stamp duty
-
Latest property news
Will Hammond rescue faltering London market?
Haart today revealed that its branches within the M25 recorded an increase in sales activity of just 1.1% month-on-month during September compared to a 75% increase for its branches 100 miles or more outside the capital, painting a worry picture of the struggling London property sales market. “The evidence from our branches is that areas around 100 miles from the capital are where the market is reviving, and this is spreading towards the South East and London – a complete reversal of the traditional ‘London first’ pattern we’ve grown used to,” says Haart CEO Paul Smith (pictured). Land Registry data shows that the number of homes sold in London reduced by two-thirds between March and June this year, before the Brexit vote. The slump has been blamed by agents such as JLL squarely on the recent increases in Stamp Duty and Land Tax (SDLT) at the top end of the market. Homes for sale over the SDLT threshold of £925,000 now make up 34% of all homes for sale in London so the changes have been keenly felt in this price band, plus many agents blame the extra 3% SDLT for hammering the number of landlords buying property there too.…
Read More » -
Latest property news
Knight Frank says extra buy-to-let Stamp Duty must go
Knight Frank chairman Alistair Elliott has today added his voice to the growing industry backlash against last year’s introduction of an extra three percent buy-to-let Stamp Duty levy. Elliott (pictured, left) this morning told City AM that “increasing tax doesn’t increase housing supply” and called for the recent second homes levy to be reversed during the next budget. Knight Frank also claims that the Stamp Duty change has had a bigger effect on the property market than the Brexit vote, particularly in central London. In Chelsea, it says, the number of house sales has dropped by 10% year-on-year. Government figures show that after the Stamp Duty was introduced in April the number of buy-to-let properties purchased dropped off by a fifth, and buy-to-let lending dropped by 65% over the same period, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders. Elliott is not the only high-profile person to be tackling the government on this issue. Last week Cherie Blair led a failed attempt in the high court by a landlord action alliance called Axe the Tenant Tax Group to reverse the government’s planned reduction in tax allowances for landlords, due to come into force next year. And the property industry is not…
Read More » -
Features
Stamp Duty is killing market growth
The Stamp Duty Land Tax on a £5m home in London would buy a beautiful villa in Italy, says Andrew Symington, Symington Elvery.
Read More » -
Latest property news
More calls to scrap Stamp Duty
“SDLT isn’t a Stamp, it’s not a duty and its not based on land! It’s just a tax,” says Chairman of The Society of Licensed Conveyancers.
Read More » -
Latest property news
Stamp Duty hike raises £424 million extra for HMRC in three months
Most of the revenue came from sales of properties sold for less than £250,000.
Read More » -
Latest property news
Cut Stamp Duty in half!
Government policies on landlord taxation aren’t helping tenants and the 3 per cent surcharge on buy-to-let purchase will cause even more misery.
Read More » -
Latest property news
Stamp Duty change whips up a storm
Designs on Property tracks and summarises the monthly property indices. Kate Faulkner says, “Even the higher taxes haven’t dampened investors’ enthusiasm.”
Read More » -
Latest property news
Helping buyers save on Stamp Duty Land Tax
Cotswold agency, Butler Sherborn, says that agents can help their buyers to save higher rates of SDLT.
Read More » -
Latest property news
Property sales boost was no April Fool
31st March was a busy day for My Home Move, completing a record number of property transactions. To help people complete their property transactions before the 1st April stamp duty changes came into play, My Home Move – provider of mover conveyancing services – alongside many others in the industry worked around the clock to complete a record of 1,210 property transactions on 31st March. This was a significant jump of 40% from the previous record in December last year. My Home Move completed more cases on 31st March alone than 93% of conveyancing firms completed in the whole of 2015. As a result, this marked both a record day and record month of completions for the business and is likely to have been a similar story across the industry. The record day also made it a record month, with My Home Move completing a total of 6,178 mover transactions in March, a 22% increase from its previous monthly record in October 2015 (5,060 completions). Doug Crawford (left), CEO, said, “There was a great amount of dedication last Thursday and in the preceding days and weeks to help customers purchasing an additional property and win the race to save on…
Read More » -
Associations & Bodies
Straight talking
Marc Da Silva asks the Managing Director of ARLA about the new three per cent SDLT surcharge for buy-to-let and second homes and tax relief change for landlords.
Read More »
