Mansion tax would slam London & the South East: Zoopla

Zoopla analysed all the properties in the country valued over the £2m threshold and calculated how much tax would be raised.

On average each homeowner would pay £32,700 per year, with those just above the threshold paying £20,000 and those with more expensive homes paying much more.

The tax would be hugely skewed to homeowners in London and the South East with £955m or 91% of the tax to be paid by homeowners in these two regions. All the other regions put together would pay the remaining £95m between them.

The top ten areas in the country, all of which are in just four London boroughs, would account for over half (54%) of the UK mansion tax yield, a total of £567m.

Kensington & Chelsea, Westminster, Hammersmith & Fulham, and Camden would together pay 61% of the UK total, with Kensington & Chelsea alone paying almost a quarter. 10% of the total national tax take would come from just one district in London - Notting Hill - 1,814 homeowners here would shoulder a £105m tax burden.

Nicholas Leeming, commercial director of Zoopla, said to expect residents of just four local authorities to stump up £640m in tax while most of the country escapes is an outrage

He added: "Stamp duty thresholds and inheritance tax already discriminate against those who live in these two regions. The mansion tax would slap another huge bill on the same areas at no political cost to themselves given the low levels of support they have in these areas. The mansion tax would hugely distort the housing market around the £2m threshold and cause sharp price falls in a broad band up to £2.5m."