Over 240,000 first-time buyers took advantage of stamp duty relief in 2018, official statistics have revealed.
The HMRC have published figures for Q4 from last year, showing that relief on Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) in 61,000 transactions took the total of relief for first time buyers in 2018 to £570 million.
Getting first-timers onto the housing ladder
When a first-time buyer buys a home for under £300,000, they don’t pay any SDLT. When the house price is between £300,000 and £500,000, first-time buyers pay less than standard rates only on the amount over £300,000 in a move aimed at helping First-time buyers in the expensive London market.
The 2018 Budget included an additional boost, with first-time buyers of shared ownership properties now exempt from SDLT for properties costing up to £500,000.
The initial level of relief was only introduced as recently as November 2017, so these figures make interesting reading to reflect on the first full year since the move. It was intended to boost first-time buyer numbers by helping potential homeowners with some extra money to play with.
Conditions favour savvy buyers
Recent Bank of England stats show that first-buyer mortgage rates are at their lowest since records began in 1995. Slow rates of growth in house prices, albeit with some interesting regional variations, may also help prospective buyers even with the current uncertainty over Brexit in the background.
One interesting variation on the amount reaped from SDLT was that, at 316,200, transactions were 5% down on Q4 in 2017. The HMRC put that down to the end of stamp duty in Wales, which came into force last April.
The introduction of the Land Transaction Tax in in the Principality, replacing stamp duty, means that the average mover in Wales paid only £236 on average in duty – about £1,000 less than under the previous system. That, and the need for more housing stock, is helping to fuel a surge in Welsh house prices.
