British people pay the highest levels of property taxes in the developed world and more than twice the average for the 34 rich countries in the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development, according to a think-tank report.
The right-of-centre Policy Exchange said politicians should reject new levies on property - such as the 'mansion tax' on residences worth over £2 million favoured by Liberal Democrats and Labour - and instead pledge to bring down housing costs by building 1.5 million new homes by the end of the decade.
The report called for a least one new 'garden city' and changes to planning rules to deliver 300,000 new houses a year.
Councils that fail to hit their own housing targets should be forced to release land to local people who want to design and build their own homes, said the think-tank.
The report calculated that property taxes including council tax, stamp duty, inheritance tax and capital gains tax amount to 4.1% of GDP in the UK - the highest in the OECD and well above the average of 1.8%.
By comparison, Canada levies 3.5% of national income in property taxes, the USA 3%, Japan 2.8% and Germany 0.9%.
