To think the mayor of London should introduce a non resident property tax of 15%

[Mumcouchtotri]

London prices a few years ago were insane. But they have carried on going up.

A 15% tax to stop people speculating, much like Vancouver or Singapore has would reduce this rampant inflation IMO.

WhiskyTangoFoxtrot my parents moved out of London to a seaside town and the attitude towards London is "fuck london" and some I've spoken to want to do london harm.
But what they don't seem to realise is we and others move there because we can afford a nice place in London. So we buy up their nice big houses, reducing the supply for the locals, pushing up the prices.

As for the tax, if this is a one off tax upon purchase I think the investor will just sit on it longer. If it's a constant thing then maybe London will be less appealing but if someone renting that property I think their rent will just be put up.

Yanbu. I'm a born and bred London girl, between dp and I we earn 100k and still can only afford a gardenless 500sq ft flat. When DS gets bigger we'll have to move out of London altogether as won't be able to afford anything bigger.

I know people always go oh don't moan, you don't have a right to live in London. No I don't. But it's my home and all my family and friends are here, and it makes me sad I can't stay.

Fuckingbollocksbugger love the NN
I hate "that I'd love to live in London too but I can afford to so I stay living in " because if we all move out of London we have to go somewhere and we need go transport links. Then, people out of London often don't like railways cutting passed their houses and Londoners buying their houses and taking their places in schools and GP surgeries.

playing devil's advocate here: so essentially you want to tell other people what to do with their property?

where does that line stop once it's been drawn?

I agree that something has to be done about the housing crisis, and the enormous blocks of empty flats are ridiculous, but you can't blame people and businesses for selling to overseas investors if they are paying more money. who wouldn't sell their house to the highest bidder?

I wonder if the answer lies more in investing heavily in infrastructure so that people can get to work etc more easily from further out (eg my DP could get to work in north London more quickly from Folkestone on HS1 than he could from my flat in Kensington) and choosing a city up north to compete with London and pumping investment in there to spread the population and the wealth a bit more evenly.

I think overseas investors should both have a tax (25 percent not 15) and only be able to have 1 home unless they live in it, then they can have the one they live in and another one.
I'd also like to see them flooding the market with properties therefore increasing supply to go with the huge demand (those are who have already bought) but not sure how we could force that

Absolutely agree. At the moment people like me (early 30's, professionals) are being forced out of London because of this. It will start to cause bigger problems like where do companies get staff from?

The current situation is appalling.

Locals are not given a chance to buy the flats at all, for any price, when the sales offices are in Hong Kong and Singapore.

It's not a case of overseas buyers paying more it's that they're cash buyers with no need for surveys and so can complete faster.
It is a total waste of resources to build a block that is 80% empty like the one in vauxhall.

It's rather more complex than the OP suggests, but this is evidently her "controversial" thread of the day.

He's already on it!
[https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/sep/29/london-mayor-sadiq-khan-inquiry-foreign-property-ownership]

and

[https://www.london.gov.uk/press-releases/mayoral/mayor-launches-london-living-rent-for-new-homes]

Dammit, try again

www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/sep/29/london-mayor-sadiq-khan-inquiry-foreign-property-ownership

and

www.london.gov.uk/press-releases/mayoral/mayor-launches-london-living-rent-for-new-homes

Absolutely agree, but it needs to be national - Manchester for example is currently overrun with new developments marketed principally in China/HK.

Another alternative: if you want to buy a property in Austria as a foreigner, you apply for a permit for a specific property, for a fee, and wait for some govt. department to approve it. Slows the market right down.

I am a landlord, foreign, living London, and broadly a free marketeer, but I'm not at all clear on a single benefit of allowing unchecked overseas purchasing.

I also think that AirBnB needs to be controlled in London, like in Berlin.

80% of my block of flats is AirBnB. A friend has just been thrown out of her place because the landlord can make more money through AirBnB.

I just can't imagine London continuing down this route. Where will people live in 10 years who work in the capital?

I would support this!

I accompanied a friend who has just had a massive inheritance recently to view a high-end new build flat in a development in SW London. The flats were anywhere from £2m to £12m, but she was looking to buy a lovely home for herself rather than an investment. The whole marketing suite and showhome was clearly geared towards overseas investors - the sales literature told you all about what's available to do in London, what the airport transfer times were, the proximity to Harrods, maid, concierge and catering services ('five-star living') - just complete nonsense that nobody from London (or even the UK) would care or ask about.

It shocked me how squarely the development had been marketed at rich foreign investors and clearly just built with them in mind.

Totally agree OP! Bring it on!

Yes, I think cities need to crack down on non-resident speculators. I live in central Paris and a lot of apartments are owned by non-residents. It pushes prices up and changes the nature of local business.

Britain is a stable country, as is, say, Australia, so those from abroad with millions to stash will buy up stuff. I don't see how you can stop it.

Except Australia does have controls - foreign investors have to get permission to buy residential property and will generally only get permission to buy vacant land or new build properties, not existing housing.

Imperfect and probably not enough for London. But it would be a start.

YANBU, but they'll never do it. They want all that money to come into the country, don't they.

Gosh, that's a brilliant idea. I 100 per cent approve.

I don't think it should be limited to London, I live in an area where locals are priced out by holiday home buyers. Small cottages and farm houses sit empty most of the time and are visited from large cities in England by the owners, that or they have them rented out as holiday homes by the week when they aren't using them. I'm pretty sure there are places like this all over, the Lake district for example, house prices there are huge.

Yes I agree. I support those local communities that reserve and build for local people. So many Londoners borrow against their equity by buying houses outside the south east and BTL-ing them.

I'm sick of house prices. They are ridiculous.

Hard to see how Chinese etc wouldn't just invest in a UK company that buys the properties though.

Wouldn't it be great if we could stop concentrating so much economic activity down one corner?

I wonder if the answer lies more in investing heavily in infrastructure so that people can get to work etc more easily from further out

Or maybe try moving some jobs out of London so fewer people have to go there at all? Surely better than even more polluting journeys?

Be interesting to see what the business rates review does - if anything - to residential prices ...

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37483274

15% of council tax? Can't say I think this would put off the super rich. And I'm not sure that unoccupied houses are really driving the housing crisis. Maybe in Kensington but they don't explain the prices in Lewisham. I'm not against the idea of financially disincentivising non-residents but I don't think it would have a huge effect on london house prices.

I think airbnb is more of a problem. I know several rich people who have bought airbnb properties in london as investments since the return is so much higher than ordinary rentals. I am guilty of staying in airbnb though, so am not exactly one to talk.

I would like a 15 pr cent flat tax of the house price.