Taxing Empty Apartments Could Be the Solution to Affordable Housing in Expensive Cities, New Study Says

Rather than building new homes to help satisfy housing markets, this fascinating new study says that taxing empty homes in developed cities could increase housing affordability for local residents while simultaneously generating income for municipal governments.

Over the course of the last 20 years, housing affordability has decreased substantially in the UK due to a rapid increase in prices relative to earnings. This may be partially due to foreign investors buying out properties in cities such as London, or from British citizens in rural areas buying out second homes in the city, which reduces the availability of affordable housing for local residents.

This means that local citizens who actually live in the city are forced to pay more money for housing in neighborhoods that are filled with homes that are unoccupied for more than half of the year.

In a study that was published last week in the journal Palgrave Communications, researcher Jonathan Bourne at University College London investigated the relationship between the amount of properties which do not have permanent residents (low-use properties), and housing affordability in different parts of England and Wales.


https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/empty-homes-tax-study-in-uk/