Originally Posted by Damien

Well it does impact upon the city. Those are by far the most profitable builds so cheaper apartments aren't built and unused residential homes mean less accommodation for a city that needs people to work in it.

Governments should ensure that properties are homes first and investments second. If there is a finite amount of space for a city of 8 million then allowing empty homes as investments, or even luxury rental apartments, is pretty bad planning.

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

They're great for developers, great for those who have a bunch of equity they did nothing to earn in existing buy-to-let who can then use it as deposit and great for the cash-rich who can buy them outright

For actually housing people in the city in question, not so much, as most of population can't afford to live in them.

Look at the Battersea Power Station development. Studios being bought off-plan for £1 million, and back up for sale, again off-plan, for £1.5 million. Do you seriously think there are enough people in London who can both afford the rent a place like that would attract and actually want to pay it?

A family certainly wouldn't - £1.5 million will pay for a 4-5 bedroom house in a gated mews in Twickenham.

There are only so many single people with that kind of money.

In the case of 'cheaper' areas another problem arises - why would people with the kind of money to be able to rent a 'luxury apartment' want to live there when they can get far more property for their money in more established areas with similarly good transport links?

London may have more billionaires per head of population than anywhere else in the world, bar Monaco, however it massively skews income statistics. The amount of housing supply that is luxury apartments is way out of kilter with the actual requirements for housing in the city, leaving many of these properties as commodities, not places to live.

As far as evidence goes have a look at the changes in price of Prime London property.

Lastly another major problem - we import too much and export too little. The brief export boost that comes from selling off as much of our capital as is possible to, frequently dodgy, foreign money comes at the expense of an ongoing drain to our current account as rent goes abroad, and at the expense of an ongoing drain to our economy as a whole as high rents soak up money that could be buying goods and services and send that money abroad.

Housing as a whole is an overpriced mess, with the only thing keeping many mortgaged people afloat being 'emergency' low interest rates and tenants in huge swathes of the country paying rents regarding by the normal metrics as 'unaffordable' to service their landlords' mortgages, with investor demand in some areas ensuring their landlords have enough equity to go purchase their next investment while they themselves cannot save their deposit.

EDIT: That ignoring the government putting taxpayers' money behind keeping property prices up to avoid losing votes. Housing must remain a one-way bet, always.