AIBU to pull out of house purchase at the 11th hour due to reeves

95% of us have on your poll.

I would say go ahead and buy.
I think this new tax is going to be exactly like what happened when stamp duty was scrapped during Covid times; sellers started adding the price of the stamp duty saved to the price of their homes - so house prices were being inflated by what the buyers were saving on stamp duty.

I reckon it will be the same thing again; sellers will add the tax they are being charged to the overall price of the house.

I was in the same dilemma about buying a bigger house recently but we took the jump and l don’t regret it. It did cost us about £28k in stamp duty, however, it’s our forever home and we love it! Who knows what the tax situation will be like when we sell it, these things can change.

If it is your forever home and you will be there for the next 15-20 years, go for it! Better to regret the things you do, than the things you don’t!

Best of luck 🥰

"Brainless Labour fangirls"

That phrase honestly says far more about you than it does about those of us who vote Labour

How to say you’re a Labour supporter without saying you’re a Labour supporter. Maybe she’s Reform!!!!!! 😱

Perhaps it would help to reason the alternatives?

Why are you moving? Is it a first house or a step up the ladder?

If the latter what's the impetus for the move? More space, better area?

What happens if you stay? Is that more in rent and the uncertainty. Or you could miss the opportunity to make this step up because prices outstrip you. You may have to make the kind of investment in your current house that you don't see back. I.e there may be risks in staying as well and it might help give you better perspective to consider them.

I always find it helpful to consider if the choice was taken away. If tomorrow you got a call to say the sellers had changed their mind, would your overriding emotion be disappointment or relief?

I think you are being unreasonable as it is a home you are buying, not playing an investment game. Even if/when the market drops, you buy and sell in the same market so your next home will also proportionately fall in price, so you do not loose out and even do better as the next home will fall more in real terms. If that doesn't make sense, look at it this way. You pay £500k for your first home. It drops 20% in value and is now worth £400k, but the next place you had your eye on, which was £600k, has also fallen 20%in value, so is now worth £480k.

Therefore, the only people to lose out from these changes are those down-sizing. But even then, they are greedy if they think the product of an overinflated bubble of a UK housing market is their money. Our house, which we paid £350k for 25 years ago, has increased in value 5 times over. That is not our money. We have only spent about £150k on extensions. Even accounting for inflation, we are still £1m over the top of what one might expect. This is the result of an over-heated housing market, which needs a massive cooling so the next generations can stand a chance to move out of their parents homes one day.

What a ridiculous goady thread title.

It would help OP if you outlined the circumstances ie what you are moving from and to and figures.

There’s rarely a good time to buy.

We bought our house just after Liz Truss tanked the economy when everyone was saying there was going to be a huge recession. The cost of living has risen but it’s still manageable for us so we’d have been kicking ourselves if we’d pull out over what ifs that never came to fruition.

I read that the tax being considered is 0.54% on the value over 500k. Not sure on the value of house you are buying but worth working out what an implication could be, eg if your house was 600k as a purchase the tax would be £540/year in this scenario (eg 0.54% on the difference)

Yeah, preposterous.

Cause nothing else 'unprecedented' has happened in the last few years, has it?

Anything is possible.

Then anywhere they want to buy will also halve.

They've never applied retrospective tax changes, so it would be ridiculously unlikely. And if OP is due to exchange it's unlikely she won't complete before the autumn budget which is the next time they'll realistically make a change

I understand your hesitation, we got the call to exchange on our first home 2 hours after we woke to the news that the Brexit vote was 'leave'.

It is so hard to predict but I would say if it's a long term home rather than investment property, then I would go ahead.

That would be unprecedented. Even in times of recession that’s never happened and it’s always recovered to the point of overshoot.

Even if the housing market halves?…

Unfortunately I don't see how it could be limited in application. Eg if you are selling a home above the threshold to first time buyers, who would pay tax on it? Not the buyers because stamp duty has been abolished, but not sellers because they paid stamp duty on the purchase. So then there's no tax payable. Sadly I think those who already own will simply be double hit- they've paid on the purchase and will pay again on sale.

Potentially you are looking at the guild market reacting very instinctively, the Truss situation paling into comparison….. a doom spiral is possible as Reeves makes one poor decision after another and compounds our fate.

Rachel from accounts will really have something to cry about then. There is no good scenario or outcomes on the horizon.

She is exactly that.

I've got a friend whose house was on the market at 565k last year, at which price he did actually get an offer. Buyer pulled out at the time, her circumstances changed, so he took a break and then put it back on the market. He's just sold it for 460K.

House prices are collapsing and the mainstream media are under reporting it because they're scared that they'll collapse further if they talk about it.

I think anyone who is looking to buy bigger would be well advised not to go ahead at this time.

If you’re on a 5yr mortgage fix you’ll ride out most issues. So long as you can afford your repayments & aren’t totally over stretching yourself, you’ll be ok.
The issue in 2008 was people had 100%+ mortgages, so when the prices crashed, they owed more than the property was worth. When their deal ended they were on the SVR which was often unaffordable. Northern rock going bust compounded the issue because people were unable to remortgage.
Times are quite different now.
Underpinning the current housing market is a lack of supply and an excess in demand.

Don’t pull out.
You cant predict economic changes and you need somewhere to live. There is obviously a reason you decided to purchase.

If anything I would want to buy now as you know what you’re getting, I can’t see them retrospectively applying property taxes to those that have already paid stamp duty. I imagine if something like that comes in, it will apply to future purchases,

Op do not pay attention to the posts on here shaming you for taking care of your own future and security.

London property has dropped 20% and isn’t showing signs of recovery, quite the reverse. The entire country is slowing to a standstill.

The main issue is going to be a stalling economy creating mass unemployment again under Labour. Are your jobs bullet proof? Do you have a very very large safety net? I am team op, even though pulling out is ghastly, it might well save your long term security.

In 2007 observers and analysts explored the red flags and using the same measurements now one could argue things are in a far worse state now. This government’s fiscal policy has ruined our prosperity and we are now heading for a full blown recession. The reason Reeves is still in post is there is literally no one capable or willing to take over.

I would be very careful op. Unless you are very wealthy and can weather any financial storm.