STAMP-duty thresholds for first-time buyers could be increased from £500,000 to £700,000 in an effort to help those entering the property market, the Housing Minister has said.
And Deputy David Warr is also considering recommending stamp-duty incentives to encourage those seeking to downsize to put homes on the market, to help Islanders struggling to find accommodation in the current housing crisis.
Under current rules, first-time buyers pay £8,000 stamp duty on a property worth £500,000.
Deputy Warr, who was appearing before the Environment, Housing and Infrastructure Scrutiny Panel at its latest quarterly hearing, said that the threshold for first-time buyers had not been adjusted for some time and that updated levels would form part of new proposals to be put to the States.
‘We are looking at a figure of £700,000 for first-time buyers where there will not be stamp duty applied and I think that will be a welcome boost to a lot of first-time buyers, that’s for sure,’ Deputy Warr told the panel yesterday.
Asked about moves to support Islanders who wanted to downsize, the minister acknowledged that his colleague Treasury Minister Ian Gorst might have his own views on the subject but he acknowledged that offering similar incentives through a relaxation of stamp duty was ‘an absolutely reasonable question’.
‘It may well form part of our policy in terms of what we call right-sizing and down-sizing. At this moment in time, it is something that we are working our way through and it’s probably something we should be thinking about,’ Deputy Warr said.
