No matter which party comes out on top at the next election, the property industry is gearing up for a stamp duty hike for overseas buyers.
Featuring in The Times this week, Black Brick Founder & Managing Partner, Camilla Dell shares that whilst she believes foreign homebuyers will soon have to pay more in stamp duty, she doesn’t think it will be as high as people fear.
For foreign buyers currently, the top rate of stamp duty is 17%. Labour say they would increase it to around 20%, which would mean a hike of between £15,000 to £30,000 for a £1.5 million property. “I don’t think Labour will end up doing it,” Camilla said.
As a buying agency that regularly deals with overseas purchasers, at Black Brick we believe that a rise of 1% point would be “tolerated”. Camilla added: “I don’t think [that] would be too harmful. Some people would think it’s too pricey but in the prime market people can meet the extra costs. It could slow the market, maybe, lead to some softening in prices. Some buyers would say, ‘I’ve got to pay an extra three percentage points, I want 3 per cent off [the asking price].’”
What would be “unacceptable”, Camilla argued, would be the introduction of “draconian measures” like those in place in other countries, such as Canada, which has banned foreigners from buying properties until the end of this year. “[That] would kill the market.”
Read the full article here.