to think mansion tax is an unfair tax on London and the South East?

[goodnessgracious]

I disagree with mansion tax but regardless it seems to me to be unfair on Londoners.

Aibu to think that it may also force some people to sell their properties who are income poor but property rich?

And?

My heart bleeds

um, unlike everything else in this country which is skewed towards them you mean?

I don't think we'll see any of these owners of £2m and upwards properties queuing at the foodbank anytime soon, I'm sure they will scrape by somehow.

I sense a MN campaign idea...

I'm sorry but if you want to pay £1million plus to live in a shoe box just because it is in London then tough. If things are so tight financially then sell up and commute.

I disagree with house prices being so high in the SW that ordinary people like my son can't buy a home.

Unfair on Londoners? Like all the capital and time and effort spent on London versus the rest of the UK disadvantages the people that don't live in London?

Cry me a river.

No, you're wrong. People who have million pound houses are rich, even in London. Seeing as 20% of Londoners are below the poverty line, I doubt this will disproportionately affect them.

Just because someone is rich does not mean that a tax that unfairly effects one part of the country is right?

Very soon, more people will live in London than the total population of Wales, Scotland and NI combined. More rich people will live there or in the SE as it is a financial/business hub and the best paid jobs could probably be found there. It will disproportionately affect those in, eg, Cheshire- rich people tend to live with other rich people, so it will affect certain areas more. I wouldn't look at it as a London thing though, like I said, there are more people living there than say than Scotland, so no point generalising.

People who have million pound houses are rich, even in London.

Not if you bought years ago before an area became popular, turning your ordinary, averagely priced house into a house worth over a million. Unless you think people should be forced to sell and move away from the area they have loved for the last umpteen years and grew up in.

It would affect one part of the country more than other parts because that's where more of the rich people live. I don't think anyone's planning to tax London just because they hate London.

Lived not loved.

London and the south east get loads of investment in things like transport that help keep the property prices high. I'm sure if they start spending similar amounts in the north then our house prices will go up too and we can start to pay our share of the mansion tax burden

Ooh off to google, I've never heard about this.

I have an elderly relative who lives in London. Bought house for a couple of K in a bygone era, modest 3 bed. She could well be affected as the area boomed in the 80's.

I believe strongly in equality and think that income tax should be much much higher. I am uncomfortable with the mansion tax because in London there are many elderly people who bought their homes for not much but now due to the sheer madness of London house prices, have homes that are worth absurd amounts of money. I do not think old people should be forced out of their homes because of this- the many that won't be able to afford the tax.
I think the problem is housing as a source of making money- rather than as about homes. I wish there could be a cap on how much houses can be sold and rented out for instead of the benefit cap which only targets the poorest .

People who bought the house have already paid stamp duty on it at a higher rate which I agree with. Tax upon the purchase is correct.

What I think is wrong is that this is not a purchase tax it's is yearly tax that has no correlation to earnings.

I thought there were plans to allow elderly people to defer payment so it can come out of their estate after they die? Agree people shouldn't be forced out of their homes.

YANBU.

I'd rather see a tax on foreign investment in property in London, and a tax on properties that are left empty for long periods of time.

I'm not quite so fussed about the mansion tax now that talk of it has moved from £1m to £2m, but I still don't think it's fair. Income tax and stamp duty are much fairer, and there will be people who are asset rich and cash poor who are badly affected by this.

No one should be forced to leave their home because of a tax bill, it's just all kinds of wrong. Moving out of a property because you can't afford to run it, maintain it, or you need to release cash is one thing, having to move simply to pay a tax is another altogether.

People who can't see that individuals may have genuine difficulty because of this are incredibly small minded and need to look outside their own little bubble.

"Cry me a river"

^^ This.

I would ALSO like to see a tax on foreign investment property in London which has been a problem since the 1970's.
AND a tax on properties sitting empty.

"No one should be forced to leave their home because of a tax bill, it's just all kinds of wrong."

Maybe, but people are being forced to leave their homes for having an 'extra' bedroom where disability equipment is being stored, or for not having enough ESA anymore to live on (pay the topup for housing benefit) because they are suddenly 'not sick/disabled' anymore according to ATOS.

Two wrongs don't make a right but I know which one I am more concerned about happening in our society.

Private and LA renters have to move home all the time. Why is this different? I can't really weep into my beer about people who have a £1 million asset being taxed on it. You can remortgage or sell that asset and move somewhere more affordable. It's not like they worked for the money - it's pure luck.

Also, housing in London had always been expensive. An £1m house now would have been unaffordable to most people 40 years ago. £2k for a house was a huge amount in the 60s / 70s.

Erm, just because your house is worth £1milion doesn't mean you paid £1million. We're in the south east, outside of london in a 3bed semi, in the 5 years we've been here our house is now worth £100 - 150k more than we paid. We now couldn't afford our house. I can easily see you could buy a house in London 15-20 years ago that is now worth a fortune, but that doesn't mean you have a fortune in the bank, you own an asset that is on paper worth that, but only if you sell it. And then you'd have a lot of money, but nowhere to live.

And if you have to sell to pay the tax, you'll have to move out of London if you need a similar sized property.

London/SE property is unusual in this way - in another 20 years, then yes, its unlikely you'll have anyone living in those expensive houses who didn't pay a lot of money, because the older people will have sold up for retirement/died off.

But now, you do have people who were just 'lucky' to buy when they did, I don't think a policy that is going to drive out the middle classes from London/nicer areas of the SE is fair. Eventually, (unless something significant changes) we will have a London that's reserved for the very rich or the very poor being subsidised, or the few middle classes holding on in very small properties compared to what colleagues in the rest of the country live in, just so they can say they live in London, or younger middle class people in rented house shares, before moving out when they have DCs - but I don't think this is a process we should be aiming to speed up.

I don't think it is particularly fair on people who bought houses for a 'normal' price before the massive boom. I think those who bought before a certain date (not sure when as not an expert in property prices) should be exempt but those who actually more than a million for there homes should pay as they are more likely to be able to afford it.