Britain may impose new taxes on foreign property investors in response to soaring house prices in London, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has said. Demand from foreign buyers, especially from Asia and the euro zone, has stoked concerns of a property bubble and worries that many Britons are being priced out of the market.
Clegg said the Government was reviewing the matter before Finance Minister George Osborne’s update to Parliament on his economic plans on 5 December 2013, but said no decision had been taken. According to Reuters, Clegg told a news conference, without giving any details, that “We certainly need to make sure that people who invest very large amounts of money into property in central London locations… pay their fair share of tax in those transactions”. “That is why we are looking at options like a differential application of capital gains tax to those kind of transactions,” he said.
[LTN 225, 20/11/13]