Online House Hunter: Stamp duty deadline approaches…

Wake up! Stamp duty relief is coming to an end

EXEMPTION from stamp duty on houses costing less than £250,000 for first-time buyers comes to an end on March 24. But there is another sector of zero-rated housing that the tax man doesn’t shout about.

Not surprisingly, estate agents have been seeing first time buyers rushing to take advantage of the stamp duty relief before the deadline arrives. The National Association of Estate Agents reports that 23 per cent of sales in January were first-time buyers – a third consecutive month in increasing sales to FTBs.

NAEA president Wendy Evans-Scott said: “The NAEA and other property specialists campaigned hard for the Government to introduce the tax exemption to support First Time Buyers, and these latest figures certainly suggest that stamp duty is a key factor for those on tight budgets purchasing their first home.

“We are deeply disappointed that Ministers have axed this support for a crucial part of the housing market which has benefited so many house-hunters in getting onto the property ladder.”

It won’t be too much of a shock to see FTB figures fall in April. But those looking for a way to avoid stamp duty have another option: buying a house in a disadvantaged area. That sounds bonkers advice on face value but put away your pre-conceptions of what constitutes a disadvantaged area. Actually finding a definition of “disadvantaged area” is all but impossible but one assumes it is based on various factors such as low pay or under-funding. You can search by postcode to find if your house (or potential house) is in one but there is not at-a-glance map to show you where they are.

Disadvantaged areas are not all based on the model of the Chatsworth Housing Estate from TV’s Shameless. (I should know I live in one!). Since the areas are defined by council wards (by postcode in Scotland), it can cover a wide range of housing and school catchment areas. My point is that if you buy a house and a few days later discover that you could have saved hundreds of pounds in stamp duty by buying an identical house two streets away you’d be pretty annoyed! Zero-rating on housing in disadvantaged areas is for prices up to £150,000.

Check via the links below before buying your house to see what’s available close by. You might be pleasantly surprised.

USEFUL LINKS:

• Independent online property search
• HMRC: Stamp Duty Thresholds
• HMRC: Disadvantaged area postcode tool
• Areas qualifying for disadvantaged area relief in England
• Areas qualifying for disadvantaged area relief in Wales
• Areas qualifying for disadvantaged area relief in Scotland
• Areas qualifying for disadvantaged area relief in Northern Ireland
• Online stamp duty calculators

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