Joint ownership - both first time buyers - unmarried couple

richiejv

Hi all,

I've tried searching through the forum to find an answer to this but no luck, so hopefully someone can help.

My girlfriend and I are looking to buy a property towards the end of the year. We are both first-time buyers, with a budget of up to £450k (though more likely £400k at most if possible). Individually we would pay no stamp duty on properties up to £300k, but I seem to recall one of the last budgets mentioning joint ownership meaning no stamp duty up to £500k assuming both owners are FTBs. However, looking on the Internet now I can't find anything to suggest that is the case and am now wondering if I got confused between joint and shared ownership at the time. If someone could confirm whether or not that is the case I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks in advance.

pedrom

I'm in the same situation. While I've not actually heard about this part of the budget you mention, I've been told by a couple of the property managers/ mortgage advisers, that if you're keen to buy, they can be willing to write the SD off.
The only legislation I know of is that if the property costs between £300,000 and £500,000, you'll pay stamp duty at 5% of the amount over £300,000.

rijack

Be wary because when they say "write it off" they mean throw it in as a builders incentive.
This itself CAN cause issues for some lenders i believe.

I know with our application they wanted to check all incentives to ensure it didnt go above 5% of the property value..

In relation to the original post - i also havent heard of this i'm afraid. the only thing i can find is that anything above £500k means you dont qualify for first time buyers relief, but if it costs £450k, you pay stamp duty on the £150k above £300k limit.

Edit - from the money advice service

Joint ownership and Stamp Duty relief
If you’re married and jointly buying a property, then you both need to be eligible first-time buyers to get First-Time Buyers Stamp Duty relief.

Unmarried people can still get a reduction in Stamp Duty, if the only person named on the mortgage deed is a first-time buyer.

richiejv

Thanks both for your responses. Perhaps it was just my imagination (or some media outlet had misled me, either way)! It does seem a shame that the limits don't increase for two people buying together seeing as we could feasibly buy £600k worth of property without stamp duty if we were buying individually, but there we are. Hopefully there'll be a change on that.. But I won't hold my breath.