Estate Agents in the city of Bath have backed our campaign to cut Stamp Duty.
‘Stamp Duty is a poorly-structured tax,’ says Philip Marshall, partner at Carter Jonas, in the centre of the city. ‘And a blunt instrument that acts as a deterrent to first-time buyers. It causes artificial steps in the property market, as stages up are not graduated in the same way that Income Tax is for example. The jump from 1 % at £250,000 to three per cent at £250,001 is a particular problem.’
‘There are positive signs in the property market right now and people are deterred from getting on the property ladder, and from moving because of Stamp Duty,’ continued Marshall. ‘It’s time for a rethink and we would welcome positive steps to entirely overhaul the system.’
Some 39% of transactions attract 3% stamp duty in Bath, that’s a total income of £20.4 million from homebuyers, who are already finding it a challenge to save for a deposit, let alone to pay sums in excess of £7,500.
‘I've always found to go from one to three per cent is an ordinarily large jump for someone to make,’ says Carey Gilliland, from Bath Estate Agent Madison Oakley. ‘It does artificially hold some houses below the £250,000 threshold. It does create a bit of a gap in the prices between £250,000 and £275,000 because people can't afford to stump up the extra deposit.’
‘You pay Stamp Duty on completion,’ argues Gilliland. ‘You can't add it to the mortgage so it comes from people's deposit but mortgage companies are demanding bigger deposits – something's got to give.’
Send a message to your local MP that enough is enough by clicking on this link to our campaign website.