Tax cut may pull new investors

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Kuwaitis’ stake in UK real estate huge

KUWAIT CITY, Sept 28: At a time when Britain decided to reduce the tax on real estate deals to revive the market, specialists says such a step might contribute to attracting new investors to the British real estate market, especially the young ones, as well as benefiting from the tax cut, besides the historical decline in the price of the sterling pound, which reached the lowest level at the end of last week since 37 years ago against the dollar, after British Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Quarting announced the mini-budget that included new government borrowing and tax cuts, reports Al-Rai daily.

Quarting revealed the reduction in the real estate tax imposed on home purchases by raising the minimum tax eligibility for homes to start from 250 thousand pounds, and raising the minimum tax eligibility for those who buy a home for the first time to start from 425,000 pounds instead of 300,000 pounds. Commenting on these developments, the CEO of the Blueprint Company Mishaal Al-Mulhim explained that reducing the real estate registration tax in Britain is an important decision in the interest of foreign investors, irrespective of whether they are Kuwaitis or others.

Investments
The volume of real estate investments in the British residential sector is large, especially from East Asia such as China, Hong Kong and some other countries. The tax policies began to give privileges to first-time home buyers and owners in an effort to attract a new segment of small investors and not equate them with merchants, companies or stores.

This was done with the expectation that a large number of foreign investors would seize this real estate opportunity, considering it beneficial in two respects, in terms of tax reduction and the discount on the price of the sterling pound, which reached historical levels that have not been repeated in almost the last 40 years. Al-Mulhim stressed that the number of Gulf investors particularly Kuwaitis is large in Britain because it has been a destination for them since the 1960s, indicating that the real estate returns in Britain are divided into two parts – returns resulting from inflation in real estate prices, and others resulting from rental income.

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