[Closed] My petition to parliament; tax foreign investors in London residential property.

errrrm,

you are aware that there's a 15% SDLT rate for properties bought through corporate vehicles already?

and that the marginal SDLT rate for purchases over £575k is already 10%, rising to 15% for everything over £1.5m? And that the average zone 1 price is over £1m, let alone new development stuff.

Or did you just pick a number that looked angry? Try an angrier number. I suggest 25%. Or maybe something more aggressive, like a 25% tax rebate if you're a white British property buyer?

It is an additional rate of stamp duty, based on the current model in Singapore; raising the effective rate of stamp duty to around 25%.

So only even more rich investors can buy London property ?

What's wrong with people looking for an investment. I am, my bank offer buggerall, so Id be quite happy to buy property for a good return. Both here and abroad.

Shouldn't we actually just build affordable housing, rather than taxing successful people ?

What's wrong with people looking for an investment.

did you just pick a number that looked angry?

Shouldn't we actually just build affordable housing

There's no such thing.

Move north.

My thoughts are that there are already neighbourhoods in London, with 'ghost streets' where the lights never go on at night because nobody is living in them. They are 'buy-to-leave' style investments, which makes the London property market a kind of safety deposit box for global wealth. This pushes wealthy Londoners into neighbourhoods they previously wouldn't have looked at (...mainly in Zone 2), and as a consequence has had a ripple effect, pushing poorer people further and further out. This does nothing for the character of central London, and benefits nobody.

On top of that, developers increasingly are building new build apartments and flats to be bought off-plan by investors from abroad (...offered to locals first, but at a price that few can afford).

In the best case this kind of tax would calm the market slightly, and perhaps persuade developers to think about their pricing and planning (...its not going to solve the whole city's housing crisis), but in the worst case would just generate a modest yet significant amount of revenue which could perhaps be spent on key workers.

perhaps persuade developers to think about their pricing and planning

you're quite right. They really ought to think harder about making a loss instead. It's a shameful oversight of theirs.

I think the market will take care of it, as I noted on another thread 54,000 houses in the £1 million plus range are planned or under construction, the total sales in 2015 of houses over £1 million were 4,000. Something must give.

You can help solve the overcrowded SE problem. Move north. 😉

You can help solve the overcrowded SE problem. Move north.

I could also move to the north pole, but I was born here, my family live here and my job is here.

They really ought to think harder about making a loss instead. It's a shameful oversight of theirs.

WHat has happened to you of late?

That is not what they said so why the straw man and general tabloid tone on these threads?

Genuine question and no offence meant

raising the effective rate of stamp duty to around 25%.

That would kill that particular section of the property market stone fing dead....

I think the market will take care of it

The markets solution will be morally unsuitable to people and politicians

Markets dont care if you have to leave and break up communities etc

The market is what has largely led us to this situation- no one else is really building that much.

the reality is there is more to housing * than simply making money

I think we just need to accept that in some areas the only players who can do this are the givt and we need to take the long view and realise rents etc will cover the investment but the timescale may be very long indeed - whilst folk have the right to buy no one will "invest" in this though.

* communities. social responsibility, social cohesion etc.

Junkyard hits the nail on the head. These are people's lives and homes; it isn't just some sort of crackpot wealth creation scheme.

Buy to leave is a definite problem. Houses aren't just an asset, they're a national resource and requirement, empty homes in a city weaken the entire city while making it harder for the residents. We're all sharing a small island. In Islington, 1/4 of all new homes built lie empty, frinstance. 12% of all housing stock in Kensington and Chelsea is empty. (obviously, there's a natural level of emptiness, for buildings under renovation, genuine second homes, that sort of thing- but it's not 12%)

But just hammering tax on things is a crude tool, you don't necessarily want to stop people buying but you do want to stop houses being left empty. I've seen an "empty house tax" proposed but I'm not convinced it's workable. Some councils have introduced requirements in planning laws and covenants etc, maybe that'll help. But there's other, reasonable reasons why properties lie empty.

Maybe the solution is strong squatter's rights, that'd change attitudes to leaving houses empty [i]real[/i] quick.

I think you do want to stop people buying, who don't live or contribute to the fabric of the city, regardless as to whether they live there or not.

What has happened to you of late?

quite simply I'm tired of all the bleating for MOAR TAXES being the solution to all the ill's of the world.

Now, this may come as a shock to you Junky, but brace yourself....

.....I'm anti-tax. I believe in small state and the primacy of the individual.

But tax/spend is a continuum, it's neither 100% tax nor 0%. We are not going to agree on where it should be. But one thing is certain, wherever it ever IS, there will always be those that demand more.

Take the NHS. Massive, heavily funded. But to many it is not heavily funded enough. How much is enough? I guarantee as the funding increases so the NHS will find more ways of spending it, but still not enough to satisfy many. And the older and more disease-ridden we all become, the more will be the demands that the state should pay for keeping us alive. And even if you could tax everything, it would never be able to fund all the clinical intervention desired.

London isn't a city of Londoners. It's not even a UK city any more. London is a global city. It's no more the city of the born'n'bred coreblimeys than it is of the Roman Empire, it has again evolved into something else.

These are people's lives and homes

And no-one is taking away anyone's lives or homes now are they?
And I get accused of "tabloid" language?!?

meh. I'll take a selfish attitude and say... I don't live in London and never plan to so idgaf. 😀

But who gets to decide whether or not someone 'adds to the fabric of the city' by choosing to live there.
Also, to play devils advocate for a minute, the ripple effect of killing a particular high value part of property sales is a sudden drop in construction followed by construction companies laying off a lot of staff...
It's also easy to forget that no matter what they say a lot of empty residential property suits councils. After all, the owners all have to pay council tax (even if at a reduced rate for a second home) and often parking permits etc but rarely if ever use any of the services which they pay for.

Taxing more is not the answer, it won't stop it, the more wealthy will just step in and buy up more so the 0.001% will get richer.

Need to focus on increasing the supply in the market, more housing, more supply.

Also, owning a house is not a right. Many European countries where people never own their house. Government move to limit land purchase to developers to build certain types of affordable housing is the solution.

Don't move up north! Its rubbish! Seriously! You're miles better off paying the equivent to the GDP of Portugal for a one bedroom hovel in an area of the glorious capital where your chances of survival, if you go out after dark, are fair to middlin' 😉

ah, but the cuisine darn sarf is less fatal 🙂

Yeah, but we don't half die happy! 🙂

If it were up to me, I'd rather see legislation that expressly prohibits private residences being used as investment opportunities for corporations.

I realize that someone will be along in approximately 53 seconds to tell me why I'm wrong, but part of the reason why owning a home is humungously expensive is because governments have allowed it to make corporations wealthy, whilst simultaneously strangling any notion that we perhaps ought to provide cheap housing for people.

Personally, I'd go so far as to say that I hope that any surviving members of the Thatcher/Major/Blair governments who allowed this to happen by direct action and or inaction step barefoot on a number of discarded Lego bricks and some upturned plugs.

That's madness! If we start doing that then how are those Russian oligarchs, dodgy African dictators and oppressive middle Eastern human rights abusers going to launder their dodgy cash?

there's plenty more northern football teams to get stuck into.

I wish action like this would work, especially has this has directly impacted me - living in London since 2000 I moved out a month ago because I simply can't afford the rent any more, let alone afford to buy... exiled from my own home city by government-permitted money laundering...

However, this has been a deliberate policy by the current government - a petition will do nothing. In all honesty your best bet is to leave London. In time the bubble will pop as more people leave in frustration. Prime London is already looking ropey as China slows up, Russia falls deeper into recession and the Malaysians struggle to pay what they owe to the developers. Nine Elms is looking particularly ropey.

But as you can see from Woppit's Bubble thread - there's little appetite in the UK to actually accept we have a problem, let alone solve it....

Shouldn't we actually just build affordable housing, rather than taxing successful people ?

Odd definition of 'successful' - the Prime London bubble has primarily come from criminal money laundering..

[url= http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7c329314-32ae-11e5-bdbb-35e55cbae175.html#axzz40SAWAjQD ]Foreign criminals push up London house prices[/url]

they like money, not morals, so they are successful

What's the point in introducing
A new tax. The rich will just find a way to dodge it, and the government will do **** all like normal.

This pushes wealthy Londoners into neighbourhoods they previously wouldn't have looked at (...mainly in Zone 2)

DEY TERK AR MANSHUNZ!!!

...Also, owning a house is not a right. Many European countries where people never own their house...