Residential development: The role of government in EU real estate markets |
Deloitte investigates the levels of government support for homeowners in EU27 countries in a report: Residential development: The role of government in EU real estate markets
The report assesses how governments assist homeowners or those seeking to enter the property market by reviewing various tax measures and mortgage guarantee funds.
Key findings
Residential development in the EU countries is supported by legislature largely in the following areas: mortgage interest deductibility, exemptions in capital gains tax, reduced VAT or VAT exemption, tax loss in a rented apartment and guarantee funds.
The report finds several EU countries already have in place a number of measures to support existing and potential homeowners:
- The major economic powers with large populations, including France, Germany, the UK and Spain have already adopted several measures (more than 4 from the above list). However, this group also includes less mature economies and relatively recent members of the EU, such as Czech Republic and Poland.
- The most popular measure (effective in 89% of EU countries) is exemptions in capital gains tax. The circumstances most often exempted are certain time periods and dwellings used for own housing.
- There are currently 11 countries which operate a mortgage guarantee fund – this fund supports people who are finding it difficult to repay their mortgage loans. Several countries including Poland, Hungary, Slovenia and the UK introduced this fund in 2009 as a form of an anti-crisis package.
The report concludes that many governments have reviewed their attitude to the housing market in the current economic environment.
Residential development: The role of government in EU real estate markets
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