Chancellor Sajid Javid stated he has no plans to transfer stamp duty from buyers to sellers, claiming in a tweet that it’s a motion he “wouldn’t support”.
The comments came after the Times reported on Saturday that the Chancellor was floating the idea, to save first-time buyers from paying the tax.
In his tweet, Javid said: “More speculation about stamp duty this morning. To be clear, I never said to @thetimes I was planning to put it on sellers, and I wouldn’t support that.”
He added that “he knows” from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government “that we need bold measures on housing” but added that this “isn’t one of them”.
Stamp duty – a purchase tax paid in England and Northern Ireland on properties worth more than £125,000 – was abolished in 2017 for first-time buyers spending up to £300,000 on a house.
Furthermore, while forcing home sellers rather than buyers to pay the stamp duty tax would have made house purchases cheaper for those looking to take their first steps on the property ladder or those looking to up-size, it could make those looking do downsize, such as older homeowners, reluctant to do so.
According to the newspaper, the Chancellor said: “I’m a low-tax guy. I want to see simpler taxes.”
The story added: “He said that he was looking at various options when asked about stamp duty reforms including reversing liability from those buying property to those selling.”
Commenting on the news, Audley Group CEO Nick Sanderson said: “Shifting stamp duty to sellers would be a catastrophic error. The potential positive impact on first-time buyers would be completely wiped out by the lack of available housing stock.
“Piling more financial burden on the seller would create a barrier to movement in the market, and exacerbate the UK’s existing under-occupation problem. It would be a major brake on downsizing which is so critical to increasing transaction levels. Yet more new homes would be needed, placing strain on green belt areas.
“Let’s hope that Mr Javid is speaking the truth when he says he won’t go down this route, for the sake of both the economy and the environment.”
Javid also said he had not yet decided on whether to hold the Budget before the UK’s departure from the bloc on 31 October.
NEW BUILD IN FOCUS - NEW EPISODE OF THE MORTGAGE INSIDER PODCAST, OUT NOW
Figures from the National House-Building Council saw Q1 2025 register a 36% increase in new homes built across the UK compared with the same period last year, representing a striking development for the first-time buyer market. But with the higher cost of building, ongoing planning challenges and new and changing regulations, how sustainable is this growth? And what does it mean for brokers?
The role of the bridging market and technology usage in the industry
Content editor, Dan McGrath, sat down with chief operating officer at Black & White Bridging, Damien Druce, and head of development finance at Empire Global Finance, Pete Williams, to explore the role of the bridging sector, the role of AI across the industry and how the property market has fared in the Labour Government’s first year in office.
Does the North-South divide still exist in the UK housing market?
What do the most expensive parts of the country reveal about shifting demand? And why is the Manchester housing market now outperforming many southern counterparts?
In this episode of the Barclays Mortgage Insider Podcast, host Phil Spencer is joined by Lucian Cook, Head of Research at Savills, and Ross Jones, founder of Home Financial and Evolve Commercial Finance, to explore how regional trends are redefining the UK housing, mortgage and buy-to-let markets.
In this episode of the Barclays Mortgage Insider Podcast, host Phil Spencer is joined by Lucian Cook, Head of Research at Savills, and Ross Jones, founder of Home Financial and Evolve Commercial Finance, to explore how regional trends are redefining the UK housing, mortgage and buy-to-let markets.
The new episode of The Mortgage Insider podcast, out now
Regional housing markets now matter more than ever. While London and the Southeast still tend to dominate the headlines from a house price and affordability perspective, much of the growth in rental yields and buyer demand is coming from other parts of the UK.
In this episode of the Barclays Mortgage Insider Podcast, host Phil Spencer is joined by Lucian Cook, Head of Research at Savills, and Ross Jones, founder of Home Financial and Evolve Commercial Finance.
In this episode of the Barclays Mortgage Insider Podcast, host Phil Spencer is joined by Lucian Cook, Head of Research at Savills, and Ross Jones, founder of Home Financial and Evolve Commercial Finance.
© 2019 Perspective Publishing Privacy & Cookies
Recent Stories