfolio performance. It's encouraging that the market does not seem to be slowing.
“Following tax changes last year, it is clear that investors are still getting to feel about how the changes will affect them.
“It's also evident that landlords have made the effort to understand how the new policies will affect how they do business although the fact that just 19% of the landlords asked had little or no understanding of the changes still means there's work to be done.”
The level of optimism for the sector is revealed by the fact that 66% of landlords say they are planning to buy more investment properties in the first half of 2017 despite the changes to their mortgage interest tax relief.
Property and tax experts are now saying that this is a good time for landlords to seek professional financial advice, particularly from tax experts.
One of the worries is that landlords who are lower rate taxpayers may be pushed into the 40% tax bracket which will have other knock-on effects, particularly for those who are receiving child benefits.
Most people are unaware of BTL tax changes
Meanwhile, the report from Shawbrook Bank which reveals that 19% of landlords had little or no knowledge of the buy to let tax changes underlines another issue since it appears that most British people, including many tenants, also do not know about the changes.
This means that many renters will not be aware that landlords may be looking to recoup any losses through higher rents.
The findings come from Experience Invest which revealed that 85% of the 2,000 people they questioned said they were unaware of tax changes.
Also, 45% said they would opt to invest in property before other investment assets.
