Higher stamp duty on buy-to-let!

Chancellor George Osborne has announced a raft of measures to help people onto the housing ladder, including increased stamp duty rates for buy-to-let properties.

Giving his Autumn Statement today, the Chancellor said he will introduce a new rate of stamp duty which is 3 per cent higher than a residential property of the same price and will be introduced in April next year.

Money raised from tax on people buying their second home will be used to help those struggling to buy their first home.

He said: “Frankly, people buying a home to let should not be squeezing out families who cannot afford a home to buy.”

Osborne also announced a new Help to Buy scheme for Londoners which provides those with a 5 per cent deposit an interest-free loan of up to 40 per cent of the value of a newly-built home.

He also announced a Help to Buy/Shared Ownership scheme, to help people get on the housing ladder. It will lift the limits so that anyone who has a household income of less than £80,000 outside London, and £90,000 inside London, can buy a home through shared ownership.

Only military personnel will be given be priority over other groups and the scheme will apply across England.

The Chancellor also pledged to double the Housing Office’s budget to £2bn a year and to introduce further planning reforms.

Osborne has previously announced plans to build 200,000 starter homes for first-time buyers at a 20 per cent discount.

He has also previously announced plans to extend the Right to Buy scheme to housing association tenants. He confirmed today that from midnight (25th Nov), five housing associations would start this process.

The message is clear, whether you are planning to buy your first buy-to-let property or you are intending to increase your existing portfolio, you better do it before April, 2016.