AMI urges extension to stamp duty holiday
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The Association of Mortgage Intermediaries has joined forces with a coalition of housing and property organisations to call on the Chancellor to extend the current stamp duty holiday until the housing market has recovered.
The coalition is also calling on the Government to embark on a review to re-examine the stamp duty thresholds and to create a fairer and more logical system.
The Treasury is due to lower the stamp duty threshold on houses from £175,000 to £125,000 on January 1 2010.
AMI director Rob Sinclair says: “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. AMI is fully committed to supporting this industry campaign to reform the regime. We implore the Government to not only listen but to act in support of our request for change to this damaging tax.
“This campaign for stamp duty reform is part of a wider Westminster lobbying campaign AMI is undertaking on our members’ behalf ahead of the Pre-Budget Report in December.”
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Readers' comments (4)
Julian Stevens | 16 Nov 2009 4:06 pm
Though I feel sympathetic to many people who bought at the peak of the boom and took on terrifyingly huge mortgages, house prices are still massively over-inflated. All that's staving off a total meltdown are the current unnaturally depressed levels of interest rates. When interest rates go back up, there's going to be an awful lot of mortgage pain.
House prices need to be allowed to deflate gently to sensible multiples of annual earnings.
The AMI may be doing right by its members by banging the gong for an extension to the present stamp duty holiday, but for the housing and mortgage market as a whole, such a call isn't going to do anyone any real good in the long term.
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Neil Burton | 17 Nov 2009 11:00 am
Julain - you say ".......house prices are still massively over-inflated......."
May I ask on what grounds?
With a housing shortage pre-recession & during the recession virtually no new houses being built & combined with the ever burgeoning population we have a MASSIVE shortfall in housing!! This is a FACT!! With shortfall of housing & too many people the price is going only one way my dear old chap - UPWARDS!!
I estimate house prices will have doubled from todays prices by 2015!!
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Phil Castle | 17 Nov 2009 12:33 pm
At the moment, the problem would be too many people with NO deposit or one that is insufficient to get a ltv at the level they want.
Do we have a shortgage of housing, or do we have a shortage of people in the right housing, i.e. older people whose children have left home sitting in 5 bed houses unable or unwilling to sell and their children sitting in a one bed flat with one kid or so on?
There is a difference between desire and demand and it is demand push inflation which combines desire with ability to raise the borrowing to buy to become demand.
I wish I had a crystal ball, but then that is the "gaming" that the FSA is very much against in it's Mortgage Market review where they want (quite rightly) people to think about a mortgage as a home and NOT an investment.
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Michael White CEO Email Mortgages | 17 Nov 2009 6:00 pm
Julian, your comments would suggest a distinct lack of knowledge in regard to the mortgage market... might I suggest a new career within the FSA?
More seriously, with FTB products beginning to shift towards slightly more affordable pricing extending the SDLT 175k threshold until June or even September next year would have a quite positive effect.
Many view SDLT as an unfair and inefficient tax that penalises economic activity within the property sector, I completely agree. The opportunity to change the structure has never been more compelling. However, I doubt the Rt Hon Al Darling will pay a great deal of attention to all the representations made by AMI or indeed the industry generally, which is a shame. He may, however, extend the £175k concession. This will depend on how much more money is required to ‘Quantitatively Ease’ the bankers along.
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