Britain already raises 2.8% of GDP from annual property taxes, the second highest in the OECD behind only Canada, according to the OECD Revenue Statistics 2025, compiled by Property Tax Lab. Germany raises 0.38%. Austria raises 0.20%. Switzerland 0.18%. The UK raises roughly seven times as much from annual property taxes as Germany and fifteen times as much as Austria. On top of that, England’s stamp duty reaches a top marginal rate of 12%, among the highest transaction taxes in the developed world.
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So when Burnham says property is undertaxed, he is not making an international comparison – the data does not support that reading. He is making an argument about the internal structure of the UK tax system: that income from work is taxed more heavily than returns from owning assets. That is a different and more defensible claim. It means the direction of reform is not necessarily higher property taxes in aggregate, but a rebalancing – less stamp duty, more annual land value charge, CGT rates that bear a closer relationship to income tax rates.
International comparison
Annual property tax revenue as % of GDP, selected OECD countries, 2023
Britain already raises more from annual property taxes than almost any other country — second only to Canada. Burnham’s argument that property is undertaxed refers to how assets are taxed relative to labour income, not to international comparisons. Germany raises just 0.38% of GDP from property; the UK raises 2.8%.
United Kingdom: 2.8% Other OECD countries Approx. OECD avg (cat. 4100): ~1.0%
OECD Revenue Statistics 2025, category 4100: recurrent taxes on immovable property, general government, all levels combined. Excludes stamp duty and other transaction taxes, inheritance tax, and wealth taxes. Swiss figure excludes cantonal net wealth taxes (~1.7% of GDP), which partly substitute for property tax. Source: Property Tax Lab citing OECD Revenue Statistics 2025 (data year 2023).
What is actually on the table
The picture that has emerged across Burnham’s campaign is a property tax agenda with several moving parts, none of them finalised but all pointing in the same direction.
Land value tax. Burnham has described himself as “long persuaded of the argument for a land value tax” – a charge levied annually on the value of the land beneath a property rather than the property itself. He has written in the Guardian about replacing stamp duty with an LVT. The Fairer Share campaign, which Burnham has publicly backed, proposes scrapping both stamp duty and council tax and replacing them with an annual charge equivalent to 0.48% of a home’s current market value. On a house valued at £300,000 that would mean an annual property tax bill of £1,440. For owners of higher-value properties – particularly in London and the southeast – the annual cost would be substantially higher than current council tax bills.
