{"id":1182,"date":"2025-08-23T07:07:25","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T07:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/?p=1182"},"modified":"2025-08-23T07:07:25","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T07:07:25","slug":"radical-property-tax-would-hit-older-and-wealthier-people-experts-warn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/?p=1182","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Radical\u2019 property tax would hit older and wealthier people, experts warn"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description o3-type-body-base\"><span>Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=d050e2d9-d66a-4cf3-b692-0bc7c637f46a\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>Removing stamp duty would result in a \u201cradical\u201d overhaul of the UK\u2019s housing market by allowing homeowners to move more easily \u2014 but some wealthier and older owners would be hit harder by a potential annual levy, industry experts have warned.<\/p>\n<p>The Treasury is reportedly assessing ditching stamp duty \u2014 a transaction tax paid by buyers on properties valued at above \u00a3125,000. The government could look to replace it with an annual tax on homeowners, with properties worth more than \u00a3500,000 based on the value, according to property executives.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEveryone agrees stamp duty is a bad tax that discourages people to move home,\u201d said Richard Donnell, executive director at property website Zoopla. \u201cThe challenge is that it raises \u00a310bn-\u00a312bn a year, which is a large amount.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added that \u201cgetting rid of stamp duty would be radical and very welcome\u201d as it would \u201csupport economic growth\u201d. <\/p>\n<p>But he warned that an annual property tax on homes over \u00a3500,000 would hit London and south-east of England hardest, while also penalising older people who have lived in their homes that have accrued in value over the years. <\/p>\n<p>According to research by Zoopla, stamp duty receipts are skewed to London and the south-east, which accounted for about 60 per cent in 2023\/24. Stamp duty is paid by four in five homeowners and two in five first-time buyers, the research found.<\/p>\n<p>David Hollingworth of London &amp; Country, a mortgage broker, said that stamp duty \u201cis often criticised as acting as a barrier for buyers and movers\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo remove stamp duty would be radical but could bring more fluidity into the housing market and lead to more transactions, for first-time buyers and movers alike.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHowever, if replaced with a tax on sellers rather than buyers, it could still act as a blocker. That\u2019s especially true for those considering downsizing who can be put off by the costs of moving, preventing more family-sized homes being freed up in the market.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ray Boulger of mortgage broker John Charcol said that \u201cas with all these ideas that the chancellor is floating, it\u2019s difficult to know exactly what will happen\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen it comes to a potential annual property tax, it becomes in effect a south-east tax. There will be people who bought properties many years ago\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009so \u00a3500,000 will catch a lot of older people living in properties that are very valuable but who probably couldn\u2019t afford an annual property tax.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnce you get to a certain age, you don\u2019t want to move because of the hassle. If you haven\u2019t moved by the time you\u2019re 80, you\u2019re probably not going to want to move. So for older people who couldn\u2019t afford an annual tax, government will have think about this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nina Harrison, London executive at buying advisers Haringtons, said that the potential tax changes \u201care aimed squarely but definitely not fairly at the \u2018rich\u2019 in London and the South East as though absolutely no one else in the country has any money. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cLondon is obviously a wonderful place to live but it isn\u2019t wealthy because money grows on trees here\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009the wealth is generated by hard work across all ages, sectors of society, and origin.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Henry Pryor, a buying agent, said that \u201cit would need to be introduced carefully so that those who have just bought and paid stamp duty didn\u2019t have to pay the annual tax.\u201d He noted that \u201cthere will be winners and losers, but it would be fairer and it wouldn\u2019t corrupt the housing market\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He added that an \u201cannual property tax will hit higher-value homes harder, homes that are traditionally owned by wealthier, older people\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Still, he said that people selling their higher-value properties \u201care likely to benefit from any removal of stamp duty\u201d, adding that \u201cit\u2019s quite possible that owners of higher-value homes may see a measurable increase in the value of their home\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The Treasury said: \u201cThe best way to strengthen public finances is by growing the economy \u2014 which is our focus.\u201d It added that it was \u201ccommitted to keeping taxes for working people as low as possible\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><em>Additional reporting by Emma Agyemang<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>#Radical #property #tax #hit #older #wealthier #people #experts #warn<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Removing stamp duty would result in a \u201cradical\u201d overhaul of the UK\u2019s housing market by allowing homeowners to move more easily \u2014 but some wealthier and older owners would be hit harder by a potential [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[802,164,800,421,799,798,89,803,801],"class_list":{"0":"post-1182","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-experts","9":"tag-hit","10":"tag-older","11":"tag-people","12":"tag-property","13":"tag-radical","14":"tag-tax","15":"tag-warn","16":"tag-wealthier"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}