Luxury estate agents reveal slump in sales as non-doms flee Labour’s tax bombshell

The threat of Labour’s anticipated tax bombshell is already causing billionaires and multimillionaires to flee for Dubai, according to new research.

This morning The Times reports that there has been a 23% fall in value in the luxury property market compared to last year, with the extremely wealthy forking out £244 million less on costly pads than in the first six months of this year.

They are already switching their purchases to Dubai, to the benefit of the Middle East’s economy over Britain’s.

Now, luxury estate agents have said the plummet in spending by Britain’s wealthiest individuals comes amid a growing concern among the super-rich about an imminent clampdown on non-doms by new PM Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves.

This has, in turn, already reduced how much money foreign buyers are prepared to spend in the London housing market.

While the raw number of sales has remained level, the size of purchases has radically shrunk as the ultra-rich become more cautious about investing in Britain.

The average house bought in January to June in 2024 was nearly half the size compared to the same period in 2023, with an average reduction of 4,700 square feet.

Purchased apartments have similarly shrunk in size, from 7,380 square feet in 2023 to just 4,000 this year.

Mark Pollack, co-founder of luxury estate agency Aston Chase, has told The Times that Labour’s pending non-dom crackdown “has already resulted in a huge number of high net worth individuals and ultra high net worth individuals actively exploring leaving the UK and tasking their professional advisors to go to jurisdiction shopping on their behalf, as the most high powered business people are digital nomads and can effectively operate from anywhere around the globe”.

He added that foreign super-buyers, hailing from the US, India, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, are also wavering because of Labour’s rumoured plans to hike capital gains tax, or even introduce it for the sale of first homes.

Last week, Lebanese-Nigerian entrepreneur Bassim Haidar told The Telegraph that he and his family have decided to move abroad because of the UK’s increasingly hostile tax environment.

Mr Haidar was one of 68,800 non-doms living in Britain, but a combination of Jeremy Hunt’s recent pledge to abolish this status and Rachel Reeves’ pledge to go even further, is promoting many to reconsider their position in this country.

He warned that Britain will be hit by a “brain drain” if the crackdown continues under Labour, adding: “We’re definitely planning to leave. Everything has been put in place”.

“The main reason we’re leaving is that the [non-dom] system has been working fine for 20 years.

“The fairness of the system has come into question in the last few elections – that’s fair enough. But most people don’t understand non-doms – they think if you’re rich you don’t pay tax. This is far from the case.

“We pay tax on any money we generate in the UK. But we built businesses abroad which were protected under non-dom status. To pay tax on global assets is a no go.”

He added that the uncertainty of what Labour is planning had factored into his decision.