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Scottish govt announces extra tax on second homes, following rest of UK
Private rented sector landlords in Scotland and second home owners face an extra 3% stamp duty tax from next year which will bring them into line with changes in England and Wales. It was only a matter of time before the change came about after the UK Chancellor George Osborne announced the additional tax for England and Wales in his recent Autumn Statement. Scottish Finance Minister John Swinney said that he would bring forward legislation on the new second home charge soon so that it could be in force by April 2016. ‘I am conscious of the issue of second homes. We need to ensure that the opportunities for first time buyers to enter the market in Scotland are as strong as they possibly can be and we need to make certain that tax changes elsewhere in the UK do not make it harder for people to get on the property ladder,’ he explained. It means that an extra 3% rate will apply to the purchase of additional properties, such as buy to let and second homes from 01 April 2016 and be levied on the total price of the property for all sales above £40,000 on top of the current LBTT rates. The Scottish Government has forecast that it will raise overall LBTT receipts in 2016/2017 by between £17 million and £29 million, rising to a possible £66 million by 2020/2021. Overall the Government expects LBTT will raise £295 million in 2016/2017. John Blackwood, chief executive of the Scottish Association of Landlords, said that landlords will be disappointed and frustrated by the decision which will effectively ‘punish’ those who choose to invest in the private rented sector (PRS) Scotland. ‘The supplementary tax on the purchase of second homes will have a huge impact on the buy to let market and exacerbate an already serious shortage of properties in many areas. We firmly believe that the biggest losers from today's statement will be tenants who will now find it even harder to get the accommodation they want at a price they can afford,’ he added. Oliver Knight, a senior analyst in Knight Frank’s residential research department, said that sales will be brought forward as landlords and others seek to minimise their property tax burden. He added that buy to let property investors will also be able to continue offsetting all stamp duty against capital gains tax when they sell their property. Bob Cherry, partner at property consultants CKD Galbraith, also believes that there will be a flurry of activity before the end of March 2016. ‘This new levy will have implications for current landlords looking to sell as well as act as yet another deterrent to would be landlords thinking about the market as an investment opportunity,’ he said. ‘This measure, like the LBTT rises introduced earlier this year, is also a wealth tax on owners as buyers of buy to lets will seek to pass on the extra purchase costs by reducing… Continue reading
Auckland sees residential construction work double in four years
The value of construction in most regions in New Zealand increased in the third quarter of 2015 with Auckland seeing a new high of $943 million worth of residential work, up $107 million from a year ago. Overall building work worth $4.2 billion was put in place in the September 2015 quarter, up 4% on the September 2014 quarter, according to official figures from Statistics New Zealand. ‘The value of building work increased in most regions. Similar to last quarter, residential work grew most in Auckland, while non-residential work grew most in Canterbury,’ said Statistics New Zealand business indicators manager Neil Kelly. In Auckland, a new series high of $943 million worth of residential building work was recorded in the September 2015 quarter, up $107 million from a year ago. The current quarter's value is double what it was four years ago in the September 2011 quarter. After removing price changes and seasonal variations, the national volume of all building activity increased 0.5%, following a 1.6% increase in the June 2015 quarter. Within this, the volume of residential work increased 2.9% while non-residential work fell 2.6%. The volume trend for non-residential building activity grew 0.4% in the September 2015 quarter, a similar level as the previous series high in the March 2006 quarter. Meanwhile, the residential building activity volume trend grew 1.4% in the latest quarter, but the level was still 6.3% lower than the June 2004 quarter peak. The overall building activity volume trend grew to a level last seen 10 years ago in the June 2005 quarter, the previous series peak. Meanwhile, official data also shows that all 16 regions of New Zealand are projected to have more households in 2038 than in 2013 and most territory authority areas (TAs) will also have more households. The Auckland region is projected to account for about half of the national growth in the number of households between 2013 and 2038, increasing from 500,000 to 750,000. Over the same period, the region is projected to account for roughly 60% of New Zealand's population growth. By 2038, some 35% of all households in New Zealand will be in the Auckland region, up from 30% in 2013. Continue reading
Number of British homes worth £1 million or more up 14% since beginning of year
The number of home owners in Britain whose property is worth £1 million or more has increased by 75,796 or 14% since January, according to the latest research. This 14% rise over the past year takes the total number of British so called property millionaires to 622,939, and means that 2.2% of all home owners have a property worth £1 million or more, up 1.9% over the past year. Of these million pound home some 82% are situated in London and the South East, a breakdown of the data from property website Zoopla shows. But Wales has the fewest and the number in Scotland have fallen by 4.5%. London, long the nation’s property powerhouse, has once again dominated the property millionaire league, with well over half (61%) of Britain’s million-pound piles located in the capital. In total, 380,337 homes in the city are now above the million-pound threshold, marking a 33,871 – or 10% increase – since the start of the year. Within London the boroughs with the highest number of property millionaires are notoriously expensive areas such as Westminster with 51,607 and Kensington and Chelsea with 44,972 but they have seen the smallest rise in £1 million plus properties of any borough over the past year, up just 0.9% and 0.6% respectively. Meanwhile, the boroughs that experienced the greatest increases of over 55% are within the top 10 lowest average priced boroughs in London including Barking and Dagenham, Newham, Redbridge and Waltham Forest, Outside of London, the East of England and Yorkshire and the Humber saw the largest increases of million pound properties, up 28% and 24% respectively since January. At the other end of the spectrum, Wales has the fewest million pound properties in Britain with only 1,404 in total despite, an 11% rise since January. Scotland was the only country to see a decrease in number of million pound homes in 2015, falling 4.5% to below 9,000 since the start of the year. ‘It's interesting to see that areas such as the East of England and Yorkshire have seen bigger percentage rises in the numbers of property millionaires over the last 12 months compared with the south which typically dominates each year,’ said Lawrence Hall of Zoopla. ‘However the number of properties valued at more than £1 million in the south still outweigh the rest of Britain boosted by wealthy hotspots such as Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster,’ he pointed out. ‘With an improving economy and the ongoing lack of housing supply, this continues to put upward pressure on house prices at all levels of the market and has nudged a whole new raft of properties over the £1 million mark. A price tag that was once the exclusive preserve of stately homes or massive mansions is now an increasingly common label for more modest houses, particularly in London,’ he added. Continue reading
