As London continues to contend with Covid-19, the U.K.'s stamp-duty holiday is giving the city's home market a significant boost
Mary Lee and Andrew Muir were in pessimistic mood when they put their two-bedroom ground floor apartment in the southeast London neighborhood of West Dulwich on the market. They were confident the apartment would sell but, with the U.
K. still struggling to contend with Covid-19, not necessarily at its asking price of £525,000. “I was a little nervous,” said Mrs. Muir, 56, of the home she and her husband bought in 2017 for £485,000. “I had confidence that I would find a buyer. What I was not sure about was whether I would get the price that I wanted because there is a glut of two-bedroom flats for sale in the area. I was really worried about price point.” She needn’t have been concerned. On July 8, just a few weeks before the Muirs’ property was listed at the start of August, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the government minister in charge of the British economy, announced that primary homes in England and Northern Ireland priced at £500,000 or less would be entirely exempt from stamp duty. The tax holiday extends to purchases made until March 31, 2021. Stamp Duty Land Tax, or SDLT as it is known, is a buyers’ tax payable to the government on the sale of all properties in the U.K. Previously, primary home buyers had to pay up to £15,000 in tax on purchases between £125,000 and £500,000. As part of the tax holiday, buyers can avoid tax entirely on purchases up to £500,000. As the purchase price rises from there, incremental stamp-duty rates apply; those rates are the same as they were before the tax holiday. Second-home and foreign buyers can even get in on the act. They pay higher stamp duty than primary-home buyers, but will see their tax burden reduced, although not eradicated. The Muirs’ property was sold, subject to contracts, for its full asking price within 48 hours of its first showing. Now that their home is under contract, the couple have been able to make an offer on a house in the historic market town of Midhurst.
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