Ban foreign investors from snapping up new homes, says MP

Foreign nationals should be barred from buying more than half the houses or flats in large new developments, according to a Conservative MP.

The cap on developments of more than 20 units is among changes put forward by Croydon South MP Chris Philp to boost house-building towards the Government’s target of 300,000 a year – and ensure more new homes go to first-time buyers.

Mr Philp is an aide to Chancellor Philip Hammond, so his proposals will carry weight at the Treasury.

In his report for the Centre for Policy Studies think-tank, Mr Philp highlighted a development at Baltimore Wharf, in London’s Docklands, where 87 per cent of 2,999 apartments were sold abroad.

The development at Baltimore Wharf, in London’s Docklands, where 87 per cent of 2,999 apartments were sold abroad

At one in Manchester, 94 per cent of 230 flats went to foreigners – more than half of them to a company based in the British Virgin Islands.

Mr Philp said overseas buyers were taking around 50 per cent of all new-build stock in London, including cheap suburban flats.

Non-UK resident purchasers of flats were predominantly from China, Hong Kong, Singapore, India, Malaysia and some Gulf states, buying ‘off-plan’ two or three years before the properties were even built and often before potential British purchasers had a chance to look at the scheme, he said.

‘By snapping up new-build stock off-plan – including cheaper flats that are ideal for first-time buyers – non-UK buyers are preventing young Britons getting on to the housing ladder,’ the report says.

Arguments that the Government should not intervene in the free market for property ‘do not hold water’, it adds. Mr Philp wrote: ‘First, housing is far from a free market. The planning system means that the state plays a significant role in shaping its outcomes.

‘Second, land is not like other goods. You can always make more iPhones. You cannot create more land. Third, home ownership is so economically and socially advantageous there is an imperative for Government to support it.’

Countries including Australia, Singapore, Switzerland, Denmark and New Zealand limit or ban non-resident foreign buyers from purchasing property.

Mr Philp said overseas buyers were taking around 50 per cent of all new-build stock in London, including cheap suburban flats (stock image) 

Mr Philp said overseas buyers were taking around 50 per cent of all new-build stock in London, including cheap suburban flats (stock image) 

 



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