I just got some stats about how many homes bought in the last year would have been covered by the stamp duty suspension were it to have come in 12 months ago. I’m surprised by the number frankly – no doubt I’ve spent too much time in London where a place for £175,000 is something of a pipedream. Sales last year that would have been caught were as follows:
– Between Jan and Dec 2007 – 320,129 sales
– Between May 2007 and Apr 2008 – 294,846 sales
There was a total of 998,000 sales in 2007, so the £175,000 threshold would have covered about one in three purchases.
I’m still waiting to hear how the banks will respond to this. At the moment they are only giving out money to people who they think stand a good chance of paying it all back at some point and who have decent deposits.
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