Monthly Archives: September 2009

UK’s Lib Dems outline plans to tax £1m homes

The starting point is to aim for fairer, not higher taxes, says spokesman

Liberal Democrat lawmaker Vince Cable outlined plans for a tax on homes worth more than £1 million (S$2.3 million) and a tightening of rules on capital gains tax.

The property tax, which would charge 0.5 per cent a year on the value of a property above the £1 million threshold, would provide funds to lift four million of the lowest paid people out of income tax, Mr Cable, economic spokesman for the third-largest UK party, told British Broadcasting Corp television.

‘The Liberal Democrat’s starting point is to aim for fairer, not higher taxes,’ he said.

‘As chancellor my priority would be to cut income tax for those on low and middle incomes.’ Property is used in the UK to raise money for local governments, with the highest council-tax levy charged on homes valued at more than £320,000 in 1991. It is unfair that people owning family homes in the top band pay the same as those in houses worth up to £50 million, Mr Cable told the BBC. His proposal would result in a tax of £2,500 on 1.5 million homes and £15,000 on homes costing £4 million. Continue reading

Pre-emptive measures to further cool property market

THE measures taken by the Government to cool the residential real estate market are laudable. It is hoped that cool and level heads will prevail.

However, the interest absorption scheme (IAS) and interest-only loans are arguably offshoots of the disallowed deferred payment scheme (DPS). Buoyant trading and investment in property are also due to the current low interest rate environment, coupled with a dearth of attractive investment avenues over which we have little control.

Given the creativity and astuteness of property developers in Singapore (substituting IAS for DPS is a case in point), measures should also be adopted on a pre-emptive basis.

– Increase down payment ratio to 10 per cent

To nip the problem in the bud, there is one measure that is truly intuitive, and wholly within the Government’s control, which is to increase the cash down payment ratio to 10 per cent from the current 5 per cent of purchase price.

An increase in down payment ratio makes sense and is prudent. If a buyer wants to buy a property for $1 million but is unable to fork out $100,000 (or rather an incremental $50,000) in cash, he is not in a position to take on a leverage of $800,000. Continue reading