Budget must show London is open for investment

In the latest Winkworth Property Exchange podcast,  Winkworth’s Chief Executive Dominic Agace, said: “Prime central London  is not a safe deposit box of old, it draws in international buyers on a needs-basis, rather than speculatively.

“There are lots of Americans coming to London, as well as demand from high net worth buyers from the Middle East and Asian markets and the capital has a major  opportunity to set itself up as an alternative to the US for American and international investors. “Prime central London is already well taxed  and people are paying a lot of money to buy a home there. The Labour Government  wants investment. They want to realign with Europe and they want to do trade deals with India. They must not defeat their own goals.”

He added: “Raising  council tax would be  the least bad option. But are we moving the dial by penalising the wealthy?  Anything that targets the dead money that is the transaction tax will make a difference. The Government is trying to say London is open for business, so why go against this? From an international point of view,   if the Government can reform property taxes and make them more sensible, then that would be a great boost for London. 

Josh Grinling, of Winkworth’s Kensington office, said that a stamp duty reduction would make an enormous difference. He told the podcast: “Somebody should be doing the numbers on the benefits that could flow out to the wider economy. Stamp duty receipts have been going down as taxes go up. When  you tax too much, there is  a certain point you get less return in taxes. The government is squeezing the neck of the goose laying the golden egg. And I believe that we've gone beyond the point where they could make more money by putting taxes up. The Government could rationalize it and make it less punitive and painful for ordinary human beings to be able to move.”