House prices and the "vampire trade"
I've just been listening to Evan Davis presenting his series on house prices. I had hoped to provide a link to listen again but BBC Radio 4 doesn't seem to have extended this service to his programme. A pity, although the latest programme is repeated tonight if you are reading this in what Americans call "real time" and we call "now" (i.e. on the day this blog appears).
There is a shortage of housing in the UK caused partly by social changes (more couples living apart, people living longer, higher immigration) and partly by a house-building programme that is not meeting demand. Another issue is the 250,000 second homes in the UK that could end the shortage overnight were they released on to the market.
George Monbiot has described second home owners as "among the most selfish people in Britain". He calls it a "vampire trade".That's a bit harsh in my view, but there is no doubt that second-home buying has created ghost villages in the Cotswolds and other so-called rural retreats while depriving the locals who live and work there of the opportunity to own an affordable home for themselves.
There was a spate of fire bombing by Welsh Nationalists when English second home buyers moved heavily in to Wales during the 1970s. That's not the solution but it does demonstrate the strength of feeling that can be stirred up in the second home market.
We (that's Gill and me) could afford to enter the second home market and have sometimes thought about buying one, but I wouldn't know what to do with it. I know instinctively that it would become a worry. When we first came to the south we kept our house in the north for three years and rented in Surrey. But the old place was starting to get a bit fusty. It needed to be lived in. Then there was the extra furniture we needed and it was just too far away.
A cottage in the south would be a different kind of worry. Suppose I had a lot of my books there and I suddenly needed to look at one? Or if I needed a favourite coat or hat? I like all those things within reach. No, when I'm good and ready to live in the country I'll go and live there so that I can upset the locals 100 per cent of the time.
I'm wondering whether the government should try to deter second home ownership by taxing it. It already does so in the capital gains tax that is attached to the sale of any second home that has risen in value (so just about all of them). Stamp tax is another deterrent but not enough and it also applies to the houses we live in. Perhaps there should be a tax attached only to the purchase of a second home or a tax related to the days that a house stands empty. Of course this would be unpopular with MPs, most of whom also own second homes.
Another stimulant might be to lift capital gains tax on second home sales, although this would make them even more attractive as an investment. Perhaps the government should try social engineering instead, adjusting taxation so that it makes marriage, financially, a much more desirable prospect than living apart. At the same time it could make it more desirable than what used to be called "living over the brush".
It's about time that we did something to restore the concept of "commitment" in society. At the same time we should think about another "c" word: community. You don't get that much with second homes.
There is a shortage of housing in the UK caused partly by social changes (more couples living apart, people living longer, higher immigration) and partly by a house-building programme that is not meeting demand. Another issue is the 250,000 second homes in the UK that could end the shortage overnight were they released on to the market.
George Monbiot has described second home owners as "among the most selfish people in Britain". He calls it a "vampire trade".That's a bit harsh in my view, but there is no doubt that second-home buying has created ghost villages in the Cotswolds and other so-called rural retreats while depriving the locals who live and work there of the opportunity to own an affordable home for themselves.
There was a spate of fire bombing by Welsh Nationalists when English second home buyers moved heavily in to Wales during the 1970s. That's not the solution but it does demonstrate the strength of feeling that can be stirred up in the second home market.
We (that's Gill and me) could afford to enter the second home market and have sometimes thought about buying one, but I wouldn't know what to do with it. I know instinctively that it would become a worry. When we first came to the south we kept our house in the north for three years and rented in Surrey. But the old place was starting to get a bit fusty. It needed to be lived in. Then there was the extra furniture we needed and it was just too far away.
A cottage in the south would be a different kind of worry. Suppose I had a lot of my books there and I suddenly needed to look at one? Or if I needed a favourite coat or hat? I like all those things within reach. No, when I'm good and ready to live in the country I'll go and live there so that I can upset the locals 100 per cent of the time.
I'm wondering whether the government should try to deter second home ownership by taxing it. It already does so in the capital gains tax that is attached to the sale of any second home that has risen in value (so just about all of them). Stamp tax is another deterrent but not enough and it also applies to the houses we live in. Perhaps there should be a tax attached only to the purchase of a second home or a tax related to the days that a house stands empty. Of course this would be unpopular with MPs, most of whom also own second homes.
Another stimulant might be to lift capital gains tax on second home sales, although this would make them even more attractive as an investment. Perhaps the government should try social engineering instead, adjusting taxation so that it makes marriage, financially, a much more desirable prospect than living apart. At the same time it could make it more desirable than what used to be called "living over the brush".
It's about time that we did something to restore the concept of "commitment" in society. At the same time we should think about another "c" word: community. You don't get that much with second homes.
Labels: capital gains tax, Cotswolds, Evan Davis, George Monbiot, house prices, house-building, MPs, second homes, stamp tax, Welsh Nationalists
posted by Richard Donkin at
9:43 AM
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