Property taxation - poll results

A big thanks to everybody who voted! The final results are;

73% agreed that "Booms and busts in the property market are bad for the economy".

This is a question of personal opinion rather than absolute fact or logic. There are plenty of people who can benefit by buying low and selling high*; there is a vast majority who have neither bought, sold nor re-mortgaged over the last ten years who are not affected; but for every successful speculator with £1 million in the bank there must be ten people stuck in negative equity with an unaffordable mortgage of £100,000. I think that taking 'the economy' in totality (which is there to serve us, not vice versa), the losses outweigh the gains, so all-in-all, this must be the correct answer.

72% agreed that "If Council Tax, Stamp Duty and Inheritance Tax were replaced with a flat-rate tax on up-to-date property values, this would keep prices low and stable".

This is a question of fact and logic, actually, but of course depends on how the tax is designed. At its simplest, the tax would be (say) 10% of the difference between a) each property's market value at the end of each year and b) its value at the bottom of the next house price crash, so it would only be levied on the speculative/bubble element of property values. As to the 'asset-rich, income-poor' and how properties would be valued, see points 5 and 6.

68% agreed that "I would be happy for property taxes to be increased, provided income tax and VAT were reduced accordingly".

On a static basis, people with high incomes (relative to the value of property they own) and tenants would always benefit from such a shift; whereas landowners, landlords, speculators and the 'asset-rich, income-poor' would be against. For the bulk of people, on an average income in an average home, it wouldn't make much difference.

However on a long-term, dynamic basis, if we reduced income tax and VAT, the economy would be much healthier and grow faster; whereas higher taxes on the speculative/bubble element of property values have little effect or even a beneficial effect on the economy. So each person's opinion depends on their personal circumstances and whether they are thinking short- or long-term.

* And their vast trail of hangers-on; solicitors, banks, valuers, estate agents, and in the down-turn, insolvency practitioners, auctioneers etc.