Anyone else benefiting from the change to Stamp Duty?

[BeautifulLiar]

I'm over the moon! Loads has gone wrong for me lately (not house related) so this is welcome news.

We're hopefully completing next month and will save £300.

I'll be using that to buy a giant new wardrobe!

[PigletJohn]

That sounds great.

But won't people who can afford, say, £300,000 to buy a house now be able to afford just a tiny bit more, so will bid the price up?

[Buscake]

My husbands cousin will save £1600 - hopefully enough to cover the flat roof repair that needs to be done after they move in

[BeautifulLiar]

Maybe PigletJohn, but I don't think that will affect us. Not like the hundreds of tax credits changes! Finally the government have pulled something good out of that bloody red briefcase

[ConfusedLivingDoll]

Pfft. Drop in the ocean. If you can afford tens of hundreds of thousands on a house, it's hardly noticeable. It's also an insult for someone who will never be able to raise a deposit of tens of thousands in the first place.

[ISeeTheLight]

It was unexpected and a nice surprise. We'll be saving £5k.Though I agree it doesn't really do anything for people who can't afford to buy in the first place.

[ConfusedLivingDoll]

"Of" should be "or"...

[ConfusedLivingDoll]

I think it's not found what it is intended to do. To make buying easier. Whoever thought of that must have failed maths at school!

[ConfusedLivingDoll]

"Found" should be "doing". I worry for my brain these days!

[DerelictWreck]

It's actually just going to push house prices up so not really going to help at all! What they really need to do is address the hefty % of Stamp Duty at the other end that's causing stagnation to both the housing and job markets.

[CrossFreelancer]

[CrossFreelancer]

Sorry didn't mean to just post a

Good for you, that's brilliant news :-)

We completed in September and paid £11,000 on our stamp duty (first time buyer). We could have saved £5,000 if we were completing this month. Feeling frustrated. But that's life sometimes

[Crumbelina]

We benefitted last time (in late 2014). We were between exchange and completion when George Osborne changed the rules and we saved £3k overnight. DH hates George O with a passion and it was to see him grudgingly accept the saving.

Spend some of it on some really good bubbly, OP! Lots of Christmas offer on now.

[BeautifulLiar]

Like the idea of spending it on bubbly!

Oh we can't afford hundreds of thousands of pounds either. Our house is £140k! But still, like a PP said, it's an overnight saving so I can't complain at that!

[BarchesterFlowers]

Cross - It is all or nothing, so if your house cost is up to £300000 then you pay nil but over that you pay normal stamp duty on the whole house price.

The government have imposed a very strict definition of 'first time buyer'. You must never have owned a property before, be it joint or shared ownership, even if you don't currently own a property, not the same definition of FTB that the mortgage companies use.

[ThroughThickAndThin01]

No you don't Barchester, you only pay on the amount over £300000.

[BarchesterFlowers]

Oh is that right Through - someone I work with is a FTB, they must have got the wrong end of the stick. I am currently buying, not a FTB so no benefit to me sadly!

[BeautifulLiar]

We are definitely first time buyers

[ThroughThickAndThin01]

Just checking out government website, 0% up to £300,000 then 5% on the portion between £300,000 and £500,000

[CandyMelts]

Yup we should exchange next week, fingers crossed, saving us around £2.5k. Been saving for 7 years for the deposit so it's very welcome.
Don't think it'll solve the issues for FTB but it helps a little. Even if prices raise it's still mean less needed upfront which is the hard part.

[BeautifulLiar]

Congratulations Candy

You'd be annoyed if you'd completed earlier in the week wouldn't you?!

[CandyMelts]

Very glad we didn't do more chasing to speed things up!

[BeautifulLiar]

Same

[MrsDoyleFallingOutTheWindow]

I think it's great that people who can afford to buy an asset that costs close to thirty times a year's nmw salary are being given a tax break. Even better that house prices will rise a result. Yep. Really good news. Good to hear you'll be spending it on champagne as well - that tax break was obviously needed.

[BeautifulLiar]

Well that's a bit harsh!

[RavenLG]

We complete tomorrow. I'm not 100% sure where we stand. DP spoke to solicitor yesterday and she said they hadn't had the fineprint through, but was 99% sure we wouldn't have to pay it. I'm itching to call her tomorrow to find out, it means we would save £1200 and be a massive help.

In the long run, it will probably push prices up but I can't even pretend to be knowledgeable about how these things work!