Stamp duty move is good for whole property market, expert claims

The increased stamp duty threshold announced in this week's Budget is good news for the housing market as a whole.

This is the view of first-time buyer advice specialist FirstRungNow.com, which said increasing the threshold to £250,000 was a "strong" move by the government.

Helen Adams, the website's managing director, said: "It is a really strong message from the government that they want to help people in the whole property market because if they help first-time buyers in this way, it helps to turn property over all the way up the chain.

"The stamp duty tax change is across the whole market which is great and it will help the market overall."

However, the increase only applies to first-time buyers and Ms Adams expressed concerns at how the government is to determine who is purchasing for the first time and who is not.

The expert said there could be a number of difficult scenarios including when a couple is looking to purchase but one of them has previously owned a property.

"There are all sorts of clarities that are still required," she added.

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