The only real benefit of the foolhardy Non Dom tax changes, instituted in the Autumn Statement of 2014 and exacerbated by the Referendum/Brexit result, is the emergence of the ‘uber tenant’.
These are international, high net worth individuals, who would have ordinarily bought substantial mansions of £20-50million each, but instead have chosen to rent these properties at eye-wateringly high levels which, in some cases, have exceeded a staggering £25,000 per week.
Halleluiah, there has been more activity in the last eight weeks in the London Property Market, than in the past two years.
After all the negative effects of the Stamp Duty hikes, Non Dom changes etc., the middle to upper sectors of the London property markets have been in a parlous state. Values have been dropping by 25%, or more, and the time taken to sell properties in excess of £5million, has increased from say six months to 18 months. Frankly, in 40 years of trading I have not witnessed such an extended malaise, without any end in sight.
The Lettings Industry is the ‘whipping boy’ of the government. Before you look around there is another new fangled regulation, or change of legislation, to burden this already besieged industry. Long gone are the days of the Rachman era where scurrilous landlords and their sycophantic agents abused the tenants, now it could even be the other way around.
You would have thought that the pared down Queen’s speech would have needed higher priorities than to include the new regulation prohibiting agents from charging tenants fees, but there it is. Trivia rules KO!