Spending Review 2015 – 3% increase on Stamp Duty for BTL and second homes

Spending Review 2015 – 3% increase on Stamp Duty for BTL and second homes

14:30 PM, 25th November 2015, About 8 years ago 224

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GeorgeThe Chancellor George Osborne in his spending review today announced that he will increase Stamp duty for Buy to Let properties and second homes with a surcharge of 3% from April 2016.

The Chancellor said he wanted to change from generation rent to generation buy. He was concerned that Cash Purchasers and foreign investors, who were not affected by the relief cap of 20% on  mortgage interest, along with Buy to Let investors were squeezing out home buyers. Therefore there will be an increase of 3% in stamp duty for non-main residence purchasers, which would also raise an additional £1bn in tax.

The Housing budget will now be doubled to £2bn per annum and a project to build 400,000 new affordable homes to buy will be started. Osborne said “this government chooses to build.”

These affordable homes will be offered to First Time Buyers at a discount of 20%, and 135,000 new homes will be offered under Help to Buy shared ownership.

A London Help to Buy scheme will offer interest-free loans up to a maximum of 40% of the value of a newly built home.

Restrictions on shared ownership will be removed and the planning system reformed to deliver more homes.

Councils will also receive an additional £10m to help homeless people.

It is the Chancellors clear policy to help solve the housing crises by building more homes and squeezing the competitiveness of the Private Rental Sector thus shifting the balance from renting to home ownership.

stamp

Commercial property investors, with more than 15 properties, are expected to be exempt from the new charges.


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Comments

John McKay

17:13 PM, 25th November 2015, About 8 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Gary Dully" at "25/11/2015 - 17:10":

Excellent!

Barry Fitzpatrick

18:00 PM, 25th November 2015, About 8 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Gary Dully" at "25/11/2015 - 17:10":

@Gary,

GO will be after your first born next, followed by your soul (as he doesn't have one).

vaccav scott

19:19 PM, 25th November 2015, About 8 years ago

Can anyone confirm Kathleen Gell's comments and advise definitively that that this 3% charge is limited to England and does not apply to Scotland ? Obviously Scotland has a different stamp duty regime so this looks likely ..... but is it confirmed ?

Big Blue

19:59 PM, 25th November 2015, About 8 years ago

Oh good. Another attack, and so soon?

Does this now mean that my plan to buy b2l going forward through a company is now also scuppered? And what about my small-scale developments and refurbishments for sale - all dead in the water now, I take it??

Houses round me are all 250k. Does this mean someone trying to bring a poor and unloved house back into use now has to pay £12,500 in SDLT for the privilege?!

wanda wang

20:42 PM, 25th November 2015, About 8 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Neil Patterson" at "25/11/2015 - 14:42":

I own the house I live in , I am going to buy another house as my main residence , and rent out the one I lived , will I pay this extra 3% stamp duty on the new purchase ?

Thanks

Wanda

John McKay

20:45 PM, 25th November 2015, About 8 years ago

Not at all Jamie. If they're a FTB that can afford £250k then all well and good, plus of course anyone that wants to move into such a place.

Another plan not thought through I'm afraid.

Mark Carney has said he's concerned about BTL destabilising the market place so here's a scenario...

Take a landlord in London that has a low enough yield to already question his sanity at getting into the market. If interest rates go up (and personally I don't think they will for quite some time but let's say they do), his portfolio is now running at a loss so he decides to sell some properties.

Typical buyer would have been Chinese perhaps but now they're going to be drawing their horns in anyway due to the downturn in their own economy. Other overseas buyers faced with London prices and the new SDLT will also shy away so he's left with the home market.

Not many can afford to buy in London anyway and he finds other landlords are doing the same in offloading. It has suddenly become a buyers market and prices start dropping fast. The problem is that when that happens the lenders don't want to lend either unless buyers, particularly FTBs I would suggest, have enormous deposits. Some people will even be trapped with negative equity.

The shockwave ripples out. Builders become nervous too as they don't want to be building to sell at a loss.

So what happens next? Answers on a postcard to No 11 Downing St......

MoodyMolls

20:52 PM, 25th November 2015, About 8 years ago

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Big Blue

20:56 PM, 25th November 2015, About 8 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "John McKay" at "25/11/2015 - 20:45":

You may have misunderstood me John - Im not worrying about being able to sell, Im worrying about being able to BUY houses for development and sale as every one I buy will attract a minimum of £12,500 SDLT plus the usual costs. So that's my next plan ruined, right? Only corporate structures with more than 15 properties escape this, but as a new company I would of course be starting at 1...

Tracey Hoad

21:09 PM, 25th November 2015, About 8 years ago

My understanding of all this is that the Conservative government want to increase the tax revenue in any way they can so that they can reduce debt rather than totter on the edge of bankruptcy. They also want home ownership in the UK. Bless them they started off wanting internet for all and now they have decided to victimise landlords. Looking at history, anything the Conservatives put in place could well be made worse or backtracked by a Labour government. But now the Conservatives have got the tax credit crew back on side it's likely they will be voted in next term. So it can only get worse - we didn't stand together - they are aware of the cracks and they don't care about people that have decided to borrow to invest - they support the cash rich and the foreign investor who doesn't pay tax in this country. If all that is denting the deal is an extra 3% then I can't see a foreign investment has much thinking to do.

In any case I could go on but I am more interested in knowing what I should do next. I'm prepared to start up a limited company but I want ed to transfer over the next three to four years. Now with the stamp duty increasing that is a less attractive option. I see a lot on here about what people understand from the budget speeches but no-one is saying what they plan to do. So what are YOUR ideas and what are YOU planning to do?

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