Stamp duty threshold increased to £175k for one year

wymondham

mitchaa wrote: »

I cannot see the government dropping it back down to £125k next Sept when they have an impending GE not long after.

I suspect in Aprils budget report, stamp duty will remain at £175k indefinitely.

Good move IMO.

In 12 months time, prices will have dropped significantly and HPI should have cooled ... with the increasing numbers of house sales not paying stamp by then as prices get back to a reasonable level the Government will be missing out on desperately needed cash, so I can see it going back up, or possibly somewhere mid range, but not staying where it is....

After all, it's an income for the tax system, so to be effective it has to collect as much as possible...

Rossco

Hi,

The opinion seems to be that houses priced in the £175,000 to £200,000 bracket will be driven down to below the £175,000 stamp duty threshold.

If I was selling at a similar price I would offer to pay the stamp duty of £2000 in favour of reducing my asking price by £25,000. As a buyer I would knock it off my offer if the stamp duty put me off.

The new threshold is not like the 3% jump at £250,000 where the minimum stamp duty is £7500. Am I looking at it too simplistically, is it more of a psychological barrier? I guess it's up to the buyers to decide after all its they're market now.

Ross.

planetzog

Let's get real here before we all get carried away in a wave of mass hysteria. The stamp duty holiday will not drive down house prices in the £180k-£200k range to below £175k.

Think about it. If the maximum amount of stamp duty saved for houses below the £175k threshold is £1,750, then £1,750 is the negotiating amount for houses above £175k for the buyer to gain a benefit. It's not rocket science.

Chris2685

Thats not really true... The £1750 is needed then and there, and needs to be taken into consideration straight away.
The mortgage itself is paid over 25 years (or whatever) at a fixed amount per month, so it is not a 'sudden cost' like the stamp duty payment is.

Marc1978

Good points by Ross & Planetzog.

I think what we should see in the next week or two is houses of up to approx £180K drop to £175K to get under the stamp duty rate and hopefully get a sale - I would see this as a bit of an advertising gimmick as surely no one is offering asking price at the moment anyway.

Then sellers with houses up to £185k see that similar houses to them are priced much cheaper - they can offer to pay stamp duty, saving the buyer £1850. The only way they can get close to the houses that are now on at £175k is to drop their price and the closer they get to the stamp duty level the more likely they will cross it.

Not sure how far up the market this will go but as house prices are falling they are getting closer to the stamp duty level all the time.

I suppose we'll see over the next few months.

dursley.donkey

Stamp duty on residential property is an outrage which should be abolished altogether. The effect of taxing house purchases is to discourage people from moving house. This means that our workforce is less mobile and less able to respond to changing job prospects in different parts of the country. It also means that our roads are congested because it makes more sense to commute long distances than to move house. When will our government wake up to this?

Gorgeous_George

Falling prices should result in the lowering of SD thresholds. The Government's action is wrong.

It would be a good time to address the problems created by having thresholds.

GG

cocktailsavings

I am ecstatic about this new development. I was meant to complete on my first home purchase on Monday but because the other side weren't ready until this Friday we agreed we would complete and move in then ... now their decision to do that on exchange a few weeks back has now saved me £1,500. Leaving me with quite a good amount to furnish my place some more.

Xchicane

BettiePage wrote: »

How much does a hips cost? People are moaning about a couple of hundred pounds, so I think this will matter to them.

£350 to £420 odd but is a pointless expense other than the office copies (details of the property title)

1. The local authority searches are normally personal search (because the are cheaper) but won't be acceptable to most lenders so the buyer has to carry out their own search.

2. The Drainage search is all very interesting but in most cases pointless and water bill will prove its on drainage & water and there free.

3. The HIP 3 and 4 forms provided (which don't actually need to filled in) are also pointless and hold less information than the old style forms which Solicitors still have to use because no one will accept the new forms.

4. The Energy Report is totally ignored by everyone, who's not going to buy a house because it doesn't have the right type of energy saving light bulbs! (And every report is stored on a government website i wonder why? to increase our council tax in the future based on who energy efficient our houses are ?

5. The cheap skate HIP providers won't bother to provide copies of other legal title documents such as Transfers and Leases and the Estate Agents won't send out hard paper copes because that would cost them more money so they use internet links (that rarely work) and so the Buyer ends up paying for the HIP to be printed it out in colour which i've heard can be up to £25 per copy:mad:

If the government want to help the housing market scrap HIPS!

BettiePage

Xchicane wrote: »

£350 to £420 odd but is a pointless expense other than the office copies (details of the property title)

...

If the government want to help the housing market scrap HIPS!

For such a piffling amount in the grand scheme of things? If the vendor can't afford this, how can they afford a mortgage, insurance, bills, repairs etc...?