New figures released this morning give weight to calls for the complete scrapping of stamp duty. The data shows there have been 20,238 transactions since the SDLT holiday was launched with a sold value of £6.7 billion.
As many as 85 percent of these transactions have fallen below the £500,000 price threshold and paid no stamp duty thanks to the holiday.
In regular market conditions, £189m would have been paid in stamp duty. With the holiday in place, this has fallen to £80.8m, a total of saving of £108m in just two months.
Marc Von Grundherr, director of estate agency Benham and Reeves – which commissioned the research – says: “The stamp duty holiday has caused demand to go through the roof and so you could argue that in ‘regular’ market conditions the saving wouldn’t be quite as considerable.
“However, it has helped the housing market bounce back from pandemic uncertainty at an alarming rate, helping to avoid a property price crash while benefiting thousands of homebuyers in the process.
“It will be interesting to see the final scores on the doors once the holiday ends but at this rate, the money saved is going to be huge.
“You could argue that the tax should be abolished completely as it’s nothing more than an archaic money grab from the government, to the detriment of those who are already stretching to afford the most expensive purchase in life.
“Based on these figures, you wouldn’t be the only one and it does highlight just how much is paid to the government via stamp duty tax.”