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What homebuyers say about the cut

‘We had hoped it would be more generous’

OWEN WILLIAMS, 41, is a payroll supervisor and lives in Surrey with his wife and two children. The family are in the process of moving as they have outgrown their home.

‘Our three-bedroom house just isn’t big enough for us – I can barely get into the third bedroom,’ says Owen. The family is buying a fivebedroom house they fell in love with in South London for £850,000.

‘It’s the worst house on the best street, but we are planning quite a bit of work to it,’ says Owen.

‘We were hoping that the stamp duty cut would have been more generous, as we’re only saving £2,500. If we had saved more than that we would definitely have spent it on renovations, which are now going to have to wait until at least next year.’

‘The tax cut means I can invest more in my business’

NICOLA WORDSWORTH, 55, was delighted to hear that the stamp duty threshold was being lifted. She is selling her two-bedroom flat in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, and buying a two-bedroom bungalow on the Kent coast between Margate and Whitstable.

She was expecting to have to pay £7,000 in stamp duty on her £340,000 purchase, but her bill has been cut to just £4,500, instantly saving her the maximum possible of £2,500.

Nicola plans to invest some of the saving into her new start-up, Pup Suds, which makes and sells handmade dog shampoo bars. She says: ‘It will be a huge help. I’m making

the move to Kent to save money and the cut in stamp duty will help enormously, although it would have been nice if it had been scrapped altogether.

‘But it’s a big chunk of money so I’m very pleased.’

‘I hope the stamp duty cut will boost the market’

FIRST-TIME buyer Kieran Milton, 31, a pathology manager for the NHS, has just had an offer accepted on a two-bedroom flat in Winchester, where he has been renting.

Kieran is buying a £290,000 flat with the Help To Buy-style mortgage lender Even, which put up two-thirds of his deposit. He had already found somewhere below the stamp duty limit, but hopes that he will benefit from the long-term boost that the cut creates in the property market.

‘I’m hoping to add value to the place I am buying myself because there is a lot of work that needs doing to it. But raising the stamp duty threshold will help even more,’ he says.

‘I’m still paying £25,600 in stamp duty’

LEE HAMILTON, 40, is moving with his wife and daughter from Worthing to another house just along the West Sussex coast.

Lee, who works in quality assurance, and his family are due to complete on the three-bedroom family home near the seafront. The tax cut will save them £2,500.

Lee says: ‘The saving is an appreciated bonus that we were not expecting, which we will probably spend on a washing machine and a lawnmower.

‘It is not going to help that much with living costs though.

‘We’re still going to have to pay £25,600 in stamp duty, which is money we would have ploughed back into the economy by renovating the property.’

Personal Finance

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2022-09-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-09-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

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