The Chancellor’s autumn statement brought bad news for potential landlords and second home owners in that from 1 April 2016 a stamp duty surcharge of 3% will be added to Buy to Let and Second Homes (above £40,000).
The Chancellor has stated that people buying a home to let should not be squeezing out families who cannot afford to buy and has introduced these new rates to help level the playing field.
As an example, a person buying a second home for £275,000 will effectively be paying treble stamp duty, rising from what would have been a bill of £3,750 for such a transaction to £10,800.
Fine details of what exemptions there may be to this are yet to be fully announced, but it has been stated that there will be exemptions for corporate property development firms making significant investments in residential property where said investments are in support of the government’s housing agenda.
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