Donald Gordon, the outspoken shopping-centre magnate, attacked taxation and a flagship Government scheme aimed at boosting property investment as he announced his retirement from Liberty International.
Mr Gordon warned that "burgeoning" state spending had produced "poor" returns in terms of raising public sector productivity.
Stamp duty land tax was, at 4.0 per cent, "entirely unreasonable" when compared with the 0.5 per cent levy on share transactions.
Mr Gordon said: "Notwithstanding the government's obvious but largely self-inflicted need to explore every tax raising opportunity… we continue to regard stamp duty as an outmoded and completely inappropriate burden for a modern economy."
Without a change in the Government's approach, the UK faced the "unattractive prospect" of higher taxes and lower economic growth.
He also warned over the introduction of real estate investment trusts, or REITS, which are designed to avoid investors effectively paying tax twice - first when buying shares in the sector and thereafter on a company's property transactions.
While the idea had "some merit", Mr Gordon said tax advantages could be illusory, and urged against the introduction of strict regulations.
"The quoted property sector should avoid infatuation with the concept," he said.
The comments came as Mr Gordon, 73, said he would by June next year step down as chairman of Liberty, the UK's biggest owner of shopping centres.
Liberty, in which Mr Gordon and his family have a 21 per cent stake, would announce a successor later this year.
The company, whose holdings include the MetroCentre in Gateshead, Lakeside in Thurrock and Nottingham's Victoria Centre, added that underlying pre-tax profits hit £104.2 million last year, 20.3 per cent up on the 2002 figure.
Mr Gordon, a South African, has lived in Britain since the late 1990s and is credited with bringing the out-of-town shopping centre concept to the UK.
Liberty International shares stood 5p higher at 679p in afternoon trade.
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