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A comment on Bitcoin exchange rate reached $100 USD per BTC. Parent comment

Re:Bitcoin exchange rate reached $100 USD per BTC by seanalltogether on Monday April 01, 2013 @02:12PM (#5474811)
UK land rights are much different then the US owing to their history of kings and lords. You don't pay property tax[1] on the land you hold. As a result there isn't much incentive to ever sell your land. Since other people still want to live on your land though you set up a deal so that they can build houses and live on that land, but they have to pay you rent. You are effectively a landlord in the truest sense of the word.

[1] If you rent out your land you start paying property tax, the government wants there own piece of that pie.

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Re:Bitcoin exchange rate reached $100 USD per BTC by petercooper on Monday April 01, 2013 @04:23PM (#5475646)
This is not false but the majority of people and properties are freehold, not leasehold. Around 3 million properties are leasehold, the majority are flats, with 1 million being houses. There are about 25 million residential properties overall, so leasehold is only about 12% of the market.

Plus, in the UK there are certainly liabilities for holding land that has a residential property on it. As the landowner, you'll be paying the council tax on it if you have no tenants, and with many councils now, that'll be a more expensive rate too (currently 150% of the standard rate for unoccupied property in my area). Of course, council tax isn't really a property tax, though it can act like one in some situations and basically covers similar things that US property taxes do.

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Re:Bitcoin exchange rate reached $100 USD per BTC by Nursie on Monday April 01, 2013 @02:25PM (#5474901)
I would point out that outside of London this is not exactly common.
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Re:Bitcoin exchange rate reached $100 USD per BTC by seanalltogether on Monday April 01, 2013 @03:25PM (#5475292)
The entire crown estate is held as a lease holding, and they have a lot of property in England. I know that in Northern Ireland there are many semi-detached houses on leasehold.
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