It’s cheaper to buy a detached house in much of the UK than pay stamp duty land tax in prime central London demonstrating the vast difference between different segments of the market.
Since changes to stamp duty tax from the traditional slab scale method, the Government has looked to make the cost more favourable for homebuyers, although those at the top end of the market have been left considerably worse off.
Analysis from the national fast sale agent, Springbok Properties, shows that if you bought a detached house in Kensington and Chelsea, you would be facing a stamp duty bill of £318,800 on the typical house price of £3.38m.
Using data from the Land Registry, Springbok then looked at where across the UK this additional eye-water bill could secure you a whole detached home and as you can imagine, there are quite a few locations.
Three homes for the price of stamp duty
For the same amount as that stamp duty bill, you could almost buy three detached homes in Northern Ireland, where they typically cost £108,400 each.
Properties are also far cheaper in Scotland (£266,300) and Wales (£248,300), although on a national level they are higher in England (£375,600).
However, looking at the UK house price rankings, there are some 167 areas where prime central London stamp duty sums exceed the average house price, with the cost sitting between the Isle of Wight (£319,510) and Hambleton (£316,909).
While this sum is enough to get on the ladder in the likes of Hambleton, Newport, Kettering, Forest of Dean, Manchester, Plymouth and more, at the other end of the table you could even double up on your bricks and mortar.
In the Scottish Western Isles, Burnley and Blaenau Gwent in Wales, you could afford two homes at the average house price, with the likes of County Durham, East Ayrshire, Hyndburn, Blackpool and Stoke not far behind that.
Founder and CEO of Springbok Properties, Shepherd Ncube said, “Stamp duty continues to be an additional financial burden that many fail to properly account for when buying a house and it can catch many potential buyers out as a result.
“The one silver lining for the average UK homebuyer is that they aren’t paying the astronomical sums required to purchase at the very top end of London’s property ladder.
“It’s quite astonishing that such sums are paid to cover stamp duty when many struggle to get on the ladder at all and this is just for a typical property sale, not a second home which would incur an additional three percent charge.
“The Government has certainly achieved in its objective to dampen the appetite of foreign buyers in London’s prime market by adjusting the stamp duty thresholds, but this seems to have had an impact across the board and you can see why.”
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