More than 50% of large London properties bought by foreigners

the_flying_pig

chewmylegoff wrote: »

firstly many of the foreign buyers are actually living and working in the city, they are just foreign nationals.

secondly, if it was 45% in 2007, when volumes were much higher, and it is 55% now, then the actual numbers of foreign buyers are lower than they were in 2007, so you can spin this story either way.

exactly.

using the month of january as an example, there were 6,038 London transactions in Jan 10 versus 12,216 in Jan 07, so activity less than half of what it was, if the foreign % is 55% but was 45%, that gives us:

jan 2007 - 5.5k foreign buyers, 6.7k domestic ones
jan 2010 - 3.3k foreign buyers, 2.7k domestic ones

in other worse, the number of foreign buyers has fallen very substantially [40%], which is a huge amount although rather less than the 60% fall in domestic ones.

nollag2006

I find these Johnny Foreigner postings very uncomfortable, and not at all in line with the British spirit of acceptance and fair play.

Cowardly references to Middle Eastern buyers there too - Panic now, the Moslems are taking over!!

Did I hear that you are a copper brit? And we wonder why ethnic minorities dont trust the police

carolt

Heyman wrote: »

Yeah damn those foreign investors bringing their money to this country and injecting it into our economy. The rotters are even investing in our businesses as well.

The sooner we get Johnny Foreigner out the better!

Not sure how they're investing in our economy if they're only here for 3 weeks of the year. Empty properties don't help the economy. If those houses were lived in by full-time owners who lived there all year round, paying council tax, using local services etc, surely it would be far better for the local economy?

Heyman_2

carolt wrote: »

Not sure how they're investing in our economy if they're only here for 3 weeks of the year. Empty properties don't help the economy. If those houses were lived in by full-time owners who lived there all year round, paying council tax, using local services etc, surely it would be far better for the local economy?

Yes it would undoubtedly be better for every house to be lived in by a full-time owner but that isn't the real world we live in is it?

The point you make is a good one though in that it's more inclusive rather than just pointing the finger at foreigners as in the OP and article. Empty properties aren't good but that's the result of the housing market being..well, a market. People can buy and sell as they please - I'm not sure what the solution would be?

You could ban foreigners from buying UK property you're only dealing with half of it. You could then ban domestic citizens from owning more than one property too - I'm sure there'd be huge implications although I'm not sure what they are haha.

I dunno - what do you think?

ILW

I believe you cannot buy a house in Australia unless you have had permanent residence for 2 years. Not totally sure, but a friend of mine that emigrated had to wait.

Crispinator

That seems a bit silly. Surely permanent residence means you'll be there a while?