December last year saw a long overdue change to the stamp duty system which meant big savings for the average home buyer. Only those purchasing the most expensive homes were to be worse off.
The old ‘slab scheme’ had been widely criticised for applying sudden increases when entering the next threshold. The current scheme, which has been in place for the last 12 months works like this:
- Up to £125,000 : 0%
- £125,001 to £250,000 : 2%
- £250,001 to £925,000 : 5%
- £925,001 to £1.5m : 10%
- Above £1.5m : 12%
The average house price in Sussex is £296,230. This makes the average stamp duty responsibility £4811.50. More than 12 months ago the stamp duty would have been almost double at £8886.90. So for average home buyers in Sussex, the stamp duty reform will have seen us paying £4075.40 less.
We have helped over 100 home buyers this year, from first timers to movers. Between them they would have saved over a whopping £407,540!
Chancellor George Osborne announced a further reform on stamp duty in the Autumn statement. This indicates that from April 2016 a 3% surcharge on Stamp Duty will be levied to some buy-to-let and second homes.
If you would like to understand stamp duty further or how the home buying process works in practice or need to know how much you can borrow on a mortgage please get in touch via the enquiry form or calling us on 01273 736536.