Monday 5 April 2010

New stamp duty threshold is of national significance

The scrapping of stamp duty for first-time buyers who pay less than £250,000 for a property is set to strengthen the market.

First-time buyers are the lifeblood of the industry and the new stamp duty threshold will substantially increase the number coming onto the property market.

Already we have taken more enquiries from first-time buyers looking to get a foot on the property ladder. Although the average first-time buyer still needs a decent deposit before they can purchase a property, the fact that they no longer also have to save up one percent of the purchase price means that there will be many more properties available to them.

This new measure is of national significance and is good news for the industry and economy in general. It will particularly help those first-time buyers in London and the South East where property prices are generally much higher.

However large numbers of would-be first-time buyers are still being frozen out of the property market because they are unable to secure a deposit. We strongly believe the government should either help decrease the amount of deposit required or assist first-time buyers with securing funding through the Government-owned lending institutions.

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