Simon Gerrard of Martyn Gerrard estate agency in north London has started an online petition to reform stamp duty so that it is paid by the vendor, not the purchaser.
Gerrard, who heads the 13-branch operation, has posted the petition on the Change website, which calls for two main changes.
On the Change website, he states: “One of the key challenges aspiring buyers face when purchasing a house is the punitive cost of Stamp Duty. The people most affected by this tax are young families looking to upsize their homes to fit their children, who are already struggling with having to shoulder the additional costs of parenthood.
“For many young families, these costs are too high, preventing them from moving – leaving them stuck in cramped conditions unsuitable for family life.”
Gerrard believes that there two simple changes that could be made to fix stamp duty so that it would work better for young families and the market in general:
1) Reverse Stamp Duty so that it is paid by the seller instead of buyers.
This would remove the financial constraints that are preventing those who are not first-time buyers from moving up the property ladder. This Reversing of Stamp Duty would mean that first-time buyers pay no stamp duty and still allow the government to generate revenue from property transactions. The main benefit would be to remove the burden of a tax on aspiration and mean that young families who are presently stuck in the stamp duty trap will pay less, as they are only paying duty on the home they are selling.
2) Remove Stamp Duty from older homeowners downsizing
To encourage older homeowners to downsize into smaller, more suitable homes, and to free up family-sized homes for young families who need them, we are also calling on the government to scrap Stamp Duty altogether for older homeowners looking to downsize. Presently, many family homes are occupied by empty nesters with unused rooms. These people are disincentivised from downsizing due to the high costs posed by Stamp Duty, creating an inefficient allocation of strained housing resources. With the right incentive – scrapping Stamp Duty for older downsizers – this could be easily fixed.
To view the petition, click here.
