According to leading new homes website, SmartNewHomes.com, the demand for affordable properties has reached a peak. Just over 5,000 of the new homes currently promoted on the site fall under the £125k stamp duty bracket.
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Yet over 40,000 people have been searching for a home that falls below this threshold, indicating an urgent need for more affordable homes and adding further fuel to its recent campaign to get stamp duty abolished for first-time buyers.
David Bexon, managing director, SmartNewHomes.com, said: These recent findings highlight the severe lack of affordable new homes currently on the market, with first-time buyers increasingly getting priced out. The average price for a new home is currently £260,073, with average prices in London and the south east exceeding £300,000.
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A first-time buyer, purchasing an averagely priced home in the south east would currently have to pay out £9,000 in stamp duty, in addition to paying legal fees and saving up a deposit pushing the reality of owning a home for many, out of reach.
Ten years ago when Blair came into power, the lower stamp duty threshold was £60,000. In the same year, the average price paid by a first-time buyer for their first home was recorded as £54,133 by Communities and Local Government (CLG), with the majority of these buyers able to escape the stamp duty trap.
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However, by 2006, while the lower stamp duty threshold had been moved up to £125,000, the average price paid for a property by a first-time buyer had nearly trebled to £151,803, according to CLG statistics, resulting in more first-time buyers having to pay stamp duty and making the reality of buying a home increasingly difficult for those buyers looking to step onto the property ladder.
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