Should the Government Budget Put You Off Investing in Properties?

September 25, 2026

Every year seems to bring a new reason why people apparently should not invest in property.

A Budget is coming. Tax might change. Interest rates are moving. New legislation is coming in. Landlords are selling. Somebody on social media has announced that property investment is dead again.

We are not property gurus and we are not social media property experts dishing out reckless advice from behind a rented Lamborghini.

What we do have is over 34 years of experience in property investment, both as a developer and as property investors ourselves.

And after 34 years, you do start to notice that a lot of this stuff is cyclical.

A Budget comes around, the doom and gloom starts, investors panic, newspapers run the scary headlines and then eventually everyone gets on with it.

Then another Budget comes around.

Same rubbish, different year.

That does not mean you ignore tax changes or pretend Government policy does not matter. Of course it matters. But if every investor had stopped buying property every time a Chancellor made an announcement, nobody would have built a property portfolio over the past few decades.

There has always been something to worry about.

The opportunities are still there. You just need to invest properly.

We have seen this cycle plenty of times before

Over 34 years we have seen recessions, interest rate rises, tax changes, lending changes, new regulations, housing booms, housing slowdowns and more “property is finished” headlines than we could possibly remember.

Yet people still need somewhere to live.

Good rental properties still get rented.

Well-developed HMOs in areas with genuine tenant demand still perform.

The mistake is assuming that every property automatically makes a good investment.

It does not.

A cheap house in a poor area with weak employment and 30 other HMOs nearby is still a poor investment whether the Budget is favourable or not.

An overpriced apartment sold using unrealistic capital growth figures is still overpriced.

A badly managed HMO is still badly managed.

The Budget does not magically fix a rubbish investment.

Equally, one Budget should not suddenly make you abandon a property that stacks up properly over the long term.

Look at what happened with the Renters’ Rights Act

The Renters’ Rights Act scared thousands of landlords.

For months, you would have thought it was going to be the antichrist for HMO investors based on some of the commentary around it.

More regulation. More compliance. Changes to tenancies. More responsibility placed on landlords.

Yet across the HMOs we manage, we have actually seen stronger demand for good-quality rooms.

That makes sense to us.

Tenants have more flexibility to leave poor accommodation. If somebody is living in a tiny room, sharing a bathroom with five people, has no parking, no garden and a landlord who never repairs anything, they now have fewer reasons to put up with it.

They can move.

And where do many of them move?

Into better properties.

That is exactly why we have always maintained that HMO investment needs to be done properly.

Our HMO investments are substantial back-to-brick refurbishments. Every property is developed properly rather than simply receiving a quick cosmetic refurbishment and being filled with as many bedrooms as physically possible.

Our rooms are designed for professional tenants. They are ensuite, rents are kept realistic for the local market and we pay close attention to room sizes, communal areas, parking and outside space.

More importantly, the whole thing is managed.

Our investors are not dealing with all of this themselves

This is probably one of the biggest differences between buying an HMO and buying a fully managed HMO investment.

Our investors are not sitting at home worrying about licensing changes or trying to understand the latest piece of landlord legislation.

They are not taking tenant calls at night.

They are not trying to find a plumber on a Sunday morning.

They are not chasing arrears, arranging inspections, organising cleaners, renewing licences or trying to work out whether the property is still compliant.

We do it.

Everything is handled through our own in-house operation, from development through to management, compliance, maintenance, inspections and accounts.

That is how we operated before the Renters’ Rights Act and it is how we operate now.

The legislation did not suddenly force us to become more professional. We were already doing it.

Property has never been about one Budget

There is an old saying: as safe as houses.

Although if you bought certain parts of London at the wrong time, you might currently disagree with that one.

Property is a long-term investment.

Trying to base a 10, 15 or 20-year property strategy around whatever happens in one Government Budget makes very little sense to us.

Governments change.

Tax rules change.

Interest rates change.

What matters far more is whether you bought the right property in the first place.

Did you buy in an area where people actually want to live?

Is there employment nearby?

Is there genuine rental demand?

Did you pay a sensible price?

Are the refurbishment figures accurate?

Are the projected rents realistic?

Is the property being properly managed?

Those are the questions we spend far more time thinking about.

This is where investors get themselves into trouble

One of the biggest problems in property is that people chase whatever looks cheapest.

They see a £70,000 house and immediately assume it must be a better investment than a £150,000 house.

Not necessarily.

Why is it £70,000?

What is the tenant market?

What are the employment levels?

How many competing rental properties are nearby?

What does the area actually look like when you drive through it?

Will a professional tenant genuinely want to live there?

Cheap property is often cheap for a reason.

The same applies to headline yields.

A 15% gross yield on a spreadsheet means very little if the property sits empty, needs constant repairs or the rent being advertised is completely unrealistic.

We lead with NET yields because that is what matters.

What actually goes into the investor’s pocket after the costs have been accounted for?

That is a far more useful number than whatever somebody can make appear on a sales brochure.

We prefer boring

Our approach has never been particularly exciting.

Buy in areas we understand.

Develop properties properly.

Use realistic rents.

Keep leverage sensible.

Manage everything correctly.

Avoid chasing whatever city happens to be fashionable on social media.

It is boring.

We are quite happy with boring.

Over 34 years, boring and calculated has worked considerably better for us than chasing the latest property trend.

That is why we still focus heavily on South Yorkshire for our HMO investments rather than automatically following everyone into places such as Manchester, Liverpool or parts of the North East simply because that is where everyone else seems to be selling deals.

We want tenant demand without ridiculous levels of competing stock.

Budgets matter, but they are not your entire investment strategy

If the Government increases a tax, you need to understand it.

If regulations change, you need to comply with them.

If lending becomes more expensive, your figures need to allow for it.

That is normal property investment.

What we would not do is look at one Budget and conclude that property investment is suddenly dead.

We have heard versions of that statement for decades.

Meanwhile, good properties continue to rent and good investments continue to produce income.

The people who tend to struggle are usually the ones who bought badly in the first place, stretched the numbers too far or assumed managing rental property would require almost no work.

That is exactly why our investors use us.

We source the property, develop it, manage it, maintain it, handle the compliance, deal with tenants and look after the day-to-day operation.

It is a property investment rather than another job.

So should the Government Budget put you off investing in property?

We do not think any single Budget should be the deciding factor.

Look at what is actually being proposed. Look at how it affects your tax position. Speak to your accountant where necessary. Then look at the investment in front of you.

If the property only works because everything has to go perfectly, it probably was not a very good investment anyway.

If it is in the right location, has genuine tenant demand, has been developed properly, produces a realistic NET return and is professionally managed, one Budget announcement should be viewed in the context of the much longer period you intend to own it.

There will be another Budget next year.

There will be another scary headline.

There will be another expert predicting the end of landlords.

After more than 34 years in property, we have seen enough of them to know the pattern.

Same rubbish, different year.

We will carry on buying, developing and managing properties based on the numbers rather than the noise.