Three-quarters of people saving for a deposit to buy a house are being held back by Stamp Duty costs.
According to comparison website MoneySuperMarket, 77% of prospective purchasers are struggling to save enough money to cover both the deposit and Stamp Duty costs.
It says the average deposit that potential home buyers have currently saved is £9,734. However, with the average UK house price of £183,577, according to Nationwide, this is less than a 5% deposit once 1% Stamp Duty at £1,835.77 has been deducted.
This leaves the average buyer ineligible for a mortgage to buy a house in today’s market because they do not have the minimum deposit required.
Clare Francis, editor-in-chief at MoneySuperMarket, said many first-time buyers were having to pay Stamp Duty at 3%, which is levied once house prices hit £250,000.
She called for the Government to reform the tax.
Comments (2)
I'm sorry – but this 'story' is a complete crock.
"77% of prospective purchasers are struggling to save enough money to cover both the deposit and Stamp Duty costs."
What about the OTHER costs associated with home purchase? Legal fees? Estate Agents Fees? Mortgage arrangement charges? Assuming that less than one third of the "prospective purchasers" MSM refer to are NOT first-time buyers, then over 50% of those that they surveyed (no mention of a survey but how else could they produce their fatally flawed statistics?) would need to find as much as another FIVE GRAND in costs and charges.
"It says the average deposit that potential home buyers have currently saved is £9,734. However, with the average UK house price of £183,577, according to Nationwide, this is less than a 5% deposit once 1% Stamp Duty at £1,835.77 has been deducted… This leaves the average buyer ineligible for a mortgage to buy a house in today’s market because they do not have the minimum deposit required."
THREE "averages", there:
Average BUYER…
Average DEPOSIT…
Average HOUSE PRICE.
ONE glaring omission (although I'd rather call it an error…):
The average BUYER buying the average home with their average saved-up DEPOSIT also are selling a home with AVERAGE EQUITY in it.
But it gets MSM column inches, I suppose. They should have come up with a furry mascot to get them attention, instead of resorting to this rubbish.
Perhaps Emma at the Labour party can help with this extremely unfair and greedy tax ?