Idle homes making rich richer
January 31, 2007 by admin
Filed under News, News-Mortgages
A new breed of home-buyers is sweeping the nation, and particularly London, with the sole intention of making as much money as possible.
Super-rich investors are increasingly snapping up properties even though they have absolutely no intention of living in them. The idea is that they leave the house empty and wait for it to increase in value, before selling it on at a profit.
They have been labelled as buy-to-sitters and they tend to purchase homes at the high end of the market in order to see the biggest profits.
Lulu Egerton, from estate agents Lane Fox, says that many wealthy people see investing in property as something of a hobby.
“The super-rich acquire property in the same way as they buy fine art or fine wine – it almost turns into a kind of international collection,” Ms Egerton told the Evening Standard.
“It can happen over several years. Sometimes it’s no more than a whim, in other cases as families grow they move to a bigger property but the previous homes are neither sold nor let but held as assets.”
Becoming a buy-to-sitter is certainly a hobby which can only be indulged in by the very rich and is hardly helpful to first-time-buyers who are struggling to get a mortgage and buy a house.
“They have the right to hang on to what is undoubtedly a good investment but it does contribute to a real shortage of big houses at the very top of the market and does nothing to help London’s housing crisis,” said Richard Cotton from Cluttons estate agent.
For many Londoners the prospect of owning two homes is a distant dream, however a growing number of people find that they may be able to afford two properties if they leave the capital.
