Investment Property News - Bueno Investments Limited

Britain's biggest mortgage lender is urging the Government to apply its
reduced 5% VAT rate to properties which have been empty for two years,
rather than the standard six months.

Halifax is calling for the extension after research by the lender revealed
house prices in areas with empty properties are £30,000 lower than those in
the rest of the country.

The firm also found one in four people think empty properties have an impact
on their environment, with a quarter of those surveyed claiming they put
potential buyers off.

A further one in five believe empty homes attract crime to their area, and
22% said they have affected the way they view their street.

As of April 2006, there were 288,763 empty houses in England, with the
highest levels in some of the most deprived local authority areas in the
country, Halifax said.

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http://www.buenoinvestments.com/uk_property_investment.php (UK property)

http://www.halifax.co.uk/home/home.asp (Halifax)