There were few Tax changes in today’s Budget, in respect of SDLT, for the Residential Property Market.
Of the few measures put forward, was the £500million for the Housing Infrastructure Fund, which according to Mr. Hammond will allow another 650,000 homes to be built. Although this sounds dramatic, if it is spread across many fiscal years, it won’t make much of a difference in order to help fix the ‘broken housing market’. Continue reading
The top priority for the government is to increase the housing supply for the UK. We build approximately one third of the new homes that we require to sustain ourselves and any measures by the Chancellor, in his forthcoming Budget, must be directed towards fixing the broken housing market. Continue reading
The abolition of Stamp Duty for first time buyers up to £300,000 is a very good initiative, however, whilst it is a very welcome £5000 gift for these vulnerable groups, it never the less may serve to ‘stoke up’ the market at the lower end, which could perversely, work against them.
The former Chancellor Osborne, reduced Stamp Duty at the lower end which exacerbated inflation in this sector from circ 5-8%, particularly in London, and this served to disenfranchise buyers at this end of the market since their deposits were not rising at the same pace as prices. Continue reading