Increased stamp duty relief from housing developer
Barratt Homes, a giant in the housing development sector, has recently launched a new incentive to try and boost the property market by offering to pay the stamp duty for buyers purchasing properties between £175,000 and £500,000. Properties under the value of £125,000 are exempt from stamp duty, and properties between £125,000 and £175,000 are exempt on a temporary basis, after the government introduced a twelve month suspension on stamp duty up to £175,000 recently to try and breathe life back into the housing market.
Barratt Homes has now stated that it will pay the 1% stamp duty on new homes between £175,000 and £250,000 and will cover the 3% stamp duty charged on homes between £250,000 and £500,000. Potentially this could save a buyer up to £15,000 depending on the value of the property being purchased. The property developer plans to make this new incentive available until Christmas in an effort to boost its flagging property sales, which have plummeted by nearly 70%.
The stamp duty suspension that was announced by the government recently was described by many officials has being too little too late, and as a result of this a number of property developers have brought in a range of incentives to try and boost property sales and profits, including payment of stamp duty and deposits for new buyers.
An official from Barratt Homes said that the market was still in turmoil, with falling property prices and lack of mortgage availability severely impacting upon property sales levels.
He said: ‘There is little prospect for any material improvement in trading conditions until mortgage finance and customer confidence return.’
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