Gordon Brown pushed his green agenda when speaking in the House of Commons, building on his commitment to making all new homes carbon neutral by 2016.
He announced that all zero carbon homes worth up to £500,000 will be exempt from stamp duty by 2012.
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Helen Adams, managing director of FirstRungNow.com believes that, although this is a welcome move, it does not strictly benefit first-time buyers: Overall, Im rather disappointed on behalf of first-time buyers. Removing stamp duty from the purchase of zero-carbon homes is worthy and welcome but at the moment the number of these homes is very low something for house-builders and sellers to work on.
Indeed, this environmentally friendly proposition has pleased many, but unfortunately it has only sugared the bitter pill which sees stamp duty remain at its current £125,000 limit, something which is considered to be another kick in the teeth for first-time buyers.
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After a number of calls over the past few weeks for the Government to scrap stamp duty, or severely alter the lower limit in line with inflation, industry professionals have been left rather disappointed. According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders, if the stamp duty threshold had been indexed to house price changes since 1997, the current limit would sit at £156,500.
Duncan Berry, director of mortgage sales at GE Money Home Lending said: House price inflation remains a key concern for everyone in the UK, particularly first-time buyers, and so it is disappointing that this years budget has not addressed the UKs out of date stamp duty thresholds.
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Research conducted by GE Money Home Lending this month revealed that three in four (71 per cent) Britons felt that stamp duty bands should have been modernised in this years budget, with the majority (58 per cent) sympathising with the plight of first-time buyers who felt it should be removed altogether.
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This view is echoed by David Kuo, head of personal finance at Fool.co.uk, who thinks that first-time buyers have once again received the sharp end of the stick, instead of the carrot:
Chancellor Gordon Brown has wasted a golden opportunity to help thousands of Britons onto the housing ladder by steadfastly refusing to trim stamp duty. Together with Council Tax and Inheritance Tax, stamp duty is one of the three most reviled taxes by British taxpayers.
Instead of making it easy for first-time buyers to climb onto the already-expensive housing ladder, the Chancellor has chosen to further torment buyers with zero stamp duty on zero-carbon homes below £500,000, which are about as rare as hens teeth. Whilst it is admirable that the Chancellor day-dreams of energy-efficient homes in the future, many first-time buyers are caught in a living nightmare of never being able to buy their own homes.
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