First time buyers 'paying more than £1,400 in stamp duty'

09-Jul-2007

The average first time buyer now pays over £1,400 in stamp duty, it has been claimed, indicating the extent to which house prices have rise in comparison to the threshold.

The research, from right-leaning think thank the Policy Exchange, has advised that the average bill for first time buyers is now £1,458, despite the stamp duty threshold having been doubled since 1997.

The minimum house price that qualifies for the levy is now £125,000, compared to £60,000 ten years ago, but price inflation means that many more buyers are not covered – especially in London, where average stamp duty stands at £2,433.

"It is a normal human aspiration to want to own your own home, but that is now all but impossible for a large number of young people," commented the Policy Exchange's chief economist Oliver Marc Hartwich.

"[Because of the higher threshold] an extra 310,000 homebuyers in 2007/08 will pay no stamp duty, and close to half of all first-time buyers and around two-fifths of all home buyers will pay no stamp duty in 2007/08," a government spokesman told the Daily Telegraph.

Last month first time buyer stamp duty was abolished in Ireland due to similar affordability problems.

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