Budget - Stamp Duty

[robsartain]

I know this isn`t the poltics forum but its house related.

According to the BBC website they believe the badger may get rid of Stamp Duty up to 250,000.

Im sceptical, but could make things very interesting in the housing market.

Obviousily we will find out today, but what are peoples thoughts from both a developer stand point and a home owner view ?

[theboyfold]

My house is on the market for £240k, so it could be very very interesting!

[JRM]

It's got to really help the lower part of the housing bracket, which will feed everything else - hopefully. And as the tories already suggested it wouldn't be that expensive to implement either.

Now they just need to raise the 500k in line with housing inflation - yeah right!

[SJobson]

No giveaways, eh? I imagine the majority of the tax raised from SDLT is from sales below £250k despite the increasing rates above that, simply due to volume of transactions. Although if house sales have fallen that dramatically, maybe it won't be so much of a loss.

[Tampon]

Fingers crossed, i am looking at places between 125k and 140 k, so it would be a saving of nearly a couple of grand for me if they do.

[Simpo Two]

R4 said it was only for first time buyers.

[robsartain]

There had to be a catch...

BBC website just mentioned it in article and not all the ins and outs.

Netherless could still shake up the lower end of the house market.

[randlemarcus]

Simpo Two said:

R4 said it was only for first time buyers.

Define FTB's though. In mortgage terms, I'm an FTB, but in real terms, I'm a divorced bloke

[JonRB]

BBC said:

Chancellor Alistair Darling is to announce in the Budget that stamp duty will be scrapped on house purchases up to £250,000 for first-time buyers.

The policy, first proposed by the Conservatives in 2007......

(my emphasis)

Do Labour actually have any ideas of their own? Apart from bad ones, I mean.

[miniman]

JonRB said:

BBC said:

Chancellor Alistair Darling is to announce in the Budget that stamp duty will be scrapped on house purchases up to £250,000 for first-time buyers.

The policy, first proposed by the Conservatives in 2007......

(my emphasis)

Do Labour actually have any ideas of their own? Apart from bad ones, I mean.

Precisely the point made on R4 this morning.

[john_p]

Surely it'll just mean people put £1-£2k on house prices

[Bill Carr]

This FTB definition will be interesting, if it comes to pass.

Surely it would be better to just set the level to £250k and be done with it? Restricting it to FTB's is too limiting IMO.

Plus as mentioned above this will almost inevitably lead to price inflation/deflation, depending upon which side of the £250k limit your house falls.

[anonymous-user]

john_p said:

Surely it'll just mean people put £1-£2k on house prices

Why would they do that? It doesn't affect the vendor

[vxsmithers]

surely you need to stimulate people in the +250k bracket to move too???

If there are no properties for sale above 250k, and no incentive for them to move then where are the people selling their sub 250k properties going to move to.

nice idea, but surely you need to stimulate more than the first rung of the ladder....

[danyeates]

I'll be listening eagerly. We're currently waiting for the budget announcement so we can look at buying the house we currently rent.

[The_Gza]

IIRC Mortgage companies define a FTB as somone who hasn't had a mortgage in the previous 6 years (verified during the normal credit check process).

So unless you've been out of the market for a while, and/or the gov't adopt a different approach for Stamp Duty changes, yer pumped unfortunately

[TheBaj]

What about a situation where a proposed mortgage is in joint names? One party has a current mortgage but the other has never had a mortgage before and is classed as a FTB?

I'm guessing the discount wouldn't apply, although maybe in an ideal world there would be a 50% discount on the stamp duty!?

[JRM]

And a nice kick in the b******s to the presumably tory voters with £1m houses, who get to pay 5% to pay for it.

New Labour? Very old Labour in fact

[robsartain]

Interesting that the IIRC define a fTB as someone without a mortgage for the last 6 years.

So if you have been buying houses with no finance then offically you are classed as an FTB.

It will interesting to see the wording on what defines an FTB. Espically as the legislation is ment to be coming in as of Midnight tonight.

[SJobson]

I've posted this in the house prices thread too:

The HMRC guidance is now out. Buyers do not qualify for the relief unless:

"the purchaser must not, either alone or with others, have previously acquired a major interest in land which includes residential property, or an equivalent interest in land situated anywhere in the world. "

So if one individual has previously owned property and is now buying with a genuine first-timer, that doesn't qualify.

No mention of Land Reg records.