When people ask how there can be no inflation with Central Banks printing so much money, all one has to do is look at what I refer to as “oligarch assets” and you’ll see massive inflation. The reason for this is that the only people getting access to the newly created money at 0% interest or through crony deals are oligarchs and well connected figures within the global plutocracy. While there is also plenty of inflation for consumer goods (often times hidden in smaller package sizes and phony components), it is nothing like the tremendous price gains in assets oligarchs covet.
As most of my readers know by now, one such asset is high-end London real estate. In fact, oligarchs and cronies are scooping up London real estate at such a frantic pace that the regular peasants are being forced out of their own city. Even worse, many of these “investment properties” sit unfurnished and empty, merely another trophy home to top off the oligarch portfolio.
I’ve covered this oligarch buying trend on several occasions in the past (it’s also happening in the U.S.), and I believe it is only a matter of time before the public because angry enough to put a stop to it. We may be witnessing the start of such a trend at this time with the publication of the report Finding Shelter by think tank Civitas. While this is just a proposal and far from law, I do expect such laws ultimately to be passed globally in various jurisdictions in which the oligarchs are distorting prices and making every day life unaffordable and miserable.
Some key points from the report are:
- 85% of prime London property purchases in 2012 were made with overseas money.
- Problem is not confined to the top end of the market. Over the past two years only 27% of new homes in central London went to UK buyers, while more than half were sold to residents of Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Malaysia and Russia.
- Two-thirds of homes bought by people from overseas were not purchased for owner-occupation but as investments.
From the Guardian:
Radical plans to stop rich overseas residents who live outside the EU buying British houses – as well as tight restrictions on them acquiring “newbuild” properties as investments – will be published in a report by a leading rightwing thinktank on Monday.
Free-market organisation Civitas castigates government ministers for allowing wealthy foreign investors to stoke a property boom that it says is driving up prices and locking millions of UK citizens out of the housing market.
The plans would prevent the likes of Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea football club, or other Russian oligarchs from adding to their multimillion-pound UK portfolios. They also aim to stem a flood of investment from countries such as China, Malaysia and Singapore.
Concerned that many middle and lower earners are being forced to pay high rents in London because they can’t afford to buy, Civitas calls on ministers to adopt a scheme similar to one operating in Australia, which ensures that no sale can take place to overseas buyers unless they can show that their investment will add to existing housing stock.
Such a system would mean that no existing home could be sold to a buyer from outside the EU, and that such buyers could acquire newbuild homes only if their investment led to one or more additional properties being built.
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