09 Jun 2014

Tax on foreign property investors supported

Insights, Property, Publications

‘Nicole Blackmore examines ways in which the heat could be taken out of the housing market, noting new CGT rules that will apply to foreigners and expats from April 2015.

Regulators, Ms Blackmore says, could bring forward the new rules to deter wealthy foreign cash buyers.

Dominik Lipnicki of Your Mortgage Decisions, a broker, said: “There are whole blocks of properties in London owned by wealthy foreign investors that sit empty for most of the year. We would support a tax on the gains on these properties to free up some housing.”

Separately, the Sunday Times speculates on whether banks could be required to increase their leverage ratio in order to guard against a potential blow-up in the housing market.’

Source: The Sunday Telegraph