Foreign nationals should be banned from buying more than half of houses in new developments, says Tory MP
Previously this has just been a big City issue but I fear it is coming to some affluent places near you. The story goes:
Foreign nationals should be barred from buying more than 50 per cent of houses or flats in new developments of more than 20 properties, a Conservative MP has proposed.
The 50 per cent limit is one of a series of changes put forward in a report by Croydon South MP Chris Philp to boost housebuilding towards the Government’s target of 300,000 homes a year and ensure that more new homes end up with first-time buyers.
In his report, published by the Centre for Policy Studies think tank, Mr Philp highlighted a development in Baltimore Wharf, in London’s Docklands, where 87 per cent of 2,999 apartments were sold abroad, as well as another in Manchester where 94 per cent of 230 flats went to non-UK residents, more than half of them to a company based in the British Virgin Islands.
Mr Philp said overseas buyers were taking up around 50 per cent of all new-build stock in London, including cheap flats in the suburbs. But he warned it was “a much larger issue than people imagine”, and was no longer confined to prime areas of the capital.