Mansion tax fears and stamp duty changes send the world’s super-rich to London’s rental market December 7, 2014 Anxieties over the outcome of the 2015 general election and new stamp duty reforms are persuading the world’s super-rich to rent property in London rather than buy it outright, according to a new report. London’s lettings market has benefitted from a huge bump in prime rentals, with as much as 21 per cent of [...]
UK house prices: Berkeley Group brushes off lower growth to post 80 per cent profit growth December 5, 2014 UK house prices may have begun to slip from the meteoric growth levels seen earlier this year, but Berkeley group is still reaping the rewards. The British house building company reported a 79.9 per cent rise in profit before tax for the six months to 31 October, putting the figure at a healthy £305m. Revenue [...]
Estate agents in late-night stamp duty deal rush after Autumn Statement tax band change December 4, 2014 It was the early hours of the morning in Hong Kong when the phone rang. The person whose phone was ringing grew angry over the caller’s persistence at such an hour, but any frustration probably subsided when the individual ended the night £20,000 better off than they would have been otherwise. The deal [...]
Autumn Statement 2014: George Osborne’s stamp duty reform is a smack in the face for London – and hard-working strivers December 4, 2014 Midnight, 3 December 2014 is a date to celebrate for UK home buyers. Anyone purchasing a property worth less than £937,500 is now paying less tax. The chancellor’s move to scrap the invidious slab-style stamp duty land tax (SDLT) regime, introduced by Labour in 2000, and to transform it into a graduated tax, is a [...]
Stamp duty calculator: Don’t try it if you just bought a house- you don’t want to know how much you missed out on saving December 4, 2014 If you have just bought a house and are patting yourself on the back for getting in at the right time in an ever pricier market, the new stamp duty just rained on your parade. Do you enjoy seeing your hard earned cash disappear before your very eyes? No? Then don’t try out HMRC’s Stamp [...]
UK house price growth slows, but prices are five times average earnings December 4, 2014 House prices across the UK were up 8.2 per cent in the year to November, another month of slower growth after October's 8.8 per cent rise. The price to earnings ratio is ticking up, however, and has reached a multiplier of 5.02. Halifax’s house price index also showed quarterly prices up 0.7 per cent (slowing [...]
Cheap mortgages are here to stay as OBR predicts interest rates will remain low December 3, 2014 Interest rates will stay lower for longer, the fiscal watchdog predicted yesterday, because the Bank of England is now not expected to tighten monetary policy until well into 2015. When it last made its forecasts in March, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) predicted the average mortgage interest rate would dip below three per cent [...]
Autumn Statement 2014: The big stamp duty shake-up December 3, 2014 Stamp duty will be cut for millions of house buyers but hiked on the most expensive properties as part of a radical shake-up of the system announced by George Osborne. The chancellor claimed some 98 per cent of buyers will see a cut in their stamp duty bill as a result of the move, seen [...]
Are Osborne’s reforms to stamp duty welcome news for the UK? December 3, 2014 Rory Meakin, research fellow at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, says Yes. Finally! Yesterday, the chancellor at last ditched the awful “slab” rate structure for stamp duty on homes. Higher rates now only apply to the amount over the tax’s thresholds, instead of the whole purchase price. Stamp duty starts at £125,000. If you bought a home [...]
Which London borough will pay most stamp duty under Osborne’s new rules? December 3, 2014 Buyers moving to Kensington and Chelsea will contribute more stamp duty than any other London borough under new plans revealed by George Osborne in his Autumn Statement today. More than 12,500 homes in the borough will be subject to a higher rate of stamp duty after the changes come into effect. New Westminster residents would [...]