House moves costs owners £12k in stamp duty
HOMEOWNERS spend nearly £12,000 on stamp duty in their lifetime of climbing the housing ladder, research shows.
Lloyds Bank found the average homeowner, who has made three property moves, will have spent £11,782 just on the tax.
As people typically live in a property for just under eight years, the research assumed a homeowner had bought their first property in 1998, their second in 2006 and their third in 2014.
The first would be a starter home below the stamp duty threshold, the second a semi-detached house liable for around £1,898 worth of tax, and the third would be a detached property, with a typical stamp duty bill of £9,884.
Home owners need to carefully consider total costs of moving
The cost of clambering up the property ladder was found to vary hugely across England and Wales, from a typical cost of £3,718 in Wales to a bill of around £38,048 for someone taking three steps on the housing ladder in London.
Currently, sales of homes are free of stamp duty up to £125,000 and attract a one per cent tax above this and up to £250,000.
But rising prices mean that more purchasers face paying the higher rates of three per cent applied to the total value of homes worth £250,000 to £500,000, four per cent on those valued at £500,000 to £1million, five per cent on those £1million to £2million and seven per cent above that.
Marc Page, mortgages director at Lloyds Bank, said: “Stamp duty bills continue to increase each year as house prices rise.
“Unfortunately some dreams still come with a price tag, so home owners need to carefully consider total costs of moving.”