Martin Roberts gives his view on stamp duty cut – ‘it’s fantastic’

Martin Roberts applauds the end of stamp duty

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Martin Roberts, property expert and known for presenting Homes Under the Hammer, regularly shares tips and tricks when helping Britons renovate auction homes. Appearing on BBC News, the expert said the cut to stamp duty was “fantastic”. The threshold at which the tax falls has been raised to £250,000 from its current level of £125,000.

Meanwhile, the threshold for first-time buyers has increased from £300,000 to £425,000.

The chancellor said the huge changes should remove 200,000 people from having to pay the tax.

Mr Kwarteng also raised the value of the property on which first-time buyers can claim the tax relief from £500,000 to £625,000.

This means buyers looking to purchase a home for £500,000 will now be charged £12,500 rather than £15,000.

The chancellor said: “Home ownership is the most common route for people to own an asset, giving them a stake in the success of our economy and society.

“This is a permanent cut to stamp duty, effective from today.”

The cuts came as part of the chancellor’s mini-budget and have been praised by people around the country.

Martin said: “The property market is pretty hot, as you will be aware. Everything that happened during Covid and since has confounded even the most well-known experts.

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“Nobody would have predicted this. I think a lot of people are fearful that this may just be another log on the fire that is property prices.

“I don’t think that. I think everyone hates stamp duty, and they have got rid of it, I mean they haven’t got rid of it completely but this helps first-time buyers.

“It’s more reflective of what’s happening in the property market in terms of the average price of property.

“First-time buyers get some help and people who were looking to move also get that help, but everyone hated stamp duty so if the Government can somehow do without the money from it, it’s fantastic.”

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Martin explained that there will still be huge “discrepancies” between those who can purchase a home in an affordable area, compared to those where homes are a lot more expensive.

He added: “Perhaps those who were buying the lower end properties were already covered but as I said, with the rising average price of a property now around the £270,000 mark, the average person buying an average house is now not going to have to pay this tax which is just that little bit extra.

“We’re talking relatively on that kind of level, in the few thousand pounds, but when you save hard and you have all these other bills, not having to pay that will really help people.”

Many fear that the cut in stamp duty will drive up already rising house prices due to a high demand, perhaps making the supply of homes even fewer.

However, Martin argued that the Government already did this back in 2020 when they offered home movers a stamp duty holiday.

The Homes Under the Hammer presenter said he isn’t expecting to see a massive increase in people moving because a lot of people have already moved over the last two years. 

He added: “I personally think it’s just a help at a time when those people trying to get their own house, maybe move out of the rental trap, get themselves onto the housing market, I think it’s just a help and I applaud them for doing it.”

Rightmove’s property expert Tim Bannister said: “If the stamp duty cuts lead to a big jump in prospective buyers competing for the constrained number of properties for sale, then it could lead to some unseasonal price rises over the next few months. 

“But because the change is permanent, and because of gathering headwinds such as rising mortgage rates, we expect to see a more gradual increase in demand compared with the surge when the temporary stamp duty holiday was announced in 2020.

“With more buyer demand, we would also expect that the current trend of more properties coming to market will continue, offering more choice for buyers.”

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