Scottish agents urge action on Stamp Duty

Five Scottish estate agents have issued a call to Chancellor Alistair Darling – a Scot –  to act on Stamp Duty.

The ELPG group, which is made up of five firms operating in the Edinburgh and Lothians, has handed in a petition to the Chancellor urging him to consider either freezing all payments or dropping the first £125,000 tier of Stamp Duty.

The Chancellor’s constituency is in Edinburgh, where he has a house.

Leslie Deans, senior partner of Leslie Deans & Co, said: “Compared to the rest of the UK, Scotland’s property market is remaining resilient but we cannot just count on that continuing for the foreseeable future. First-time buyers are becoming increasingly reluctant to purchase a property and we have far more people selling than buying at the moment.

“A temporary freeze in Stamp Duty would provide a much needed shot-in-the-arm for our property market and would bring confidence back for buyers and sellers.”

The last time a Stamp Duty freeze was implemented was in 1992, when John Major’s government decided to act during a dramatic slow-down in the UK property market and with the economy struggling with recession. At the time, the government increased the minimum threshold from £30,000 to £250,000, which exempted the majority of house purchases.

By the middle of the year transactions had nearly doubled, although activity fell off again.

John Lints, of the Lints Partnership, added: “There are a lot of people out there who are either trying to sell or wanting to buy who are unfortunately being affected by the current position in the property market. By freezing Stamp Duty, the government could inject some good news that will help spark new life into the housing market.”