I think UK needs US style property taxes to discourage this 'housing as investment' behavior. Yes, UK has council tax but from what i understand its not that hi

I think UK needs US style property taxes to discourage this 'housing as investment' behavior. Yes, UK has council tax but from what i understand its not that high. In most US cities (except SF, LA, NYC) the ratio of average house price to median income is very reasonable (about 2.6). One main reason is the high property taxes which average about 1.5 to 2% of the house value. The tax also increase substantially for second homes. This discourages using a second house as investment/store of value.