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CML calls for extension of stamp duty holiday

Thursday, 17 November 2011 9:13 AM

The government should extend the stamp duty holiday for first-time buyers to avoid a slump in transactions next year, says the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).

The concession to first-time buyers on homes worth under £250,000 is due to end in March 2012. But the CML says a similar holiday ended in December 2009 and resulted in a spike in sales beforehand and a corresponding slump afterwards.

Transactions are already at a relatively low level, it says. About 87 per cent of current residential stamp duty revenue comes from sales of properties over £250,000 and the cost of the holiday was always meant to be covered by the introduction of the new five per cent stamp duty rate on properties worth over £1 million in April 2011.

CML director general Paul Smee said: "While there is no clear evidence that the stamp duty concession has incentivised an increasing number of first-time buyers to buy, it is highly likely that there would have been fewer of them if it had not been in place.

"The CML believes it would be a mistake to pull the plug on the concession - at least until the housing market returns to a firmer footing."

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