Stamp duty will hit high-end first-time buyers
According to an industry expert, first-time buyers should be exempt from stamp duty because it is “one of the biggest expenses” of entering the property market.
This will chime with many professionals trying to get onto the property ladder, who currently pay around £8,000 in duty on the average first-time buyer house price of £280,000.
Commenting on the government’s failure to abolish the tax, Helen Adams of advisory firm FirstRungNow, said: “It’s an enormous disappointment for first-time buyers, because apart from the deposit it’s one of the biggest expenses they have to pay out.”
Although around 90 per cent of first-time buyers fall into the one per cent stamp duty band, this rises to three per cent on properties over £250,000 and four per cent on properties over £500,000.
According to Halifax, stamp duty has risen 140 per cent over the last five years to £6.4 billion in 2006/07.
