Stamp duty should be abolished on far more residential properties and on all commercial property in deprived areas.
According to the RICS, “the ceiling for the exemption is set too low”.
Chancellor Gordon Brown’s pre-Budget report decision last November abolished stamp duty on houses worth less than £150,000 in specified deprived areas.
Responding to an Inland Revenue consultation document, the RICS stated categorically: “The impact of the scheme will be minimal unless the threshold below which transactions in the residential sector are exempt from stamp duty is raised significantly.”
It said that, although the change would aid housebuyers in deprived areas, “the £150,000 limit will not provide any incentive for land aggregation and redevelopment”.
The RICS added that the exemption should immediately apply to the sale of housing estates in which the individual unit price is under £150,000, and to rental space for which the annual rent is less than £10,000.
