Showstopper or NOT? 3% Property Stamp Duty on Overseas investors in UK

Video Transcription:

Hi guys. So Tory majority and a good majority at that. And I think one of the mistakes I think that a lot of people are saying is that they're thinking that all the foreign buyers are going to come back in the marketplace and really prop up the market and that sort of thing. I don't think that's necessarily the case. Part of the manifesto was that they're introducing a 3% or they're going to look to introduce a 3% additional stamp duty. Okay. Now if you look at central London, some of those properties already getting 12% of your own home, 15% if it's a buy to let, which potentially could take that to 18%. I mean the proposal was originally 1%, but I think that was felt that was too little.

Interestingly with this whole thing about the additional stamp duty, a lot of countries are doing this, a lot of countries are focusing and saying, actually we want our community, our local community, our local buyers to actually have preference over international buyers. And so this is not something that the UK is doing. This is something that all countries are doing or have done. Certainly New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the US, so all these sort of places have got these things in place. So it's not new and I don't think it's going to be the last country to do this. I mean a lot of countries are really focusing on how can they get that tax revenue from not only companies, but from international buyers and all this other stuff. What they don't want is the wealth leeching out of the country. And I think that's fair enough. I don't really see any problems with that.

It's about how they implement it. The last recession that we had in the UK, one of the things that the international buyers did was stepped in and bought a lot of property that was there, the overhang of property whereby the demand dropped, but the supply kept going and international buyers jumped in and bought that. Other things for this, because obviously there's the 3% stamp duty, which is going to be added onto that. There's a huge portion of certainly greater London, Manchester, Birmingham, that will affect those markets more than anywhere else. But the other side of it is, is the pound has been very low. So people that have been getting in now have been getting very low pound, the pound's jumped up a little bit. Not hugely. I mean it's not massive. It's still relatively cheap compared to what it was.

But then the question is, is it fair priced? And the reality is, is if you believe in the markets, the market economy, then it is fair price. So whilst it may be cheaper than what it was, actually the UK under Brexit may not be as favourable as it was back then. So it's fair priced. And I think that's really how you're going to go.

So if you're an international buyer and you're looking to invest, I mean you've got this period now where there's not the 3%, so you can get in now and potentially save that. And I would imagine as long as you get your exchange in before the tax gets introduced, now it could be introduced at any stage. It may well not be introduced until March when they have the actual budget come out. And I think that's probably likely. There's nothing really happening between now and then. And I think there's enough happening with Brexit, that really housing is not going to even come onto the front of the equation until Brexit gets done end of January.

So you've got this sort of lull period where I think it's a good time to get in. And if you're looking at buying property, get in. Now where should you get it? As an international investor, I think you ought to stick with your major cities. And I think really that's where the fundamentals are. So you're looking at London, London commuter, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, and Liverpool are really those places that we're seeing stuff happening, investment coming in, international guys coming in and they're the places you should be looking for as an international investors, an overseas investor in the UK.

And I think you've got this period until probably March where, and they could introduce it earlier, but it's unlikely because there's so many other things they have to do. And Brexit is going to be a massive focus. So I think a lot of other things will fall by the wayside in that interim period. And certainly until the budget, I think when the budget comes, that's likely when things will be introduced. So you've got this next three months to get in there, fill your boots if you want to do that and look, things are still bloody good in the UK. The economy is doing well despite Brexit. We've had a sturdy for a long period of time. They're talking now about stimulating economy by doing infrastructure works. So it's a really good time, I think, if you're looking to invest to get involved, because not much is happening elsewhere.

And a lot of these other countries where prices have driven up, they're likely to, when the recession does come, inevitably they're likely to come down quite a bit. Whereas the UK market has been artificially subdued, and so actually is waiting for something like Brexit to get sorted. And the politics, remember, three and a half years, we really haven't had a working majority government, so very little has been able to be done. And what has been done is that they have to pan the two various interest groups to get those votes, to get them over the line, which makes it very hard for anything to happen. So right now is a great time. Jump in, fill your boots and guys, just remember, subscribe. If you've got any questions down below, happy to answer and look forward to chatting to you real soon. Have a great day. See you.


Brett Alegre-Wood
December 20, 2019

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