Stamp duty payments have remained unaltered since 1997
16/03/2011 - No stamp duty for first time buyers up to £250k
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The amount of property sales registered for properties over £250,000 has climbed from 5 per cent to 26 percent in the past 10 years.
Home buyers pay 3 per cent stamp duty on properties above £250,000 and below £500,000. The thresholds have remained unaltered since July 1997 despite a 140 per cent increase in property prices. The amount payable for properties above £1 million is about to go up to 5 per cent in April.
If higher stamp duty thresholds had changed and kept inline with house price inflation the current thresholds would be £600,000 instead of £250,000 and the £500,000 would not start until the property value reached £1.2 million. More than 5 million British homes have been valued at more than £250,000 compared with 875,000 ten years ago.
The average stamp duty payment is now £1,793 as opposed to £995 in 2000, a rise of 88 per cent.
The temporary adjustment, available to first time buyers only, in stamp duty exclusion for properties under £250,000 will help those in areas of the UK with higher housing costs such as the south east and London.
From April the rate of stamp duty payable on properties valued over £1 million will affect 1.1 per cent of the population when it increases from 4 per cent to 5 per cent.
