AMI rallies industry bodies in call for Stamp Duty reform

Other partners of the 1808 Coalition – named after the year Stamp Duty was first extended to property sales in Great Britain – include the Association of Residential Letting Agents, the Building Societies Association (BSA), the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) and the National Association of Estate Agents.

As well as calling for an extension to the current Stamp Duty holiday until the housing market has fully recovered, the group also seeks a modernisation of the regime to create a fairer, more logical system as opposed to the current tiered structure.

Recent research by the CML revealed that one third of first-time buyers were currently escaping paying Stamp Duty as a result of the temporary £175,000 nil-rate threshold. Since the concession was introduced last September, an estimated 132,500 house purchase mortgage transactions have avoided paying Stamp Duty. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has also been vocal about the detrimental effect which returning to the previous bands of Stamp Duty could have on the recovery of the housing market.

Robert Sinclair, director of AMI, said: “It is rare that the breadth of our industry comes together with such consensus on an issue, but the current Stamp Duty regime is distorting the market to such an extent that we feel compelled to speak out. We implore the Government not only to listen but to act in support of our request for change to this damaging tax.”
AMI has requested that any review re-examines the current thresholds ensuring that the impact on both residential and commercial properties is taken into account.

Simon Rubinsohn, chief economist at RICS, said: “A return to the status quo will be of benefit to no one, and as such, RICS believes that rather than simply reverting back to the old structure for Stamp Duty, the imminent change provides an ideal opportunity for the Government to introduce a wholesale restructuring of the tax, specifically moving from the current slab structure to a marginal system with no homebuyer paying anything on the first £150,000 of their new home.”

Adrian Coles, director general of the BSA, said: “The current system is archaic and in desperate need of reform.”

An extension to the current Stamp Duty holiday was overlooked in the Queen’s Speech on Wednesday, but hopes remain that the issue will be addressed in the pre-Budget report on 9 December.