#second-homes

#second-homes

On Wednesday, the deputy prime minister acknowledged for the first time that she had mistakenly not paid the correct amount of stamp duty when she bought a flat in Hove earlier this year. When she bought the 800,000 property in May, she paid the standard rate of stamp duty, estimated to be about 30,000, rather than the rate for second homes, which is higher, and would have amounted to as much as 70,000.

Rhode Island's 'Taylor Swift Tax' imposes steep surcharges on luxury second homes valued over $1 million, potentially adding over $100,000 in new property taxes for owners like Swift.

While one reader, Camilla Bunt, warned that in Normandy and further up the coast, 'the climate is barely warmer than the UK', for others this was a benefit.