Spring has rolled around once again and it’s time for the country’s first budget of the year. The last of its kind, here’s what UK property investors can expect.
Chancellor Philip Hammond announced earlier that the Spring Budget 2017 will be the last of its kind and that after this, all major announcement will move into one budget: the Autumn Statement.
And whilst there’s a lot happening at the moment in the UK’s political circus with Brexit negotiations about to start, the Chancellor’s statement is expected to carry only very few surprises for Britain’s property investors.
Stamp duty
Changes to stamp duty have been a major point of discussion since 2014, and new rules came into force in April last year.
The new rule, an increase of 3 percentage points, has hit London’s prime market the hardest. However, as house prices continue their rise, even first-time buyers are now way more likely to pay the extra charge on anything costing more than £125,000.
According to Halifax, the number of those paying has hit its highest rate in 10 years.
So far, the Treasury hasn’t hinted in any way at any changes regarding the current regulations. However, especially with interest dropping in the capital’s prime market, it most certainly can’t be ruled out.
With the Housing White Paper only being published a couple of weeks ago, there might not be an awful lot of other news for the country’s property investors in the last Spring Budget for a while.
On top of that, the Government will most certainly mainly be focusing on preparations to kick off Brexit negotiations and might be unwilling to make any risky decision when it comes to Britain’s bricks and mortar.
