Foreign investors are snapping up thousands of homes which are suitable for first-time buyers across the UK, with many using them as buy-to-let investments and holding them in offshore tax havens. Investment within UK real estate from foreign buyers and overseas-owned companies has soared in the past few years to reach totals in the billions, especially in London.
Research conducted by King’s College London, which has analysed the Land Registry data, has found that foreign investment in the UK’s property market has increased house prices by over 20{c3f31a43a43b38de89302400a9734d4f77baf5518ef50d495d9d4ebc77b7eedd} in the last 15 years.
Reducing Home Ownership
Across the different regions, there are huge variations in terms of the reduction of home ownership, with the majority of foreign investments concentrated within London and the south-east. For example, in Kensington and Chelsea, a prime London borough, a huge number of properties are owned by overseas investors.
The average home in this area fetched around £1.3 million in 2014. But, it has been noted that there has been a trickling effect which has come from the rising prices in London, which meant that houses even at the bottom of the pricing threshold have seen their prices pushed up. In other major cities, such …