At a time when Britain decided to reduce the tax on real estate deals to revive the market, specialists say that this step may attract new investors to the British real estate market, especially the young generatin, benefiting from the tax cut in addition to the historical decline in the rate of the pound sterling, which reached at the end of last week reached the lowest level for 37 years against the dollar, after British Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng announced the mini-budget that included new government borrowing and tax cuts.
Kwarteng revealed the reduction of the real estate tax imposed on home purchases, by raising the minimum tax eligibility for homes to start from £250,000, and raising the minimum tax eligibility for those who buy a home for the first time to start from £425,000 instead of £300,000.
Commenting on these developments, the CEO of Blueprint Company, Mishaal Al-Mulhim, told a local Arabic daily that reducing the real estate registration tax in Britain is an important decision in the interest of foreign investors, whether they are Kuwaitis or others, pointing out that the volume of real estate investments in the British residential sector is very large especially from East Asia such as China, Hong Kong and some other countries.
He stated that the tax policies began to give privileges to home buyers for the first time and owners of small amounts, in an effort to attract a new segment of small investors and not equate them with merchants, companies or stores, expecting a large number of foreign investors to seize this real estate opportunity, considering it beneficial in two respects, in terms of the tax reduction and the discount on the price of the pound sterling, which reached historical levels that have not been repeated in the last 40 years.
Al-Mulhim stressed that the number of Gulf investors in general, and Kuwaitis in particular, is big in Britain because it has been a destination for them since the sixties, indicating that real estate returns in Britain are divided into two parts — returns resulting from inflation in real estate prices, and others resulting from rental income.