There has been support from agents for the Telegraph’s campaign aimed at getting the Chancellor to slash Stamp Duty Land Tax in next week’s Autumn Statement.
The Telegraph’s campaign seems wholly aimed at the top end of the market, where the damage has been immense: there are currently 14,000 £1m-plus homes listed on Rightmove which says that in September only 313 sold.
However, Spicerhaart boss Paul Smith has called for a far more radical approach than the Telegraph is suggesting.
Smith said: “Cutting Stamp Duty would be a ‘quick win’ for the Government and would get the market moving.
“SDLT is a tax on aspiration – first-time buyers, families who want to move up the chain, and investors are all being hammered by the tax, and it reduces activity across the board.
“It prevents ‘second steppers’ from moving up the property ladder and is completely stagnating the top end of the market. Reducing Stamp Duty at the lower end of the market would mean first-time buyers could get on to the market quicker or save for a bigger deposit.
“With so much international and domestic uncertainty, the coming Autumn Statement is the opportune moment to take decisive action and give the market a boost.
“This would reverse the depressed pace of activity among buyers and sellers, as well as reassuring house-builders that investors and first-time buyers want to buy their properties, so they can get on with building more homes.
“Now is the time for action: Theresa May and Philip Hammond must go all the way and drop Stamp Duty.”
United Kingdom Sotheby’s International Realty also announced their backing for the Telegraph campaign, with CEO Robin Paterson calling for the more expensive rates of Stamp Duty to be halved.
He said: “It is undeniable that not only have the Stamp Duty reforms not delivered in terms of expected revenue but they have also stalled the UK property market.
“I propose that Stamp Duty is halved from the 5% threshold upwards. The Treasury would benefit from an increase in transactions and the market would receive a much-needed boost.
“The 2014 Stamp Duty reforms had a significant impact on all aspects of the market but most crucially on British buyers. We need these buyers back to create movement at all levels.
“It is no secret that the country market has been stifled by these changes, with little movement in the last two years.
“Increasingly, the London market is also suffering as the cost of property is so expensive regardless of Stamp Duty, hence the Londoner is simply prohibited from buying.
“It is rare to find a family home in London for under £950,000, and this part of the market has been hit the hardest as buyers who would have previously been paying 4% are now being forced to pay 10%, which is absurd.
“There’s a nervousness that the market has fallen by 10-20% and a lot of buyers simply will not pay 10% Stamp Duty in a falling market.”
Anything to help alleviate the supply problems needs to be done. A market grinding to a standstill will be a drag on the economy with people unable to move for family, change of circumstances and jobs. The lack of supply is also pushing prices up in many areas, making it even harder for first time buyers to get on the market. We also need ‘sideways movement’ from property to property of a similar value to be much easier mortgage wise, and cost far less in stamp duty as well. I doubt if they will get rid of stamp duty altogether….but how about a differential rate…..so if for instance you are moving from a property (which is your prime residence) worth £300,000 to one worth £320,000 you only pay 5% of the difference of £20,000 (i.e £1,000).
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‘V ariable stamp duty’
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Editor of the Telegraph trying to sell him £1m plus pad then?
The UK homeowner population have one eye on their disposable income thinking Costa Coffee and Prosecco are flowing freely at the minute and I don’t want that to change by trying to keep up with the Jones’s and getting that extra bedroom we don’t need.
Market is a wash with £600,000 plus property and circa 95% of them around us want to move down! All my £300,000 market needs to do is pluck up the courage to double or triple their mortgage knowing 0.25% base rates will not last forever! Ain’t happening around us and ain’t gonna.
And now we have the little matter of Holidaying in Europe has just got 25% more expensive, so if you want your, 1, 2 or 3 trips a year to sunnier climates then you need to factor that in also, not to forget those pennies keep getting added to the Petrol Prices.
Tis getting tougher and tougher out there!
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Just been an article on the BBC about one of the major political parties called for a cross party consensus on how to help first time buyers get on the property ladder. I totally agree ….but no solutions suggested…..why don’t they ask us in the industry of selling property …rather than a large ‘house builder’ ?
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Lets not forget downsizer’s. I fear that the government seem so focused on those trying to get on the property ladder, that they tend to neglect those that are perhaps heading in the other direction. I would like to see extra help/incentives for older people who are looking to downsize; perhaps zero rated stamp duty on their next purchase? This would add extra impetus to the market but not just at the top end.
London should be expensive! Living in a capital city, any global capital city should be and I do not feel that people should have an automatic right to live there. We need affordable housing in the suburbs and surrounding areas with exceptional transport links. Relax building restrictions on some, so called green-belt land.
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Agreed. Under ‘V ariable’ stamp duty downsizers would pay nothing. We also need to build many, many more bungalows in this country.
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But: removing SDLT from 1st time buyers might well just raise the market price, so it would be no more affordable; and
SDLT on expensive property is the only benefit to the community from the foreign “buy to leave” market. If we are going to reduce or remove this, we need to find another way of getting greater occupancy of the property that has been built, in London, at least.
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