Autumn 2017

Where are these house launches??!! For the second time this year the traditional time to launch one’s house is being ignored as it was in the Spring.

There have been thousands of words written about George Osborne’s Stamp Duty increases being a major cause for the lack of transactions in the housing market – but the truth is that the vast majority are much better off than they were before the Ex-Chancellor’s meddling. If you buy a property under £937,500 you pay less Stamp Duty now than one did before.

There was a letter to the editor of The Daily Telegraph by a gentleman saying he could not afford to move to a house valued at around £600,000 due to the Stamp Duty ‘increases’. I wrote a reply, but sadly did not get published, pointing out that he was actually saving £4,000. Under the new rules he would pay £20,000 in Stamp Duty while under the old rules £24,000.

Various ‘Experts’ are calling on the Chancellor to re-examine Stamp Duty so we will have to wait and see what he does in his Autumn Statement.