Stamp Duty Tax Relief announced – starting with immediate effect

Stamp Duty Tax Relief announced – starting with immediate effect

The Chancellor’s budget has come good on the news that there is to be a six month Stamp Duty Holiday for home buyers breathing life into the housing market, starting with immediate effect.

The announcement today is one of a raft of measures with the objective being to kick start the economy over the next few months.

The UK economy has contracted enormously since March 2020 and whilst lockdown measures are starting to ease and more people are going back to work, there is a desire by many for additional measures to be implemented by parliament to encourage the population to spend.

Until now first time buyers have been exempt from paying stamp duty on the first £300,000 of a purchase price, which rises to £500,000 in London.  Other buyers pay stamp duty incrementally on the value of the house – the higher the value, the higher the stamp duty. That limit has now been raised for all buyers for house purchases up to the value of £500,000 from today 8 July 2020. It is calculated that these measures will benefit seven out of 10 home buyers and could save people up to £15,000 in stamp duty costs – a sizable chunk of anyone’s moving budget. This holiday will be in place until March 31 2021.

Neil Gosling, head of residential development, commented, “This is a welcome announcement that will hopefully support the continued re-emergence of the housing market and support economic growth. Aligned with this news, if lenders re-assess recent decisions regarding LTV criteria, and Government funding schemes like Help 2 Buy are extended, which in both cases are integral to supporting the first time buyer market, the housing sector will be well placed to bounce back to pre-COVID-19 sales levels.”

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For further information please contact Neil Gosling or another member of the residential development team.

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