Inner London

Only 387 properties in inner London are stamp-duty exempt for FTBs



Just 387 properties for sale within London travel zones 1-2 are exempt from stamp duty, according to the latest research.


Analysis carried out by HouseSimple.com revealed that there were less than 400 properties in this part of London that were currently for sale at £300,000 or less.

The online estate agent also found that the number of stamp-duty exempt properties increased to 1,235 when the area under review was extended to include zone 3.

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea had the fewest number of stamp-duty exempt properties with just six up for sale in the area.

The Borough of Croydon – which is in travel zones 5-6 – had 795 properties for sale at £300,000 or less, more than double the number in any other London borough.

HouseSimple.com discovered that there were 4,490 properties in zone 1-2 and 7,687 in zone 1-3 that were currently for sale for between £300,001 and £500,000 and would be eligible for a £5,000 stamp-duty cut.

“The chancellor wheeled out his big tax break offering last autumn to help first-time buyers and attract young voters,” said Sam Mitchell, CEO at HouseSimple.com.

“Unfortunately for the young London buyer, the stamp-duty cut – while beneficial to large swathes of the country – won’t make much of a dent in their house-buying budget.

“Even a stamp-duty saving of £5,000 on properties up to £500,000 – which is not something to be sniffed at – won’t be much help if first-time buyers don’t have the funds in the first place to put down [the] substantial deposits needed to buy even a basic starter home in inner London.

“London is seeing an exodus of young professionals, who would prefer to move to more affordable areas of the country than buy in outer London and face long commutes every day.

“With the growth of business hubs in many other major cities – and the cost of housing considerably lower than in the capital – London is no longer the economic draw it used to be.”

Housesimple
The number of properties currently for sale in London at £300,000 and below, and between £300,000 up to £500,000, by borough



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