Overseas Home Owners

This Assembly notes:

1. That overseas investment continues to dominate London’s property market, with over 60 percent of new build homes in central London now being sold to overseas purchasers;
2. That across London approximately a third of buyers are now from overseas; and
3. That firm evidence on the effects of overseas investment on the London property market is very limited.

This Assembly further notes the Mayor’s response to the motion passed by the Assembly on 13 March 2013, but regrets his failure to to address the issues raised.

This Assembly believes the Mayor has a duty – as the executive of the strategic authority for London – to understand the impact of overseas investment on London’s unique housing market and to ensure that homes remain affordable for local people to buy and rent.   

This Assembly therefore calls on the Mayor to instruct his Chief Economic Advisor to undertake research into the extent to which properties held by investors domiciled abroad are kept empty, and the effects of overseas investment on the price, affordability and supply of homes across London as a matter of urgency.