Following the tax changes in the budget of 2012 Stamp Duty for properties over £2million has risen by 40% from the previous level of 5% to now 7% (for non corporate bodies and 300% for corporate bodies to 15%).  This means that if you sell a property and buy another (at this price level) you could find that 10% of the available money to spend has gone on expenses (7% Stamp Duty, 2% agents fees and the balance solicitors fees).  The result is that if you sell a property for £2.5million you only have £2.25million of available monies to spend on the next property. Continue reading →

Dear George,

Bless your heart, you’ve been extremely competent to date so don’t be caught up with the press feeding frenzy about a housing bubble (that actually doesn’t exist in the middle to upper price ranges).  I represent a plethora of entrepreneurial agents who are not doing that well at the moment since there are very few cash buyers, whether local or foreign, in the market place particularly above £2million and as it rises towards the £5million mark and above even fewer. Continue reading →