UK Property Experts to Campaign for Stamp Duty Tax Reform

As the Stamp Duty holiday is about to expire at the end of this year, more and more UK organisations stand up to it. The latest announcement made by the Association of Residential Lettings Agents (ARLA) suggests that it teamed up with the National Landlord Association (NLA) and other organisations in order to make the British Government revise the Stamp Duty Tax. Other organisations that teamed up with the Association of Residential Letting Agents and National Landlords Association are Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI), Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), Building Societies Association (BSA), Home Builders Federation (HBF), and National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA). In the opinion of NAEA chief executive, Mr. Bolton-King, and other members of the Coalition, the Stamp Duty Tax should be reformed as it is “anachronistic”, and prevents the UK property market from recovering. Not only does the Stamp Duty make the housing market inflexible, it also “creates regional inequality” and distorts the market. Mr. Bolton-King is determined that the UK Government should consider reforming the tax now, before the holiday expires. Let us remind that the Stamp Duty holiday that applies to properties worth £175.000 or less, is set to expire at the end of 2009. However, the opinion poll carried out by NAEA among leading UK estate agents, showed that the vast majority of respondents (91%) want the Stamp Duty holiday to be extended. 86% more of estate agents believe that the Government should reform the tax. Members of the Association of Residential Letting Agents, Mr. Potter in particular, say that the Stamp Duty tax has a negative influence not only on potential property buyers, but on the “whole property chain”. ARLA, for instance, is obliged to pay the tax on its whole portfolio, while individual buy to let landlords are subject to different rules. Mr. Michael Coogan of CML and Mr. David Salusbury of NLA are determined that the tax, which failed to keep up with the development of the UK housing market and, thus, distorts the sector, should be reformed as soon as possible.