Sajid Javid will deliver his first Autumn Budget just days after the UK is due to leave the EU with reports suggesting he may make a U turn on his stamp duty stance.

In 2017 a relief on stamp duty was announced by the then Chancellor Philip Hammond for first time buyers allowing SDLT relief on property purchased for £300,000 or less.

Stamp duty is currently paid at 5% on any property purchased over £300,000. For example, if you purchased a home in St John’s Wood near our London office, you could be expected to pay £1,500,000. This would mean you would pay 5% tax on the remaining £1,200,000 which would equal £60,000 of stamp duty.

As a result, many first-time buyers requiring a home in London and other UK cities have limited benefit from the first-time buyer relief making getting onto the property ladder all that harder.

However, this could be set to change as rumours swirl that the new Chancellor Sajid Javid may be set to announce the abolition of first-time buyer stamp duty. This could be based upon the PM Boris Johnson’s Conservative leadership contest proposal of switching the burden of stamp duty from the buyer to the seller.

Regardless of the method this would dramatically stimulate the property market and be of a massive benefit to first-time buyers, especially with the flagship Help to Buy scheme due to end by 2023.

What should First Time Buyers do in light of Brexit?

If you are in the process of buying a property but which to benefit from any stamp duty changes that may be made in the forthcoming Budget then it is probably sensible to wait before entering into a blinding agreement. In the past stamp duty changes have applied to completion not exchange but it is sensible to err on the side of caution.

To ensure you are making the best possible decision please feel free to call our property legal expert, Nick Attwell on 0207 722 9898.