Stamp duty ''should be abolished for first-time buyers''

The most useful thing the government can do to help first-time buyers is to remove stamp duty, according to one property expert.

Paul Holmes is the chief executive of Firstrung which helps first-time buyers to get onto the property ladder. He says that the government''s plans to help is just lip service and window dressing at the moment because radical new initiatives are needed.

He said: "Something that central government could do would be to say if you are a first-time buyer and you don''t own another property and you never have, then you don''t have to pay stamp duty."

He added that the problem in London with first-time buyers is that most have to pay stamp duty because of the average house price so if the cost of the house is £250,000, then the stamp duty bill is around £7,000.

This is too big an amount for first time buyers to be able to pay.

Stamp duty is the tax you pay when you buy property over £125,000 and it equates to between one and four per cent of the property price.

However, if you buy in a disadvantaged area then you can get a stamp duty break until the property price reaches £150,000.


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