4th
Dec 2016
The Carlisle MP, John Stevenson, is urging the government to change its stamp duty policy and instead charge the duty on sellers of homes and not the buyers. By doing this it will increase property sales and help first time buyers to get onto the property ladder.
The Stamp duty charge was changed two years ago making it less expensive for buyers wishing to purchase homes for less than £937,000.
The onerous 3% surcharge was introduced in April this year for anyone wishing to purchase a second home or a buy-to-let property.
John Stevenson is resolute that if the government turned the stamp duty around onto sellers then more young people would be able to purchase their own home.
He said : “Stamp duty should be flipped and rather than have the buyer pay it, the seller should pay it. The Exchequer would raise the same amount of money,
“Somebody who is downsizing is in a better position to pay and if someone has died the estate is also in a better position to pay. There is a financial argument that this will do nothing for the price of property because buyers will just increase the price of their property – that may or may not be the case – but people will be able to cover this because mortgages cover the purchase price but not the additional costs of buying.”
The MP initially spoke out against George Osborne's plans in2012, he believes that the new Chancellor, Phillip Hammond, should now strongly consider his proposal.
A Building Society fully supports the MP's idea and claims that if this came to fruition then it would remove the considerable tax burden on more than 225,000 first time buyers every year.
The building society says that by doing this then on average buyers would not have to pay £3,791 in stamp duty.
The society's chief economist, Andrew McPhillips, said: “Saving enough to pay stamp duty adds to the overall difficulty of buying a home. It is hard enough for buyers to find the right property in the right location without the need to pay additional fees and taxes, given the scale of house price inflation in recent years.”
He continued: “Reducing any of the costs such as stamp duty for first time buyers and those moving up the ladder would help to make homes more affordable for many, enabling more people to realise their homeownership aspirations.”
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