September 17, 2008

Changes to stamp duty

The government has made a small attempt to try and help revive the ailing UK property market, but will cutting the stamp duty thresholds actually make any difference at all?

Well what they have done is to suspend the stamp duty on a property, which is valued at £175,000, or less, this is supposed to help those first time buyers get onto the property ladder and in turn get the property market moving once more.

This is what the current stamp duty rules mean:

The banding structure is as follows:
Someone buying ‘House A’ for £175,100 would pay £1,751 stamp duty.
Someone buying ‘House B’ for £175,000 would pay £0 stamp duty.

The problem is that it is going to cost first time buyers more to buy their dream home and so the changes in stamp duty is probably not going t make any difference at all.

Source [Think Money]