'What is a first time buyer? Stamp duty reduction...' blog discussion 24 March 2010 at 3:44PM in Martin's blogs & appearances & MoneySavingExpert in the news 24 replies 7.6K views

Former_MSE_Penelope

This is the discussion to link on the back of Martin's blog. Please read the blog first, as this discussion follows it.

Read Martin's "What is a first time buyer? Stamp duty reduction..." Blog.

Please click reply to discuss below.

mystic_trev

The answers are here.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/budget2010/sdlt-qa-tech-1545.pdf

Duckie

Well, I was excited when I heard about the raise in stamp duty threshold but then found out we wouldn't qualify. I have previously owned a flat which I sold over a year ago now (no profit to get excited about) so, we've been desperately trying to save for a deposit for a house. My husband is a FTB but, I am not so, got our hopes up for nothing. How many FTB's can afford a house of £250 000 anyway? I think it would've been much fairer to make it no stamp duty for all up to 250k even if it was just for a year. I am very disappointed with this budget

userpauly

Duckie wrote: »

Well, I was excited when I heard about the raise in stamp duty threshold but then found out we wouldn't qualify. I have previously owned a flat which I sold over a year ago now (no profit to get excited about) so, we've been desperately trying to save for a deposit for a house. My husband is a FTB but, I am not so, got our hopes up for nothing. How many FTB's can afford a house of £250 000 anyway? I think it would've been much fairer to make it no stamp duty for all up to 250k even if it was just for a year. I am very disappointed with this budget

Ditto (With some gender switching). I am a FTB, but not eligible because my G/F isn't. We would be happy to pay half SDLT in light of this, but as it is we are liable for all the tax.

katmcleod

I don't think it's going to make much of a difference to first time buyers.
I've been told we'll need a deposit of 25%, a rock bottom house here is around £90k with a lot of work needing done, and about £110k if it's got new kitchens, bathrooms etc, so stamp duty was never going to effect us.
But we need a deposit of at least £22,500 and with a household income of £22,300 it'll never happen.
What about low interest government loans to give people a head start on their deposits?

silvercar

I think we will see property being put in the name of one person and then transferred to joint ownership later.

HUDDY

You'll be unlikely to buy in one name only and then transfer to joint ownership cos most couples will need two incomes to be taken into account to get the mortgage in the first place. How on earth can our Revenue find out if you've ever owned a property anywhere in the world - this is the criteria according to Govt. website.

everhopefulforcash

How do they find out if you have had a property before even if it was about 10 years ago.

HUDDY

Do you think the Revenue will appoint a team to check into the life of every person who claims "first time buyer" exemption in case they owned a timeshare 15 years ago or got married and changed their name from when the Land Registry had previous details about them. As an Estate Agent I know how keen people were to claim their 4 bed house was a "3 bed with a study" to avoid a £400 Home Info Pack in 2007 so they'll certainly want to be creative to avoid a £2000 plus Stamp Duty charge. Ill conceived legislation yet again from the Government !!

aris

This should be interesting.

Want to out-bid a first time buyer on a 250k home? Offer 251k. You're paying the tax anyhow, but if they want to match or exceed your price, it is an extra 5k in tax for them.

What a moronic tax. As MSE Martin says, it should be like income tax - you only pay the tax on the bit _above_ 250k, 500k, 1m. Sometimes I think the government has its brains between its legs.

Clare_king

I'm not a first time buyer, but I'll be looking to buy my next place soon - probably not spending over 250k so I don't see why I should have to pay tax on it, just because I already own somewhere - if anything this will make me stay where I am as I resent the paying the tax - why couldn't they just give us all a tax break and get the housing market moving again.