Second home buyers to face stamp duty surcharge rise

Today Chancellor Rachel Reeves unveiled Labour’s first budget since being elected to government – with a focus on slashing national debt, boosting the UK economy and protections for working Brits.

Reeves announced there would be an increase in Stamp Duty for second homes.

Second-home buyers face a stamp duty land tax surcharge rise of two percentage points – to five per cent – starting from Thursday.

The Chancellor pledged: “This will support over 130,000 additional transactions from people buying their first home, or moving home, over the next five years.”

Industry figures have expressed ‘disappointment’ in the stamp duty rise, saying it comes ‘against a backdrop of increasing demand from tenants’.

Angharad Truman, ARLA Propertymark President comments on the increase to Stamp Duty for second homes:

“We continue to see a growing disparity in the number of private rented homes available against a backdrop of increasing demand from tenants. Therefore, it is disappointing to see that the UK Government did not address this fundamental issue in its Autumn Budget and instead has announced yet another blow for landlords by increasing Stamp Duty on second homes.

“The private rented sector plays a crucial role in housing the nation with over 4.6 million homes in England alone, therefore it is imperative that the UK Government does not continue to push landlords out of the market.

“In order to ultimately keep people in much needed and affordable private rented homes, we continue to stress the importance of support for the private rented sector including incentives for landlords to invest rather than continuing to penalise them through regulatory bombardment and increasing costs.”