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.

A tax on empty property would make more sense IMO.

I agree. The housing market has had government interference to inflate it; it now needs drastic action to deflate it. And agree for other areas too. I think having to apply for a permit and having strict rules to adhere to is the solution.
And yeah UK has a problem in that it's so all about London. Germany has a few main cities, UK has mainly just London. (Sorry other cities!) but then again Germany has kept their car industry going, UK has just sold everything to foreign companies or closed it down. Feeling negative.

But winchester, if it was on purchase surely everyone would just say they planned to use the house as a residence? Has to be an annual thing to work IMO.

No they would have to have resident status. Like a sort of PR, permanent residency.

It's actually pretty sick that numbers of homeless and living in B and Bs has risen massively (Is it 50%?) and yet London has so much empty property just being sat on. All those new development have been mentioned, and places like Bishops Avenue aka millionaires row... empty mansion after empty mansion that could be made into shock horror council homes, or 'affordable' homes if this country actually started caring about the people who live here.

But if you did it by immigration status, that wouldn't work for people moving to the uk. And conversely being entitled to live in the uk doesn't mean you're not going to spend your. time in your villa in st tropez... I think it would have to be the same as the test for residency for tax purposes, which would also mean that if people were resident for the purpose of avoiding the tax on their london house, they'd also have to pay uk taxes. Except they'd probably have their income protected offshore. Sigh. But I'm still not convinced the super rich and empty houses in Chelsea are the main problem.

Other countries do it, it's not an unworkable thing. You just need the will and you find a way.

Agree with charley

Not possible to enforce this in UK - and if you tried to do so, it would lead to a reduction in the numbers of properties available for rent.

How will you determine who is living in London? Payment of council tax would be the only method and most overseas home owners would just pay the council tax rather than fork out 15% of the property value. If they had to evict existing tenants to show they were living there themselves they would do so.

Would you apply this only to non UK nationals? What about UK nationals who rent their UK homes while working abroad/elsewhere in the country/caring for sick relatives who live elsewhere? What about people who own a property in one city and rent elsewhere?

Definitely investing in infrastructure elsewhere would help. Not just transport and jobs, but London gets extra money on education, the arts, all sorts - no wonder people want to live there.
Any tax to discourage foreign ownership ought to be aimed primarily at people who leave the houses empty, not those who work here or rent them out.

Other countries do it, Which ones? Not asking to be goady, genuine question - I'd be (pleasantly) surprised if there are any EU ones.

Australia Hong Kong Switzerland Mexico Singapore all have gate keeping policies on foreign buyers and others too

And Austria was, as I said upthread.

Ah well there we go .

Hmm - prices in Austria and Australia seem to be on the rise quite a bit, I wonder if their locals are being priced out too?

EleanorRigby - a lot of these properties are sitting empty so it wouldn't lead to a reduction in properties available to rent.
It would be a great step forward if it was made difficult or impossible for non-UK residents to buy domestic property in London.

Wouldn't this breach EU free trade rules? Does anywhere else in the EU do it?

It would be legal as long as EU/EEA/Swiss citizens are treated the same as British citizens.

yes you can google it, some EU countries have restrictions i think