Prime pockets could still see £1.6m stamp duty bills

Even with the recent change to the stamp duty threshold, in some parts of the high-end London market, homebuyers are still looking at a bill of £1.6m.

Prime pockets could still see £1.6m stamp duty bills

Research from high-net-worth mortgage broker Enness Global has revealed that in some parts of the high-end London market, homebuyers are still looking at a stamp duty bill of £1.6m, despite the government's temporary change to the threshhold.

 

With the temporary scrapping of stamp duty on transactions up to the £500,000 mark, the average London homeowner is due to save over £14,000.

High-end buyers will also enjoy a considerable saving of as much as £15,000.

However, Enness Global analysed the current median sold price in London’s most prestigious property postcodes for transactions over £3m so far this year.

Across these postcodes, the median sold price for transactions above £3m was £4.9m; at this price threshold, the stamp duty owed would be £504,394, falling to £489,394 with the new discount.

The N2 postcode is home to the highest stamp duty bill - with a median sold price of £14.1m so far this year, homebuyers would usually pay over £1.6m in stamp duty, although with the discount applied this falls to £1,595,250.

The W1K postcode is also home to a stamp duty bill in excess of £1m.

Pre-discount, the median sold price of over £9.2m would have racked up a bill of £1,021,050; however, with the discount applied this falls to £1,006,050.

The W1G, NW8, SW1W, N6, SW1A and SW3 postcodes are also home to a median sold price between £5.6m and £7.5m, meaning stamp duty will still set these high-end homebuyers back by between £570,000 and £800,000.

Islay Robinson, group CEO of Enness Global Mortgages, said: “It is fair to assume that the average homebuyer needs a more significant financial boost than those buying in the very top tiers of the UK property market.

"However, it’s also fair to say that the government has mostly ignored the top end of the market in recent years which has had a detrimental impact on demand and property values in the prime London market, in particular.

"This latest announcement has been much of the same and although high-end homeowners will enjoy some form of discount where stamp duty is concerned, they certainly won’t be getting any richer thanks to Rishi [Sunak].

"In fact, this archaic tax continues to leave a bad taste in the mouth of prime buyers who are paying huge sums in addition to the value of their chosen property and it’s about time this government money grab was abolished completely.”