House Purchase: Stamp duty threshold

getmore4less

unless looking for a long term property in this price range(200-250) you have to be banging against the £250k, something that is good value at that price and would sell for a bit more without the SDLT limit.

Then hope you bridge the gap with HPI, or if even luckier a more favourable SDLT regime that removes the £250k barrier to a flat rate or at least a £300k barrier.

if there is the risk you may have to move away from the area short term it must have rental potential, the buy sell process will eat cash.

hukd.deals

getmore4less wrote: »

Then hope you bridge the gap with HPI

Thanks for reply, but what do you mean by this?

AlexMac

I'm not confident that the Chancellor will raise the threshold in next week's budget but it might just be worth holding your breath til next Wed the 19th as some 'experts' like Capital Economics predict he will- maybe to £300k...
http://www.theweek.co.uk/economy/budget-2014/57700/budget-2014-what-we-want-vs-what-well-get-osborne
and
http://www.ibtimes.com/uk-budget-2014-your-guide-george-osbornes-annual-financial-statement-1561036

But if he does, then come time for you to sell in say, 2018, you'll be hitting the new dead zone over £300k assuming current inlation continues? (Unless we get a crash like we did in the eighties and late 'noughties - then your house will halve in value and you'll at worst be in the £125k-£150k dead zone! lol?)

So grit your teeth and bear it. Out kids sold a fairly crummy ex-council house last year and I swore they'd never break the £250k SDLT threshold, as nothing local had sold that well....
but they toughed it out, got £265 and set a new value for subsequent sales in the street!

An alternative, and hugely cynical way to proceed would be to gazunder the seller, or at least, to spend a few hundred quid on a full structural survey, wait for the surveyor to find the few inevitable flaws and then negotiate a few £k off the price- maybe sweetening the nastiness by offering a decent price for the fittings; carpets, curtains, curtain poles, flying ducks on the wall, dishwasher, etc.

But if you do that be prepared fro the deal to fall through... and that you may have to walk away...

And if you end up paying the tax, take comfort in the fact that you're bunging that nice Mr Osborne almost £8k towards your local hospital.... (or in our case in SE London, towards its crippling PFI profiteers' debt charges!)

00ec25

hukd.deals wrote: »

Thanks for reply, but what do you mean by this?

he means house price inflation, ie your 250k house raises in value to a level at which it is far enough above the 250k barrier that you can realistically sell it at that level and buyers will be expecting to pay SDLT at the higher rate - at the moment that value is somewhere north of 270 - 275

DRP

00ec25 wrote: »

he means house price inflation, ie your 250k house raises in value to a level at which it is far enough above the 250k barrier that you can realistically sell it at that level and buyers will be expecting to pay SDLT at the higher rate - at the moment that value is somewhere north of 270 - 275

is often somewhere north of 270.

There's plenty of folks buying houses for between 250 and 270.

getmore4less

DRP wrote: »

is often somewhere north of 270.

There's plenty of folks buying houses for between 250 and 270.

No there are not the 255.260.265 are well below the curve

THat graph proves the point that 250 is a barrier till you get back to 270.

same iss ue at 500 and 125.

lissliss

moneyshoe wrote: »

We bought in 2006 for £250,000 sold in 2011's crap market for £270,000 if you have a good, well presented property you can exceed the stamp duty threshold.

I agree, we have just bought in London (where obviously the demand is insane at the moment) at £265,000 after losing out on lots of other properties that ended up selling for between £250,000 and £270,000. In the end being willing to take the 3% stamp duty 'hit' unfortunately became a way to distinguish ourselves from the many other buyers who weren't able or willing to do so.

sensibly_insane

lissliss wrote: »

I agree, we have just bought in London (where obviously the demand is insane at the moment) at £265,000 after losing out on lots of other properties that ended up selling for between £250,000 and £270,000. In the end being willing to take the 3% stamp duty 'hit' unfortunately became a way to distinguish ourselves from the many other buyers who weren't able or willing to do so.

We did the same recently and I am happy we did this as we got a lot more house for a lot less money being just above 250k. Also, the competition drastically disappeared.

Most of the lenders won't allow cash incentive I.e contribution to SDLT and the knees which allow will reduce the valuation for mortgage so they won't be contributing towards SDLT a single penny. Essentially, this would be a pointless exercise.We tried that and it did not work.

DRP

getmore4less wrote: »

No there are not the 255.260.265 are well below the curve

THat graph proves the point that 250 is a barrier till you get back to 270.

same iss ue at 500 and 125.

i'm not blind - the SDLT threshold clearly depresses the curve - but there are plenty of people buying in that price bracket - thousands in fact

hukd.deals

ConfusedofYorkshire wrote: »

The budget is next week, fingers crossed for good news on stamp duty:)

there are lot of rumours going around suggesting the same. Lets see what happpens tomm.