Current and future owners of overseas property in the United Kingdom will be watching today’s annual Budget statement – the last to be delivered by the current government – with interest.
Finance Minister George Osborne (pictured) will begin the statement at 12.30pm UK time, and he is likely to use to opportunity as a springboard for his Conservative Party’s pre-election campaign.
Increases in taxes paid by non-U.K. residents on their British homes is just one measure that has been predicted by many economic pundits in the run-up to today’s announcement.
Charles Purdy of SmartCurrencyExchange.com, said: “While a number of changes to pensions, capital gains tax for non-residents and tax rates are expected to be confirmed, any unanticipated changes to U.K. monetary policy could cause a knee-jerk reaction in the currency markets.”
This could have the effect of making U.K. property instantly cheaper or more expensive, depending how the markets react.
“However, the possibility of a new government coming to power in less than two months is arguably what will cause greater swings in the exchange rate in coming weeks, given a new party would probably reverse anything announced in the Budget,” he continued.
Purdy added that how the United Kingdom reacts to the Budget statement later today could be an indicator as to which way the election result might go, with an outright Tory government or Tory-led coalition ensuring continuity and therefore deemed a positive for sterling.
“Osborne will justify much of his Budget as key to completing his strategy for eradicating the deficit and keeping the U.K. economic recovery on track,” he concluded.
Andrew Batt, International Group Editor of PropertyGuru Group, wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories email andrew@propertyguru.com.sg
