Tag Archives: budget

What the residential property market needs now, is less Imodium and more a blast of stewed prunes

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Anyone who doesn’t reside under a stone and can barely colour in newspaper pictures, must have heard mutterings about the imminent Budget regarding resurrecting the Mansion Tax corpse. As if this wasn’t alarming enough, it may be topped up with a possible raid on what’s left of private pensions.

I was a little confused about the former Chancellor Sajid Javid’s mindset. We were all confident that he would ‘break the economic mould’, rather than end up being covered in it. For instance, where is the clarity on the 3% surcharge which could be slapped on international buyers of UK residential property? Does this mean that at the higher end SDLT could be an eye watering 18%?

The new Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, needs to make this clear in his first Budget, which I hope will still be in early March. Continue reading →

It’s official – Osborne’s outrageous Stamp Duty hikes are costing the UK £1billion per annum!

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The ‘reasons’ underpinning the former Chancellor’s draconian hikes on Stamp Duty in the autumn Budget of 2014 are widely known. Now, we can see that the full devastating and distorting effects on the Residential Property Market have come to pass, particularly in London. Quelle surprise!

Pour yourself a strong fortifying beverage before reading on

You’d better pour yourself a strong fortifying beverage before reading on. With prices down by 25% and activity deflated by a disastrous 70%, certain sectors of the market are practically gridlocked. Frustratingly, this DIY recession is self-imposed, costing the Treasury and UK taxpayer £1billion per annum and rising.
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The Chancellor’s Autumn Budget 2018

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There were few Tax changes in today’s Budget, in respect of SDLT, for the Residential Property Market.

Of the few measures put forward, was the £500million for the Housing Infrastructure Fund, which according to Mr. Hammond will allow another 650,000 homes to be built. Although this sounds dramatic, if it is spread across many fiscal years, it won’t make much of a difference in order to help fix the ‘broken housing market’. Continue reading →