Stamp Duty - Refund?

[julesflo]

Buying, selling then buying again

We have just moved out of our London flat and bought a house which is now our primary residence. We paid the higher rate stamp duty on the new purchase as it was a second property. We would now like to sell the flat and buy another house outside of London which we plan to initially rent out but potentially would move to in future.

We understand that if we just sold the flat we could reclaim the additional duty we paid on our recent purchase for where we are living now, as long as it was sold in 3 years. Can we still reclaim the money for this purchase if we go on to buy a new property with the proceeds of the sale. We understand that we will again pay the higher STLD for the next purchase but we don't want to have to pay this twice when we only have 2 properties in total.

A bit confused by it all, any help will be appreciated.

I think the flat would need to be sold within 9 months ( this has been reduced from 3 years) but I may be wrong on that. When buying the next property you would have to pay the higher rate stamp duty and would not be entitled to a refund unless you sold your PPR again within 9 months. If you own two properties you have to pay two amounts of stamp duty unless you own the second property for less than 9 months

Above poster is incorrect on the 9 months I think they could be getting mixed up with CGT.

You have 3 years to reclaim the 3% additional stamp duty.

See www.thetimes.co.uk/money-mentor/answer/claim-back-stamp-duty/

If you sell the London flat and immediately (i.e., as a linked transaction) buy another property, then I think you'll be liable for higher stamp duty again.

I suspect you may be able to sell the flatso that your home is the only property you own, then reclaim the stamp duty premium before you buy a further rental property.

I have no idea how long the gap between sale and purchase needs to be, though. One for the professionals, I think!