The roof falls in on rental retirements

Rachel Reeves’s constant tax raids on landlords means many have questioned the wisdom of buy-to-lets and are abandoning the dream of owning a property to boost their pensions

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The days when people confidently said “my property is my pension” appear to be over, and possibly for good.

That mantra rang loud during the long property boom, when Britons piled into buy-to-lets to generate rental income and ride relentless house price growth into retirement.

Those days have faded with private landlords hit by repeated tax raids, including reduced mortgage interest relief, a 3% stamp duty surcharge on second homes and incoming rules that make it harder to evict problem tenants.

Now they face another threat, as house prices stagnate and Chancellor Rachel Reeves lines up fresh property taxes, most notoriously a mansion tax floated in last November's Budget.