Going back to Housing,
"Labour to clamp down on foreign buyers of UK properties
Starmer plans rise in stamp duty and restrictions on new-build purchases"
Jim Pickard, George Parker and Joshua Oliver
YESTERDAY
A Labour government would increase the stamp duty paid by foreign buyers of UK property while also restricting the sale of new-build properties to overseas investors under plans being drawn up for the party’s general election manifesto.
Labour party leader Sir Keir Starmer wants to tackle Britain’s property affordability crisis, which has made it increasingly difficult for younger workers to buy their own homes.
Starmer’s policies are set to come under closer scrutiny ahead of a general election next year, with Labour far ahead in the polls and having made substantial gains in Friday’s local elections.
Labour would introduce new rules so that for a certain period — for example, six months — only first-time buyers would be able to buy homes in a new development, Labour officials told the Financial Times. Individual councils would negotiate with developers as to how long sales would be limited and whether that period would start with the first sales off-plan or after projects are built.
Overseas buyers would not be able to purchase more than 50 per cent of the properties in a new development. A Starmer government would also increase the surcharge on stamp duty — currently at 2 per cent — which overseas buyers have to pay compared with domestic property buyers.
The idea of hitting non-UK residents with higher taxes — either stamp duty or a “penal rate of council tax” — has been looked at by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government, according to one Conservative official. But the proposal was quashed by chancellor Jeremy Hunt last year, amid fears that it would “freeze” the property market and raise little money. The Treasury remains opposed.
Labour’s new proposals are expected to get the go-ahead this summer when the party draws up its final manifesto ahead of a general election expected next year.
The number of homes in England and Wales owned by overseas buyers has already almost tripled in a decade as residents of Asia and various tax havens have flooded into the market, prompting concerns about pricing out locals. A recent analysis by the Centre for Public Data, a non-profit organisation, suggested that the number of residential properties in England and Wales registered to individuals based overseas jumped from under 88,000 in 2010 to about 250,000 in 2021."
FT.com