Stamp Duty break for professional landlords

The Government is considering allowing a Stamp Duty concession for institutional property investors in an attempt to boost the property market.

Property development has fallen off a cliff since the credit crisis began in 2007, with developers and professional landlords facing severe difficulty securing finance from mortgage lenders.

The Government is now looking at ways to help the sector back on to its feet, including reducing the Stamp Duty payable by institutional investors.

While amateur buy-to-let landlords and residential homebuyers pay 1% Stamp Duty on properties valued at £150,000 to £250,000, institutional investors pay 4%.

So instead of paying £150,000 in Stamp Duty for 100 properties worth £150,000 each – as you normally would if you were a homeowner – property investors would have to pay £600,000.

The Treasury is now proposing that this be changed and brought down to single Stamp Duty fees per property to make property investment more affordable and accessible.

The Treasury is also looking at ways to make Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) more cheaply and easily accessible, by waiving the 2% fee currently charged to property companies which want to turn themselves into REITs.