First-time buyers lose out from stamp duty hit – Bob Blackman

Housing tax pushing people off first rung of housing ladder
 
New figures have revealed the punishing effect of stamp duty on first-time buyers. Bob Blackman is backing the Conservative campaign for the stamp duty threshold to be raised to £250,000 for first-time buyers. The current national stamp duty threshold is just £125,000, which means Gordon Brown is cashing in from house price inflation. As house prices edge up, more and more people are caught in Brown’s stamp duty trap.
  • Average flat hits £200,000: New official statistics show that that the average flat in England now costs over £200,000. In Harrow, the average flat costs £210,959. The detailed figures from the Land Registry show record prices for flats across the country – and the vast number of flats which are now liable for stamp duty. Under Conservative proposals, first-time buyers buying a flat would only pay stamp duty in 16 of the 375 local authorities across the England and Wales. 
  • First-time buyers on 100 per cent mortgages:  New figures have also revealed that 34,000 first-time buyers a year are taking out mortgages of 100 per cent or more of the purchase price. This shows how vulnerable they are to negative equity. A stamp duty cut would help first-time buyers raise a larger deposit, which in turn, will make it easier to raise a mortgage and even reduce the interest payments on a mortgage.
Bob Blackman said:
“The average flat in Harrow now costs £210,959. This underlines the need to raise the stamp duty threshold for first-time buyers in particular. Gordon Brown’s stealth tax rises, from stamp duty to inheritance tax to council tax, are all making home ownership harder and harder for more and more people.
 
“Conservatives recognise the importance of affordable homes in providing the bedrock of stable, safe and green communities. We will make it easier to get on, and move up, the home ladder.”
 

Notes to Editors
 
FIRST-TIME BUYERS WITH 100 PER CENT MORTGAGES
 
New answers to Parliamentary Questions show that there were an estimated 410,800 first-time buyers across the United Kingdom last year, with 34,140 of those taking out mortgages of 100 per cent or more.
 
“Mr. Pickles:  To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many and what proportion of first-time buyers took out mortgages of 100 per cent. or more of the purchase price of the property in the most recent period for which figures are available.
 
Mr. Iain Wright: For 2006, based on figures from the Regulated Mortgage Survey, Communities and Local Government estimate that 8.3 per cent. of UK mortgages to first-time buyers (excluding sitting tenants) were for 100 per cent. or more of the purchase price of the property. Figures quoted by the CML give the number of first-time buyers in the UK as 410,800 in 2006. Using these two figures it is estimated that 34,140 of the first-time buyers in 2006 used mortgages that were 100 per cent. or more of the purchase price of their property.”
 
Hansard, 16 October 2007, col. 1033W.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmhansrd/cm071016/text/71016w0021.htm
 
AVERAGE FLAT NOW £200,000 – NEW FIGURES
 
Answers to Parliamentary Questions tabled by Conservatives have also shown the average house price of flats in each part of England and Wales, according to Land Registry data.
 
Hansard, 17 October 2007, col. 1158W
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmhansrd/cm071017/text/71017w0019.htm#07101753001010
 
Under Conservatives’ proposals to raise the stamp duty threshold to £250,000 for first-time buyers, the average flat or maisonette purchased by a first-time buyer would only be liable for stamp duty in 16 of the 375 local authorities across England and Wales. Currently, the national stamp duty threshold is just £125,000.

Average Price, as of June 2007

Flat/Maisonette
England £200,648
   
Kensington and Chelsea £733,156
City of Westminster £587,796
City of London £438,158
Camden £434,704
Hammersmith and Fulham £382,442
Islington £347,318
Wandsworth £347,212
Tower Hamlets £323,248
Richmond Upon Thames £320,679
Southwark £286,877
Lambeth £275,023
Elmbridge £265,772
South Bucks £264,426
Windsor and Maidenhead £259,031
Hackney £255,756
South Hams £253,492
Haringey £249,331
Kingston Upon Thames £248,769
Barnet £247,662
Merton £246,605
Ealing £242,340
Brent £239,262
Hounslow £238,372
Greenwich £220,315
Newham £213,759
Harrow £210,959
Lewisham £195,731
Enfield £193,106
Havering £176,140
Croydon £169,153
 
ENDS

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