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NAEA calls for Stamp Duty to be dropped

18 February 2009
Written by Rosalind Renshaw

The National Association of Estate Agents has called for a complete suspension of Stamp Duty, following the latest Rightmove housing price index which shows a 1.2% increase in asking prices.

NAEA chief executive Peter Bolton King said: “It is too early to say whether this increase in property prices, picked up by several organisations including the NAEA, will continue. The NAEA believes it reflects that in certain areas the downturn is slowing and hopefully beginning to bottom out, as opposed to heralding the end of the housing slump.

“What is clear is that if confidence is returning to the market in any form, it is the job of the Government and the major lenders to try responsibly to sustain it.

“The NAEA believes that a complete suspension of Stamp Duty from the Government, and increased availability of mortgages from the banks would achieve this.”

Comments

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    Stamp duty should be replaced with a Land Registry transaction fee in keeping with the cost of administering the transaction. But to suspend it to encourage the market is surely an act of desparation contrary to restoring confidence. Part of the current financial problem is the inflated cost of houses - 30% above any economic or demand led justification according to the IMF report in 2007. As painful as it might be there can be no transaction recovery until prices have returned to 2003 values when the crazy price rises should have ceased and would have had the banks and government not continued to fuel the fire for their own interests.

    • 19 February 2009 21:19 PM
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    I agree with Carole Moody's post. It is a completely random idea to tax people, just because they are moving house. A classic Gordon Brown stealth tax. It's expensive enough anyway. It works (grudgingly) OK when values are inflating, because the tax is soon inflated out of the equation. The reality is that the price I sell my house for at the moment doesn't really matter as long as I soon buy another, in either a deflationary or inflationary environment. I have to live somewhere. But, being taxed at a fixed rate, with ludicrous thresholds, means that paying a socking great sum out of my deflating equity will put me off moving unless I really really have to. It means we have a market made up of 'have to moves' rather than 'want to moves' now that the buy to lets have been cleaned out. Get rid of the thing and consign it to the middle ages where it belongs.

    • 18 February 2009 19:42 PM
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    Makes no difference if buyers can't get a mortgage. And prices have only gone up to act as a buffer for surveyors' down-valuations.

    • 18 February 2009 14:54 PM
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    I cant believe how seriously people have taken Rightmoves stats. ANYONE with half an ounce of common sense or market awareness will realise we are in this mess for the long haul and the quicker we all understand this the quicker we can adapt to our new environment. It is also of interest that the NAEA has asked for a suspension of Stamp Duty based upon Rightmoves stats..Does this implie that without Rightmove the NAEA would not be calling for a suspension? If so the NAEA need to wake up.

    • 18 February 2009 13:42 PM
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    Stamp Duty is an out of date pointless tax that is simply a licence for the Government to print money and, whilst I agree that it would almost certainly inspire those would-be buyers that are still hanging on in there, the Government are not about to agree to suspend this gravy train! Shame....

    • 18 February 2009 13:26 PM
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    I think this would certainly put confidence back in the market by abolishing stamp duty, at least to homes in the lower to middle class bracket at present liable for stamp duty. Stamp duty should only be for the very very rich!

    • 18 February 2009 11:05 AM
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